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DVR/Live TV Subtitles?


Xalactic

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Xalactic

Got my Emby server connected to a HDHomeRun Connect Duo and it's happily recording all the things. However, subtitles are not available when playing back my DVR recordings. If I play the .ts files in VLC, it will detect and show the embedded subtitles. VLC actually picks up 4 different sets of subtitles, but only the first one does anything.

 

I know I can configure OpenSubtitles and have it download the subtitles. Or, I could set MCEBuddy to extract them to a .srt file. Though both of these options seem unnecessary since the subtitles are embedded in the .ts files.

 

Am I doing something wrong here, or has this functionality not been added yet? I found some previous posts asking about Live TV subtitles as well. Is there any status update on that? That's a feature I would really love to see.

 

Thanks for the support and this great software.

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sfatula

Playing back on what platform? They play fine for me, at least on Roku and Apple TV.

Edited by sfatula
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Xalactic

Playing back on what platform? They play fine for me, at least on Roku and Apple TV. I also use HDHomerun.

 

Any platform. Web, Roku, iOS app.

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sfatula

Ah, I misread what you wrote as you used the word subtitle. You really mean closed captions right? I don't believe close captions are supported at this time on many platforms. 

 

Closed captions and subtitles are completely separate technologies that work differently.

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Xalactic

Ah, I misread what you wrote as you used the word subtitle. You really mean closed captions right? I don't believe close captions are supported at this time on many platforms. 

 

Closed captions and subtitles are completely separate technologies that work differently.

No, I’m talking about subtitles. On all my ripped media there’s an option to enable them before and during playback. Neither option is available with DVR recordings.

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JasonNalley

No, I’m talking about subtitles. On all my ripped media there’s an option to enable them before and during playback. Neither option is available with DVR recordings.

Can you try this?

 

Get MKVToolnix (if you don't already have it)

Drag the file into toolnix

remux it to a .mkv

 

Then see if the subtitles work.

 

Also, try and note the format of the subtitle stream if it shows one.

 

Unfortunately, all of my .ts files get converted automatically with MCEBuddy so I don't have one to strip down and test right now.

 

 

Edit: It could be that the CC/Subs are not supported in a .ts container (For Emby, I understand it works in VLC)... Since .ts is Mpeg-2... but it's just a theory at this point

Edited by JasonNalley
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sfatula

No, I’m talking about subtitles. On all my ripped media there’s an option to enable them before and during playback. Neither option is available with DVR recordings.

So, if you run Mediainfo on any of those dvr recordings you have trouble with, what does it say the format is in the section with Text #1, etc? Mine show format EIA-608 here in the US, which are closed captions not subtitles.

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Xalactic

Can you try this?

 

Get MKVToolnix (if you don't already have it)

Drag the file into toolnix

remux it to a .mkv

 

Then see if the subtitles work.

 

Also, try and note the format of the subtitle stream if it shows one.

 

Unfortunately, all of my .ts files get converted automatically with MCEBuddy so I don't have one to strip down and test right now.

 

 

Edit: It could be that the CC/Subs are not supported in a .ts container (For Emby, I understand it works in VLC)... Since .ts is Mpeg-2... but it's just a theory at this point

 

Gave it a shot, no success with getting them to show up in Emby.

 

 

So, if you run Mediainfo on any of those dvr recordings you have trouble with, what does it say the format is in the section with Text #1, etc? Mine show format EIA-608 here in the US, which are closed captions not subtitles.

 

Mediainfo reports EIA-608 as the first text stream and EIA-708 as the second.

 

Keeping in mind what you said about Closed Captions being different and not well supported in Emby, is it expected behavior that DVR recordings should have subtitles available immediately after recording? Or is the the main purpose of the OpenSubtitles downloader to remedy this situation?

Edited by Xalactic
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JasonNalley

Gave it a shot, no success with getting them to show up in Emby.

 

 

 

Mediainfo reports EIA-608 as the first text stream and EIA-708 as the second.

 

Keeping in mind what you said about Closed Captions being different and not well supported in Emby, is it expected behavior that DVR recordings should have subtitles available immediately after recording? Or is the the main purpose of the OpenSubtitles downloader to remedy this situation?

 

So as he stated earlier, both of those are Closed Captions, not Subtitles.

 

As to the second part of your question, Opensubtitles is not for DVR Recordings, DVR Recordings will inherently have commercial breaks, or, if you comskip using MCEBuddy, it will still be a different cut point than the web-dl, or the "releases" online that those subtitles on OpenSubtitles come from.  So you'll end up with delayed or early subtitles in most cases for most things.

