Newbie Question About CCExtractor

[JarenM03]

Hello to all!

I am using pyTiVo to download some shows off my TiVo Premiere, and currently I'm attempting to extract the closed captions from the .ts file, so I can convert them into .srt files. I have heard that CCExtractor is a good program to utilize for this sort of thing, and it's been working great for me... for about 15 minutes of a 30-minute file, that is.

The log stops about halfway through the recordings, and the 14-16 minutes of subtitles the program extracts appear just fine in VLC. I have no clue why it won't detect the whole half-hour of CC track, though, and I was wondering if I needed to change a setting in the program somewhere to make this work. I tried outputting the sub file in .ass format as well, but the same problem occurred.

Thank you!

[Subtitles]

Try TS Doctor (Cypheros). There is a 30 days fully functional free version. Also try SubtitleEdit it might detect and extract the CC from your video file.

[ProWo]

You can use clever FFmpeg-GUI.
Load your video file, click main, click extract subtitle stream, check the closed captions checkbox and click extract.
You will find the extracted srt file into the target folder.

[JarenM03]

@Subtitles, thank you for your response. I tried downloading TS-Doctor, and I got hit with an error message, "Incomplete installation of trial version." I'm willing to pay for the full version, but only if it works for me, obviously. Do you have any ideas on how to get past that message? (And I did try Subtitle Edit, it neglected to even find a sub file at all.)

[JarenM03]

@ProWo, thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, this program did not work for me. I installed from the "bin" folder as the GUI package instructed me to do, then tried to extract the captions. In under a second, the program displayed "Done!", and nothing saved to my output folder. I don't believe this program will be optimal for my particular files, but I appreciate it very much nonetheless.

[ProWo]

Could you post a mediainfo report (text mode) from your video file here?

[Subtitles]

@Subtitles, thank you for your response. I tried downloading TS-Doctor, and I got hit with an error message, "Incomplete installation of trial version." I'm willing to pay for the full version, but only if it works for me, obviously. Do you have any ideas on how to get past that message? (And I did try Subtitle Edit, it neglected to even find a sub file at all.)

I have no idea why you got the error message. Here is the link to download the software. I suggest to try again and if you don't succeed I would try to contact the developer.
https://www.cypheros.de/download.php?f=TSDoctor4Installer.exe
Can you please upload a sample of a video and I will try to check it on my PC and will tell you if it works?

One more question: Are the subtitles hardcoded into the video? In that case you will not be able to extract the text easily.

[JarenM03]

@ProWo, I will give it a shot sometime after I get off work tonight. Right now I should get some sleep and stay prepared for the day ahead.

Thank you for taking the time to write me back as well.

[JarenM03]

@Subtitles, Sounds good, I'll give that a try after I get off work. Sorry to ask a dumb question, but how should I upload a sample of a .ts file without the editor omitting away the sub track?

Also, as far as I know the captions were not hard-coded in the video, as I am able to turn them on or off at my own leisure through VLC.

[Subtitles]

@Subtitles, Sounds good, I'll give that a try after I get off work. Sorry to ask a dumb question, but how should I upload a sample of a .ts file without the editor omitting away the sub track?

Also, as far as I know the captions were not hard-coded in the video, as I am able to turn them on or off at my own leisure through VLC.

You can upload a sample using your Google Drive (assuming you have one), or use mega.nz you can have free space of 20GB I think. Then get a link code and paste in a reply or send me a DM if you prefer that.

[JarenM03]

@Subtitles Will do, I should be able to upload sometime this evening. What I meant by my question, though, is that I'm not sure what kind of editing software would both export in .ts, and keep the subtitle file intact. I tried making a 2-minute clip with Shotcut, and it did away with all the captions. I could probably upload an entire half-hour video (around 1.5 GB), but do you know any software that would get me a sample without omitting the closed captioning?

[Subtitles]

@Subtitles Will do, I should be able to upload sometime this evening. What I meant by my question, though, is that I'm not sure what kind of editing software would both export in .ts, and keep the subtitle file intact. I tried making a 2-minute clip with Shotcut, and it did away with all the captions. I could probably upload an entire half-hour video (around 1.5 GB), but do you know any software that would get me a sample without omitting the closed captioning?

Let's play it safe please. Just upload the entire half-hour video. It seems strange to me that Subtitle Edit didn't find any text when you tried to open the video with it.
Do you have Google Drive? if not create account with Mega but I found the upload takes a bit of time on Mega.

[JarenM03]

Will do. That definitely seemed strange to me as well when I tried to import the video into Subtitle Edit, as I had heard great things about it regarding the .ts format. I do have a Google account with enough Drive space for one of the television programs that I can upload to. I'll get it up there sometime this evening, as I have a short shift at work today. Thank you for your replies!

[JarenM03]

@Subtitles Will do, I should be able to upload sometime this evening. What I meant by my question, though, is that I'm not sure what kind of editing software would both export in .ts, and keep the subtitle file intact. I tried making a 2-minute clip with Shotcut, and it did away with all the captions. I could probably upload an entire half-hour video (around 1.5 GB), but do you know any software that would get me a sample without omitting the closed captioning?

Let's play it safe please. Just upload the entire half-hour video. It seems strange to me that Subtitle Edit didn't find any text when you tried to open the video with it.
Do you have Google Drive? if not create account with Mega but I found the upload takes a bit of time on Mega.

Here is a link to a .ts file of a Bob's Burgers episode that I recorded off my TiVo, and transferred over to my computer.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15EllNUlrH5a4ZbW6TsNOVXQBc71hvHuU/view?usp=sharing

[ProWo]

Extracted with CCextractor

[Subtitles]

Thanks for uploading the video. You can delete the file to save space on your drive and also to avoid copyrights issues.
I tried both TS Doctor and Subtitle Edit but they didn't discover the CC stream.
As ProWo mentioned, CCExtractor was able to extract the file.
I was amazed at the number of commercials that was in the file. I have used TS Doctor to cut out all the commercials manually. They have commercial detection but they are not so good, at least not on my old version. Perhaps the latest version got better.
I have uploaded the video without commercials and the corresponding srt file. Please see your inbox messages.
I am not sure why you had problems with CCExtractor. Perhaps you need to install the latest version and try to extract the CC using the editted file without the commercials.

[JarenM03]

Thank you both so much! I converted the video file using HandBrake to .mkv and tried out the subtitle track on my Panasonic Blu-ray player, and it all worked like a charm. I appreciate the help exponentially!!

[JarenM03]

Now I will try and create my own using TS-Doctor. I will let everyone know what happens.

[JarenM03]

All right, it worked perfectly on an edit I made! For whatever reason, CCExtractor found all of the captions perfectly fine in that edited file; I just didn't want to shell out money for software that didn't work for me. Thank you, @Subtitles and @ProWo!! You guys were both life-savers.