2023-07-10, 07:58 PM
I subscribe to DISH Network in a DMA that doesn't have a PBS OTA station. DISH provides our DMA with the PBS National feed in standard definition. The nearest PBS OTA transmitter is on the fringe and is unreliable. I do support PBS with an annual subscription and I have access to PBS Passport, which gives me access to the PBS library. I prefer to record PBS shows in full HD with captioning. I've done that successfully for quite some time via NPVR and the PBS National IPTV URL. I record to a .ts file on the Windows desktop, extract closed captioning with CC Extractor, copy the .ts file to .mp4 with ffmpeg, and stream the recorded program to an Android TV box. All has worked well until a few months ago when PBS apparently changed their format from closed captions to an as yet undetermined (by me) sub-title format. The URL will no longer display captions/sub-titles in NPVR, whether watching or recording. The same URL will display sub-titles in VLC but will not record the sub-titles in VLC. I've reached the limits of my technical abilities and I'm wondering if anyone has a work-around to get sub-titles working again in NPVR with this PBS IPTV URL. Perhaps something in NPVR configuration that needs to be tweaked? I'm attempting to attach the URL in txt and m3u files for reference.