 

If what I asked didn't work, it's because they're CC format, you can extract them, and convert them, or just use MCEBuddy to convert them to SRT, that way they have the same timecoding as your recording does.

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sfatula

You are confusing subtitles with closed captions. Closed captions might be considered as 'subtitles' for tv shows. But they are stored differently and I don't believe Emby supports them at all on the platforms you noted. Tv shows in the US over antenna don't really use Bluray, dvd, etc subtitles. So, it would be expected that they do not play. You shouldn't even see them in the information section of an episode in Emby where it shows audio, video info on the bottom say on IOS.

 

I don't know anything about opensubtitles. Maybe someone else does. It's really too bad closed captions are not supported, big problem for those with hearing issues. But I doubt opensubtitles work with dvr recordings.

Edited by sfatula
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Xalactic

So as he stated earlier, both of those are Closed Captions, not Subtitles.

As to the second part of your question, Opensubtitles is not for DVR Recordings, DVR Recordings will inherently have commercial breaks, or, if you comskip using MCEBuddy, it will still be a different cut point than the web-dl, or the "releases" online that those subtitles on OpenSubtitles come from.  So you'll end up with delayed or early subtitles in most cases for most things.

If what I asked didn't work, it's because they're CC format, you can extract them, and convert them, or just use MCEBuddy to convert them to SRT, that way they have the same timecoding as your recording does.

Ok that all makes sense. Sounds like MCEBuddy is what I need to use. Been playing around with Comskip too. Really hoping we’ll see EDL file support in the future.

 

 

You are confusing subtitles with closed captions. Closed captions might be considered as 'subtitles' for tv shows. But they are stored differently and I don't believe Emby supports them at all on the platforms you noted. Tv shows in the US over antenna don't really use Bluray, dvd, etc subtitles. So, it would be expected that they do not play. You shouldn't even see them in the information section of an episode in Emby where it shows audio, video info on the bottom say on IOS.

I don't know anything about opensubtitles. Maybe someone else does. It's really too bad closed captions are not supported, big problem for those with hearing issues.

Yes you’re right. I suppose I was expecting it all to work out of the box. I agree that it’s a shame they’re not supported. Especially since there aren’t any options for viewing captions on Live TV through Emby. We always have them turned on for everything in my house.

 

Thank you both for the help.

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JasonNalley

Been playing around with Comskip too.

If you are in North America and you want a good Comskip.ini file, I can copy and paste mine here.  It will save you hours of trial and error. Hehe...   

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Xalactic

If you are in North America and you want a good Comskip.ini file, I can copy and paste mine here.  It will save you hours of trial and error. Hehe...

 

I would be most grateful, as well as many others I’m sure.

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JasonNalley

This will work on 99.9% of TV Shows in North America.  It fails mostly due to Weather Alerts.  But every once in a while an ad that seems to have none of the skip parameters to create a cut point.  Thankfully though, it hasn't ever (knock on wood) cut any of the show out, something the default .ini file was notorious for doing for my recordings.

Edit:  You can change the "Subtitles = 0" to "Subtitles = 1" at the very end... can't remember if that ignores cutting the subtitles, or if it uses the subtitles as another reference for cut point.  But better safe than sorry since you use subtitles :)

