Closed Captioned Please!?!?!?!

[kellyboy]

I have Series2 Tivo and I would really like to have the equal opportunity to watch tivo show on my computer that many other hearing people have the luxury to watch tivo on thier computer. BUT....the close captioned get stripped from the show when it's transfered to computer from TV.

When will TIVO give use deaf people the equal access to tivo show?

thanks

[CuriousMark]

Check out this (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=335397)thread.

[Dan203]

Basically what you need is T2Sami, which is available here...

http://t2sami.com/t2samisite/

Dan

[kellyboy]

Ive been using T2SAMI and still dont see caption... at all! Followed the instruction but no success.

That's why I post the first message in this thread out of frustration.

They should simply "DONT" strip the caption from tivo show on PC!!!

Its not necessary that we have to many jumps over the hoops to accomplish something while hearing people can simple push "Play" to enjoy the TIVO's benefits on PC.

[jmemmott]

Ive been using T2SAMI and still dont see caption... at all! Followed the instruction but no success.

That's why I post the first message in this thread out of frustration.

They should simply "DONT" strip the caption from tivo show on PC!!!

Its not necessary that we have to many jumps over the hoops to accomplish something while hearing people can simple push "Play" to enjoy the TIVO's benefits on PC.


I understand the frustration but being pragmatic and having been down this conversional path before, I prefer to stay focused on working captions and to avoid worrying about what TiVo should or will be willing to do.

They don't strip the captions out - but they don't supply a playback program either and it is a playback program that will have to display the captions. There is a set of Directshow filters that can play back the line 21 data without going the T2Sami route but I have never been able to duplicate the setup so I can't help you on that path. All the evidence I have seen is that when it works it is an accidental collection of third party filters.

If you want to pursue the use of T2Sami, then I likely can help. If you want my help, I will need to know if you are using Windows Media Player for playback and if so which version. Check to see that local captioning is enabled under the security options tab in WMP. You should also check to ensure that you have an .smi file from T2Sami in the same directory as the .tivo or .mpg file you are trying to play with the same file name.

[kellyboy]

Ok Im using windows Vista Home Premium. Im using window media player v11.0.600.6344.

I have successfully got .smi files. And .tivo files. I even tried the .asx route.

My suspicion is ..maybe the font is black againist black background. The caption featured in Media player is turned on. It even show the black blank area below the video area where there would put caption. Is that possible. I dont see hwo to change the font color.

[jmemmott]

Ok Im using windows Vista Home Premium. Im using window media player v11.0.600.6344.

I have successfully got .smi files. And .tivo files. I even tried the .asx route.

My suspicion is ..maybe the font is black againist black background. The caption featured in Media player is turned on. It even show the black blank area below the video area where there would put caption. Is that possible. I dont see hwo to change the font color.

Windows Media Player provides for a very limited set of controls over the appearance of the SAMI display so I would still suspect that it is a setup issue. I’ve been using SAMI on XP/WMP 10 for a long time but when I bought a laptop with Vista Business, it still took some time and tinkering to get the captions to show up in WMP 11.

Finding anything in WMP 11 is a bit like looking for Easter eggs so I suggest you turn on the classic menus at first. If you don’t like them, you can reverse this after we get your captions running : right click the blank space in the tool bar before the “Now Playing” button and check “Show Classic Menus” in the pop up. This adds the traditional menu options to the display. Then select “Tools” - > “Options” from the menu and “Security” from the tabs. “Show local captions when present” must be checked for this to work. From "Play"->“Lyrics, Captions and Subtitles” set it to "On if Available". While you are there, I would also suggest selecting “Defaults” and setting the default “Lyric, caption and subtitle” language to “English (United States) [en-US]".

Use then “File” -> “Open” menu options to play one of your captioned videos. If you don’t get captions, right click the display panel and switch to “Full Screen”. Right click again and at “Lyric, caption and subtitle” to make sure that it came on. It should show "English" as the SAMI captions are set up to be "EN-US-CC" captions.

Let me know if this makes a difference.

[kellyboy]

Still no difference. Did all what you suggested. Nothing.

[jmemmott]

Still no difference. Did all what you suggested. Nothing.

Then I guess we need to try something else.

You didn't indicate the results from going to "Full Screen" during playback and reviewing the Captions status. Were they on or off? Did the context menu show a target language?

A couple of other things to do to get more information:

Go to the t2sami website and run the captioning sample at the bottom. Does it work?

Use the contact email mail address at the bottom of the website to email me a copy of one of your .smi files so I can examine and validate it...

Thanks

[kellyboy]

I did test the sample from t2sami website and it didn't show any caption at all. That clip is a small sample from "Wizard of oz"?

I did went into full screen and turn caption on. I tried every possible switch (caption on or off en-us-cc or subtitle english or cc , fulls creened or not) just about everything you suggested.

