CCextractor and TCM Movies

[BobT]

Don't know what TCM (Turner Classic Movies) has done but CCextractor will no longer extract the closed captions for me! When extracting a two hour movie it will only give about 30 or 40 lines. The recordings are fine and the Closed Captions show fine on the TV when played. I'm using DirecTV by the way, then playback to Philips DVD recorder. Has anyone else run into this and discovered a way to perhaps program CCextractor to properly output the CC to an SRT file?

[jman98]

Approximately when is the last time this worked for you on TCM recordings? Have you made any changes you didn't tell us like now you record the high def feed where as previously you were recording the standard def feed? Did you change TV providers recently from someone else to DirecTV?

[BobT]

I have been recording TCM movies for at least 10 years. With the current setup with DirecTV I have been recording TCM movies with the exact same setup for over 2 years. The last TCM movie I recorded was approximately one month ago. The last two movies that I recorded I have not been able to completely extract the CC to an SRT file. I have no problems with recording shows with CC from any other channels!

[usually_quiet]

Which versions of CCExtractor have you tried?

[BobT]

The latest version 0.58

[BobT]

Well I was wrong 0.61 is the latest. Just downloaded it and it gives the same result. Just about 10 lines of CC for the entire movie.

For those which do not use DirecTV their recording box is very interesting. The box always has video on all of the outputs, HDMI, Composite, component, etc. I record all the videos to the Directv Box first. It doesn't matter if it is HD or SD the box will always output SD on the Composite output with CC (if the CC is in the original). I then re-record to my DVD Recorder (Philips with HD) at night while I'm sleeping. About a week ago DirecTV offered 4 days of HBO free. I recorded about 8 movies (all HD to the DirecTV box) and re-recorded them in SD with no problems.

[usually_quiet]

The latest version 0.58

The latest download from Sourceforge is 0.61, but if you use a direct link from VideoHelp's CCExtractor page, it downloads 0.62. Uninstall the old version before installing the new one.

VideoHelp maintains a download list of older versions if you decide you want to try an earlier one.

[jman98]

From what I read, DirecTV is now supporting a different kind of system for text called Subtitles. Your issue unfortunately seems specific to DirecTV so that limits you in that you're probably going to need to find other DirecTV subscribers (not too hard) but who also specifically use CC (going to limit you quite a bit I'm afraid). However, one guy on the internet was complaining about a weird problem with his CC (he may mean Subtitles for all I know) and DirecTV told him to reset his box. I suggest that you do that and see if it helps at all. From the post I found:

"First thing to try is resetting your DVR/Receiver using the red button behind the front panel access card door. See if that helps. "

I'm not trying to suggest that you don't know what you are talking about, but if I remember correctly digital video supports a different type of captioning system than CC. This is probably what they mean by Subtitles at DirecTV. Definitely be sure that what you are seeing on playback is truly CC and not Subtitles. If it's really CC and you can see them on playback but can't extract them, you may need to contact whoever wrote CCextractor and you may need to send them a sample file to work with. It could be that DirecTV is doing something weird that is making it very difficult to extract the CC info.

[BobT]

Yeah I've been using the CCextractor software since McPoodle originally published it about 5-6 years ago. Then it took three different programs to get the SRT file. CCextractor is so much nicer. I always review the video I'm recording via the DVD recorder output to the TV to see the CC. This last movie I recorded from TCM. The CC is fine from the DirecTv recording, and the DVD recorder recording, and when played from a DVD I made. I'm fairly certain that TCM has changed something that CCextractor doesn't handle very well. I get about 10% of the CC to an SRT file with CCextractor so it knows something is there.

[usually_quiet]

Yeah I've been using the CCextractor software since McPoodle originally published it about 5-6 years ago. Then it took three different programs to get the SRT file. CCextractor is so much nicer. I always review the video I'm recording via the DVD recorder output to the TV to see the CC. This last movie I recorded from TCM. The CC is fine from the DirecTv recording, and the DVD recorder recording, and when played from a DVD I made. I'm fairly certain that TCM has changed something that CCextractor doesn't handle very well. I get about 10% of the CC to an SRT file with CCextractor so it knows something is there.

Maybe it is time to contact CCExtractor's authors and supply a sample for them to examine.

[BobT]

I'll get in touch with him and send him a video clip. Thanks for all your suggestions.

[usually_quiet]

I took a moment to really think about this, which I should have done earlier.

Based on what you have said, your satellite DVR must still provide ordinary Line 21 captions via its S-Video or composite video connection when you watch TCM, since your TV is apparently decoding CCs from those connections correctly. The Philips DVD recorder appears to be capturing those Line 21 captions and encoding them as DVD closed captions, and it plays them back as Lne 21 closed captions, since your TV is correctly decoding CCs from its recordings as well.

My guess is that the DVD recorder is also capturing some additional info in the VBI that is not present for other channels, along with the Line 21 CCs. This extraneous data, whatever it is, is confusing CCExtractor. If I am right CCExtractor's author will indeed have to examine a sample to either fix this problem, or provide you with a work-around.

I have seen something similar before. I know my old analog tuner Panasonic DVD recorder captured some additional data from the VBI, as well as closed captions, when recording analog cable channels. When I played the DVDs it recorded using PowerDVD 5, the closed captions were not decoded correctly. I could see some of the EDS data from analog cable channels mixed in with the closed captions.