detect_method=127 ; 1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 128=cutscenes, 255=all
validate_silence=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
validate_uniform=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues (like pure white frames) if blackframe is selected above.
validate_scenechange=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
verbose=1 ; show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
max_brightness=60 ; frame not black if any pixels checked are greater than this (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=40 ; frame not pure black if any pixels checked are greater than this, will check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
max_avg_brightness=25 ; maximum average brightness for a dim frame to be considered black (scale 0 to 255) 0 means autosetting
max_commercialbreak=600 ; maximum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
min_commercialbreak=15 ; minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=300 ; maximum time in seconds for a single commercial or multiple commercials if no breaks in between
min_commercial_size=4 ; mimimum time in seconds for a single commercial
min_show_segment_length=126 ; any segment longer than this will be scored towards show.
non_uniformity=500 ; Set to 0 to disable cutpoints based on uniform frames
max_volume=500 ; any frame with sound volume larger than this will not be regarded as black frame
min_silence=12 ; Any deep silence longer than this amount  of frames is a possible cutpoint
ticker_tape=0 ; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing
logo_at_bottom=1 ; Set to 1 to search only for logo at the lower half of the video, do not combine with subtitle setting
punish=0 ; Compare to average for sum of 1=brightness, 2=uniform 4=volume, 8=silence, 16=schange, set to 0 to disable
punish_threshold=1.3 ; Multiply when amount is above average * punish_threshold
punish_modifier=2 ; When above average * threshold multiply score by this value
intelligent_brightness=1 ; Set to 1 to use a USA specific algorithm to tune some of the settings, not adviced outside the USA
logo_percentile=0.92 ; if more then this amount of logo is found then logo detection will be disabled
logo_threshold=0.75
punish_no_logo=0 ; Default, set to 0 to avoid show segments without logo to be scored towards commercial
aggressive_logo_rejection=0
connect_blocks_with_logo=1 ; set to 1 if you want successive blocks with logo on the transition to be regarded as connected, set to 0 to disable
logo_filter=0 ; set the size of the filter to apply to bad logo detection, 4 seems to be a good value.
cut_on_ar_change=2 ; set to 1 if you want to cut also on aspect ratio changes when logo is present, set to 2 to force cuts on aspect ratio changes. set to 0 to disable
delete_show_after_last_commercial=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the last block if its a show and after a commercial
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the previous and the next show in the recording, this can lead to the deletion of trailers of next show
delete_block_after_commercial=0 ; set to max size of block in seconds to be discarded, set to 0 to disable
remove_before=0 ; amount of seconds of show to be removed before ALL commercials
remove_after=0 ; amount of seconds of show to be removed after ALL commercials
shrink_logo=5 ; Reduce the duration of the logo with this amount of seconds
after_logo=0 ; set to number of seconds after logo disappears comskip should start to search for silence to insert an additional cutpoint
always_keep_last_seconds=300 ; Any commercial at the end shorter then this amount of seconds will be regarded as show
always_keep_first_seconds=300 ; Any commercial at the beginning shorter than this amount of seconds will be regarded as show
padding=0
ms_audio_delay=5
volume_slip=40
skip_b_frames=0 ; Set to 1 to force Comskip to skip frames for higher processing speed.
max_repair_size=200 ; Will repair maximum 200 missing MPEG frames in the timeline, set to 0 to disable repairing for players that don't use PTS.
disable_heuristics=4 ; bit pattern for disabling heuristics, adding 1 disables heristics 1, adding 2 disables heristics 2, adding 4 disables heristics 3, 255  disables all heuristics
delete_logo_file=0 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to tidy up after finishing
output_framearray=0 ; create a big excel file for detailed analysis, set to 0 to disable
output_data=0 ; create a dump of the user data channel, used for CC and XDS (such as V-Chip info). Can be use together with output_framearray to remote debug CC decoding
output_videoredo=0 ; The old videoredo format
output_videoredo3=0 ; The new videoredo v3 format.
output_womble=0
output_mls=0 ; set to 1 if you want MPeg Video Wizard bookmark file output
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpeg2schnitt=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_dvrcut=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_edl=1
output_dvrmstb=0 ; Set to 1 if you're running DVRMS-Toolbox
output_edlx=0
output_vcf=0
output_bsplayer=0
output_btv=0 ; set to 1 if you want Beyond TV chapter cutlist output
output_projectx=0 ; set to 1 if you want ProjectX cutlist output (Xcl)
output_avisynth=0
output_vdr=0 ; set to 1 if you want XBMC to skipping commercials
output_demux=0 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to demux the mpeg file while scanning
sage_framenumber_bug=0
sage_minute_bug=0
live_tv=0 ; set to 1 if you use parallelprocessing and need the output while recording
live_tv_retries=4 ; change to 16 when using live_tv in BTV, used for mpeg PS and TS
dvrms_live_tv_retries=300 ; only used for dvr_ms
standoff=0 ; change to 8000000 when using live_tv in BTV
cuttermaran_options="cut=\"true\" unattended=\"true\" muxResult=\"false\" snapToCutPoints=\"true\" closeApp=\"true\""
mpeg2schnitt_options="mpeg2schnitt.exe /S /E /R25  /Z %2 %1"
avisynth_options="LoadPlugin(\"MPEG2Dec3.dll\") \nMPEG2Source(\"%s\")\n"
dvrcut_options="dvrcut \"%s.dvr-ms\" \"%s_clean.dvr-ms\" "
windowtitle="Comskip - %s"
hardware_decode=1
cut_on_ac_change=1
subtitles=0
Edited by JasonNalley
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  • 1 month later...
Baenwort

If you check out the meanings of the settings at: https://www.kaashoek.com/files/tuning.htm  you'll see that subtitles=0 or 1 has nothing to do with using or saving subtitles but rather with aiding comskip in telling subtitles and logos from each other.