[kellyboy]

Ok The sample doesnt work. But i tried to run the sample from stand alone Media Player (not from within browser) using File->Open URL.... The caption did show up on that sample from stand alone media player (why it wont play caption from within browswer..i dont know).

So the caption do work on Window Media Player (stand alone) based on the test run of thier sample t2sami.com provided.

umm.....I will send you the sami file I have that im trying to run.

[Dan203]

Why are you trying to play a video from your browser?

Dan

[jmemmott]

Why are you trying to play a video from your browser?

Dan

It was not so much that he was trying to play the video from the browser as he was testing the setup in WMP against a video clip from the web to see if it would display those captions.

We are still narrowing everything down, so this may be premature, but my suspicion is growing that the mpeg codec he has may not play well with the Microsoft SAMI parser. As a result, he is getting captions out from the .wmv files on the web site, but not his own .mpg's and .tivo's...

[kellyboy]

Ya think the codec used when encoding the video is the problem?

[jmemmott]

Ya think the codec used when encoding the video is the problem?

The playback codec installed on your computer actually.

The video is encoded using a hardware encoder in your Tivo or by the broadcaster not a software codec.

We have established that captions will work on your computer if you are using other codecs such as wmv but fail if you are use tivo or mpg files which require your mpeg2 codec. Since WMP has to pull the Microsoft SAMI parser into the Directshow graph to play back the captions, I am speculating that the codec you have isn't accommodating that filter.

To go further, we will need to use a different mpeg codec or at least identify this one. I am using CyberLink on Vista and Sonic Cinemaster under XP so I know those both work and show up in WMP. There are other good codecs around for Vista as well.

In another conversation, I asked if WMP identified the codec it was using during mpeg playback and you indicated it didn't giving "just - for video and audio codec". Thus, if you want to identify the codec you already have, you will need to install software such as GSpot that does a better job of identifying the underlying DirectShow graph structure. If you use GSpot, you need version 2.7a or above (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/GSpot). Earlier versions do not work reliably under Vista.

[kellyboy]

How will get the WIndows to use different codec? I have printed out the list of codec from GSPOT program you mentioned and will email you this.

I was wondering if the problem I have is an isolated incident or that problem can be repeated on someone else computer? I got this new computer with Windows Vista Home Premeium last Dec so that was out of the box without any customization installed.

[Dan203]

Unfortunately Windows codecs are a real pain to deal with. There is no simple UI where you can go in and tell it which MPEG2 codec to use for .mpeg and .tivo files. Your best bet is to figure out which codec your system is currently using by using GraphEdit to render a .mpg file. Then once you figure it out use a DirectShow filter manager like this one....

http://www.softella.com/dsfm/index.en.htm

... to lower the merit on that filter to "don't use" and hopefully another one will take over. If that doesn't work then you'll probably need to install another one. Unfortunately they cost money. They either come with DVD playback software like PowerDVD or you can buy one standalone from companies like NVidia or Elecard, but you're going to have to pay something to get one.

Dan

[kellyboy]

Im willing to buy different codec (if price is reasonable). My concern is that if I buy something and turn out that this codec doesnt work.

I checked and noticed that Vista Home Premium does have some codec that the WMP is not using.

[Dan203]

Try using GraphEdit to see which codec it is using, then using the DirectShow filter manager I posted to lower the merit on that one so one of the other ones can take over.

Dan

[kellyboy]

Ok It use MainConcept MPEG Demultiplexer -> Microsoft MPEG2 Video Decoder-> Video Renderer

Which one do I lower the merit? demultiplexer or decoder?

[Dan203]

Try the demultiplexer first. Try to get it to use the built in Microsoft MPEG2 splitter. If that doesn't work try putting the MainConcept demultiplexer back and then lower the merit on the decoder. In that case try to get it to use the MainConcept MPEG2 decoder if you've got it.

Basically you want to match pairs. (i.e. MS with MS and MainConcept with MainConcept)

Dan

[kellyboy]

how do I "demerit" the demultiplexor.... GraphEdit failed to demerit when i try to demerit it

[Dan203]

What did you lower the merit too? You should kick it all the way down to the bottom to make sure the other filters take over. If it still doesn't work look for the MainConcept MPEG2 Video Decoder and bump it's merit up. Like I said your best bet is a matched pair.

Dan

[kellyboy]

Dan203 What I mean is that I get "merit modification failed" when I try to set the new setting (lower merit).

[Dan203]

In Vista you have to right click the program and click "Run as administrator" or it wont work. Sorry I forgot about that.

Dan

[kellyboy]

Ok I wwas looking around on the Net and found this free codec for vista.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Vista_Codec_Package.htm

downloaded and installed and now i have closed captioned !!!!! they have thier own way of doing it I dont know how but it was great and enable me to change font size and all on the fly so that take care of the problem.

[Dan203]

Glad you got it working.

Dan