Closed Captions from VCR

[SandyW]

Recently i installed a Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Deluxe card. i used the new drivers and PVR programs from Leadtek's site and was able to install them with no trouble. Since then I have been able to take VHS tapes from my vcr and get MPEGII with no problems-quality is very good. But
I am partially deaf and using the Leadtek PVR or Roxio 7 Media Creator to capture the video i cannot get closed captions (I used Roxio to make the DVD from the MPEGII file). I know that the tapes I used have closed captions because I see them when played on TV. Also my dvd player is set to show closed captions. When I play the tape through the Winfast video player I see the captions. I do not see them when i replay the created file through the PVR. i also notice that none of the codecs in the PVR show a closed caption option.
I would appreciate knowing if I'm trying to do the impossible or if there is some other software or process that will work with this card and give me a dvd that works and has cc.
Thanks in advance

[iantri]

As you are probably aware, closed captioning data is on Line 21 of the 525 lines in an NTSC image.

Problem is, capture cards only capture the 480-486 that have the image in it (the rest is for vertical blanking information, captioning, XDS data, etc.).

There isn't an easy solution to this - most cards, while able to decode the captions, do not offer a way (in their software) to save them with timecodes.

Three solutions:

Get a Hauppage PVR-250. It is relatively cheap for what it is (excellent hardware MPEG-2 encoding capture card, lowest price I've seen is CDN$187.50) With a registry hack, you can get it to record the line 21 data, which can then be converted to a text subtitle file which you can then use DVD authoring program to turn into selectable DVD subtitles.

Someone (I don't have a link handy) has created a little tool to capture the closed captioning data under Linux, since any Video4Linux 2 capture device that supports VBI data (almost all of them; your should be supported under the bttv driver) dumps it raw to the /dev/vbi[0-15] device. AFAIK, it processes it into a text subtitle file which you could then author into selectable DVD subtitles.

Finally, and probably the easiest and best solution, would be to buy a standalone DVD recorder -- MOST should properly capture the closed captioning, but make sure you check before you buy.

[Dimmer]

This thread contains an extensive discussion about CC capture:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=220458
Pay attention to the screenshots in the posts.

[Mikhail]

Try http://www.geocities.com/mcpoodle43/SCC_TOOLS/DOCS/SCC_TOOLS.HTML#capture_analog.
May be it will help you.

[Sam Ontario]

Three solutions:

Get a Hauppage PVR-250. It is relatively cheap for what it is (excellent hardware MPEG-2 encoding capture card, lowest price I've seen is CDN$187.50) With a registry hack, you can get it to record the line 21 data, which can then be converted to a text subtitle file which you can then use DVD authoring program to turn into selectable DVD subtitles.

Someone (I don't have a link handy) has created a little tool to capture the closed captioning data under Linux, since any Video4Linux 2 capture device that supports VBI data (almost all of them; your should be supported under the bttv driver) dumps it raw to the /dev/vbi[0-15] device. AFAIK, it processes it into a text subtitle file which you could then author into selectable DVD subtitles.

Finally, and probably the easiest and best solution, would be to buy a standalone DVD recorder -- MOST should properly capture the closed captioning, but make sure you check before you buy.

Don't get anymore capture cards. Get a DVD recorder instead as suggested. Its a waste of money and time to have any more capture cards.

[handyguy]

I use a dvd recorder to capture & get perfect captions.

Be aware that certain machines do NOT send along the caption signal. For example, my Apex dvd player won't even though there is a setting in it to do so. No apex players show captions. If I copy a dvd with it, the copy won't have captions.

All in Wonder video cards do give captions, howeve,r & they even capture captions to text, doc, html.

[SandyW]

I have been away for a while ( trying to get away from the 105 + heat here in Phoenix Arizona). Thanks to all of you for your help. I will check out all of the references and methods and post my findings to help others.

[stephenw4]

Hello, I'm also in the same boat as yours, I've been trying to find a good Windows 98 based software that could capture the raw closed caption data and I've been doing so much searches but could not find a good softwar that can do it and convert it to CAPTnn.DAT file so I can create VCD's with it.

Anyone could able to help me?

[handyguy]

I used ATI's All in Wonder 4 meg video card to capture captions with W98. You canfind them cheap on ebay. Be sure you get the software as it has a few methods of caption capture. You can capture to html, word, etc.