So keep it to subtitles=0 if your stations use logos at the bottom of the screen.

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  • 6 months later...
On 4/21/2020 at 1:11 AM, JasonNalley said:

This will work on 99.9% of TV Shows in North America.  It fails mostly due to Weather Alerts.  But every once in a while an ad that seems to have none of the skip parameters to create a cut point.  Thankfully though, it hasn't ever (knock on wood) cut any of the show out, something the default .ini file was notorious for doing for my recordings.

Edit:  You can change the "Subtitles = 0" to "Subtitles = 1" at the very end... can't remember if that ignores cutting the subtitles, or if it uses the subtitles as another reference for cut point.  But better safe than sorry since you use subtitles :)






detect_method=127 ; 1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 128=cutscenes, 255=all
validate_silence=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
validate_uniform=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues (like pure white frames) if blackframe is selected above.
validate_scenechange=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
verbose=1 ; show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
max_brightness=60 ; frame not black if any pixels checked are greater than this (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=40 ; frame not pure black if any pixels checked are greater than this, will check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
max_avg_brightness=25 ; maximum average brightness for a dim frame to be considered black (scale 0 to 255) 0 means autosetting
max_commercialbreak=600 ; maximum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
min_commercialbreak=15 ; minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=300 ; maximum time in seconds for a single commercial or multiple commercials if no breaks in between
min_commercial_size=4 ; mimimum time in seconds for a single commercial
min_show_segment_length=126 ; any segment longer than this will be scored towards show.
non_uniformity=500 ; Set to 0 to disable cutpoints based on uniform frames
max_volume=500 ; any frame with sound volume larger than this will not be regarded as black frame
min_silence=12 ; Any deep silence longer than this amount  of frames is a possible cutpoint
ticker_tape=0 ; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing
logo_at_bottom=1 ; Set to 1 to search only for logo at the lower half of the video, do not combine with subtitle setting
punish=0 ; Compare to average for sum of 1=brightness, 2=uniform 4=volume, 8=silence, 16=schange, set to 0 to disable
punish_threshold=1.3 ; Multiply when amount is above average * punish_threshold
punish_modifier=2 ; When above average * threshold multiply score by this value
intelligent_brightness=1 ; Set to 1 to use a USA specific algorithm to tune some of the settings, not adviced outside the USA
logo_percentile=0.92 ; if more then this amount of logo is found then logo detection will be disabled
logo_threshold=0.75
punish_no_logo=0 ; Default, set to 0 to avoid show segments without logo to be scored towards commercial
aggressive_logo_rejection=0
connect_blocks_with_logo=1 ; set to 1 if you want successive blocks with logo on the transition to be regarded as connected, set to 0 to disable
logo_filter=0 ; set the size of the filter to apply to bad logo detection, 4 seems to be a good value.
cut_on_ar_change=2 ; set to 1 if you want to cut also on aspect ratio changes when logo is present, set to 2 to force cuts on aspect ratio changes. set to 0 to disable
delete_show_after_last_commercial=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the last block if its a show and after a commercial
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the previous and the next show in the recording, this can lead to the deletion of trailers of next show
delete_block_after_commercial=0 ; set to max size of block in seconds to be discarded, set to 0 to disable
remove_before=0 ; amount of seconds of show to be removed before ALL commercials
remove_after=0 ; amount of seconds of show to be removed after ALL commercials
shrink_logo=5 ; Reduce the duration of the logo with this amount of seconds
after_logo=0 ; set to number of seconds after logo disappears comskip should start to search for silence to insert an additional cutpoint
always_keep_last_seconds=300 ; Any commercial at the end shorter then this amount of seconds will be regarded as show
always_keep_first_seconds=300 ; Any commercial at the beginning shorter than this amount of seconds will be regarded as show
padding=0
ms_audio_delay=5
volume_slip=40
skip_b_frames=0 ; Set to 1 to force Comskip to skip frames for higher processing speed.
max_repair_size=200 ; Will repair maximum 200 missing MPEG frames in the timeline, set to 0 to disable repairing for players that don't use PTS.
disable_heuristics=4 ; bit pattern for disabling heuristics, adding 1 disables heristics 1, adding 2 disables heristics 2, adding 4 disables heristics 3, 255  disables all heuristics
delete_logo_file=0 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to tidy up after finishing
output_framearray=0 ; create a big excel file for detailed analysis, set to 0 to disable
output_data=0 ; create a dump of the user data channel, used for CC and XDS (such as V-Chip info). Can be use together with output_framearray to remote debug CC decoding
output_videoredo=0 ; The old videoredo format
output_videoredo3=0 ; The new videoredo v3 format.
output_womble=0
output_mls=0 ; set to 1 if you want MPeg Video Wizard bookmark file output
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpeg2schnitt=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_dvrcut=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_edl=1
output_dvrmstb=0 ; Set to 1 if you're running DVRMS-Toolbox
output_edlx=0
output_vcf=0
output_bsplayer=0
output_btv=0 ; set to 1 if you want Beyond TV chapter cutlist output
output_projectx=0 ; set to 1 if you want ProjectX cutlist output (Xcl)
output_avisynth=0
output_vdr=0 ; set to 1 if you want XBMC to skipping commercials
output_demux=0 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to demux the mpeg file while scanning
sage_framenumber_bug=0
sage_minute_bug=0
live_tv=0 ; set to 1 if you use parallelprocessing and need the output while recording
live_tv_retries=4 ; change to 16 when using live_tv in BTV, used for mpeg PS and TS
dvrms_live_tv_retries=300 ; only used for dvr_ms
standoff=0 ; change to 8000000 when using live_tv in BTV
cuttermaran_options="cut=\"true\" unattended=\"true\" muxResult=\"false\" snapToCutPoints=\"true\" closeApp=\"true\""
mpeg2schnitt_options="mpeg2schnitt.exe /S /E /R25  /Z %2 %1"
avisynth_options="LoadPlugin(\"MPEG2Dec3.dll\") \nMPEG2Source(\"%s\")\n"
dvrcut_options="dvrcut \"%s.dvr-ms\" \"%s_clean.dvr-ms\" "
windowtitle="Comskip - %s"
hardware_decode=1
cut_on_ac_change=1
subtitles=0

