Closed caption using ffmpeg or any other trancoder

[wotdefcuk]

I am trying to transcode videos which have closed captioning. The original file is at http://mikecheat.com/disjrhd.ts The closed caption data is in the line 21 and is in the video file. I have tried ffmpeg to transcode it to AVC/h.264 using libx264 library which ends up removing the closed captions after transcoding. Some googling showed me that as of now ffmpeg is not supporting closed captions. Is there a way to encode an srt or any other subtitle file into the video stream? can anyone suggest any trancoder that does preserve closed captioning?

[poisondeathray]

ccextractor to get the .srt subs, then virtually any encoding GUI will accept .srt subs if you want to hardcode them

[wotdefcuk]

I am looking for adding closed captions not subtitles and hardcoding them does not work.

[poisondeathray]

I am looking for adding closed captions not subtitles and hardcoding them does not work.

What do you mean "hardcoding doesn't work" ?

Earlier you asked "Is there a way to encode an srt or any other subtitle file into the video stream?" . The answer is yes

Note this method doesn't preserve closed captions; they are closed captions converted to srt subtitles which you can then use as hard or soft subs

I am trying to transcode videos which have closed captioning. The original file is at http://mikecheat.com/disjrhd.ts The closed caption data is in the line 21 and is in the video file. I have tried ffmpeg to transcode it to AVC/h.264 using libx264 library which ends up removing the closed captions after transcoding. Some googling showed me that as of now ffmpeg is not supporting closed captions. Is there a way to encode an srt or any other subtitle file into the video stream? can anyone suggest any trancoder that does preserve closed captioning?

[poisondeathray]

BTW this is a tremendous waste of encoding resources; it's a 24p content stream, but encoded as 59.94p with 3:2 duplicates (you're encoding 2.5x the number of frames for nothing)

Depending on what your goals were, I would decimate the duplicates to get the original 24p stream back (e.g. using one of the tdecimate modes in avisynth)

[wotdefcuk]

Hard coding is not the solution for me. When I said closed captions I meant captions that are according to the EIA 608/708 format. The extracting subtitles method works for the dvd player but not for the decoder we are using. I want to convert a subtitle file to closed captions which will be muxed inside the video stream. Hope that clears it up.

[poisondeathray]

No there isn't any way with ffmpeg / ffmbc. EI-608 has been on the to-do list for a few years

[wotdefcuk]

Now is there any 3rd part solutions out there that do that same thing. I tried vegas pro but its not encoding closed captioning for H.264.

[poisondeathray]

Now is there any 3rd part solutions out there that do that same thing. I tried vegas pro but its not encoding closed captioning for H.264.

Most of the tools out there are for MPEG2 and DVD

OBE is supposed to be able to (CEA-708), but I think it's still in beta. You can contack kierank for more information (he posts at doom9, doom10 forums), and his gmail link is there
http://code.google.com/p/open-broadcast-encoder/

[usually_quiet]

Hard coding is not the solution for me. When I said closed captions I meant captions that are according to the EIA 608/708 format. The extracting subtitles method works for the dvd player but not for the decoder we are using. I want to convert a subtitle file to closed captions which will be muxed inside the video stream. Hope that clears it up.

There are no free tools that I'm aware of that can add EIA 608/708 closed captions to H.264 GOP user data per ATSC standards. The only software I remember seeing that could do it was a very expensive professional broadcast closed captioning program. Even if you could do it, other than satellite receivers and DVRs, I'm not sure what could play the video and decode the EIA 608/708 closed captions with H.264 video.

I think Apple's MOV container supports a different type of closed captioning for H.264. Would that work for you? There may be some less costly tools that can add those kinds of closed captions.