[stephenw4]

Hello, I do have TV Wonder VE card, I also learned that you could use GraphEdit and register DUMP.AX filter then you connect the second CC out button to the DUMP filter and specify the file as cc.txt and at this time I am still learning the curve of the capturing closed captions and right now I tried to view cc.txt and 9it is just full of garbage so I assumes it is raw data so I am just wondering how to port it to proper format that Nero will able to recongize and encode it into CAPTnn.DAT to be burned into a VCD If anyone happens to know the trick of dealing the cc.txt file, If you would like, I can give a direct link to my web host that have a snapshot of my graph that was taken from other site and I left out the dumping feature since I'm still learning about how to use VBI decoding so I can understand how it works and I'll soon add audio so that the sound is audiable while it is running.

Hope you do the same and it was a laborou8s job for me -- I stayed up all night long working on it.

Bye for now.

[iantri]

Indeed the output you have is raw CC data.

Take a look at mcpoodle43's SCC_TOOLS package; it provides tools for converting to and from every closed caption format you can think of.

It can do the conversion for you.

Be warned though; many DVD players do not support VCD subtitles. (In fact, it seems they were almost never actually used.) Bite the bullet and buy a DVD burner, especially since they are down to CAD$70 on sale..

handyguy: ATI's software doesn't output the captions timecoded with original formatting. They can't be sync'ed back to the video and they don't have positioning info in them.

[stephenw4]

Okay, do you mean if I used graphedit and TV Wonder VE, the raw data does not have all the necessery timecodes and other data that is needed for proper captioning? I used CCParser to convert it to useable file but I got header error so I assumes that you said that ATI's TV Wonder VE when using with graphedit do not generate timecodes and other sync info correct?

Thanks!

[spiderman2k1]

I have a Panasonic DVD recorder and it recorders the Closed Caption Subtitles. Also if you want to make a back up of a DVD-R made with Panasonic use dvdshrink or cloneDVD just use it as a ripper.

My Apex DVD does support Closed Caption subtitles but my JVC DVD player does not.

[handyguy]

"Closed Caption subtitles"

Thats a new one. Either you have CC or your have subtitles, but no Closed Caption subtitles....

[spiderman2k1]

"handyguy" I just call them Closed Caption Subtitles so other people know what I'm talking about. Closed Caption only works in NTSC format I think?

[iantri]

stephenw4: no; I was referring to the feature in the ATI All-in-Wonder software that allows you to save captions. It merely saves the text. Your method should work (graphedit).

CCParser turns closed-captions into subtitles. I've no experience with this and can't say how well it works. However, the tutorial on mcpoodle43's site says:

(CCParser by the way requires the raw captions to be in DVD-format, so you will have to use RAW2SCC followed by SCC2RAW -d to convert broadcast-format into DVD-format.)

You have raw, broadcast format captions, so the above should make them work with CCParser.

You won't have any luck with VCD closed captions though. No one can even find a VCD with them (mcpoodle appearantly found a Swedish copy of Ghost with CAPTnn.DAT style captions, but that is it) so noone knows how to make them. Also, that style is supposedly only supported by CD-I players and not DVD/VCD players.

In short, it won't work.

You can convert the captions to an SRT file with CCParser and, using a subtitle filter in Virtualdub or Avisynth have hard or "burnt-in" subtitles, but you can't turn these off and you lose formatting and positioning information.

If you are producing a DVD (which I assure you is considerably easier), If you want to keep them as closed captions (and you don't have Scenarist or DVDMaestro), you can do it directly with mcpoodle43's CC_MUX. It will insert the subtitles into your MPEG video file.

Good luck. And again, read Mcpoodle's SCC_TOOLS page fully. It has a detailed explanation of how to capture (using Graphedit) and manipulate captions.

[stephenw4]

May I ask everybody a question -- do you have any tips in successfully record a raw CC file since I tried a test run to see if I could succed in using ccparser without getting any errors? I've used TV Wondeer VE card and graphedit with correct setup as discribed in some sites. Will it be a pain to sync up if I use these methods?

If not possible, how do I 'burn-in' the captions into video while I record a video from a VCR or tuner card using graphedit?

Thanks!

[iantri]

My understanding is that the dumping of the caption data happens when the capture begins. So, if you connect up the graph properly and hit dump, nothing happens until you hit "Capture" in your capture app.

I think.

[handyguy]

"how do I 'burn-in' the captions into video while I record a video from a VCR or tuner card using graphedit? "

You mean have open captions? You can make open captions using a TelecaptionII decoder, it has an open caption out....

Encoding closed captions always seems to require an expensive CC encoding card. I saw a web site that lets you do it with a Mac without a card.

[stephenw4]

Ohhh. Thanks! Also I recalls seeing a web that had a software called Spot from Netherlands but the price is thousands of it's own currency price

[DeafBug]

You mean have open captions? You can make open captions using a TelecaptionII decoder, it has an open caption out....

.

The very reason why I am still keeping that decoder. It is banged up but still works.