I'm simply too new to MCE/Comskip to chime in here. But I am in USA, and get EIA CC's when dvr-ing usa tv with Emby live TV, would really love to get cc's extracted to SRT with MCE, and am really looking forward to seeing replies to this thread!!!   

Has anyone confirmed, denied, used, tested, tried or even perused a look at this config to see if this is a feasible option for cc with MCEbuddy?

Ok Edit. (Without using the above Config file)

All i needed to do was select "Extract Subtitles and Closed Captions" In MCEBuddy and poof, I've got an SRT from my Emby Recorded OTA Vids that have EIA CC's from my HDhomerun.

ONLY ISSUE: Ive only tested one vid file, and i tested using Dateline NBC which are notoriously OOS like 1-2 seconds either way (even from Dateline's web player), which is what i got, 1-2 secs OOS one way or another. They are understandable, but not comfy.

So, hopefully another video will work next try, will try to update. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by test399
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Ronstang
On 4/20/2020 at 9:20 PM, Xalactic said:

VLC actually picks up 4 different sets of subtitles, but only the first one does anything

That is because as you come to understand these are Closed Captions and not subtitles.  They provide similar benefit but as already stated are two different technologies.  That being said I was right where you are now a few months ago and if interested you can find some information in  this thread...

This thread is about CC in Xbox 360 but it touches on some of the things you are asking

As Paul told me the reason you show 4 different CCs is because in the US they insert the space for the CCs even if they are not used, they are like an empty file within your file so if VLC shows the extra 3 CCs but does not play them they are not actually present. The best way to get any device to show your CCs is to extract them and convert them to SRT....that is how I have MCEBuddy configured.  If you read that thread I posted Paul also provided me with a script to extract any CC present in my already converted to MKV files which I have thousands.  He made a new version and if you need it I'm sure he'll provide you a link.  When he has time he is going to modify it to extract the CCs from the TS files.....which if you simply want to watch your TS files then delete you could run the script automatically on all recorded content before watching.

 

Merry Christmas

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Ronstang
6 hours ago, test399 said:

ONLY ISSUE: Ive only tested one vid file, and i tested using Dateline NBC which are notoriously OOS like 1-2 seconds either way (even from Dateline's web player), which is what i got, 1-2 secs OOS one way or another. They are understandable, but not comfy.

Just use any of the subtitle edit programs to simply shift the time of the subs if you want them correct but if your are not saving the file for use over and over you probably don't want to waste the time....like on a news show.  CBS has the same problem on some of their shows.  

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1 minute ago, Ronstang said:

ONLY ISSUE: Ive only tested one vid file, and i tested using Dateline NBC which are notoriously OOS like 1-2 seconds either way (even from Dateline's web player), which is what i got, 1-2 secs OOS one way or another.

Most closed captions are automatically generated in real time so they will almost always be behind the spoken word.  Unless it is something like a commercial or movie with a set, known script.

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