Closed captioning in NPVR

[Joram]

Is there closed captions on that channel? I've tried playing your recording in a few players, and haven't been able to get any of them showing closed captions.

Also, is the recording file you're trying to play the original, raw .ts file as captured directly by NextPVR from a digital source? i.e. you haven't converted it, remuxed it, etc.

Right, it's the original .ts file as captured by NextPVR from the STB via a Hauppauge HD PVR 2. It hasn't been converted in any way.

[Joram]

Got it but is this an HDPVR recording it is h264 which is rare OTA in the US?  If so they don't have CC's

Martin

Yes, it was recorded off the STB HDMI via an HDPVR2. If it's h264, something must have been changed (inadvertently or not) in the settings. I don't remember doing anything like that; where in the settings should I look?

[Joram]

Is there closed captions on that channel? I've tried playing your recording in a few players, and haven't been able to get any of them showing closed captions.

I just tried playing that same channel on both the NPVR setup and the Windows Media Center machine. Subtitles can be selected, and work, on WMC.

As I speculated to Martin, maybe some setting got changed in NPVR? Seeking guidance on the best place to look.

[mvallevand]

Yes, it was recorded off the STB HDMI via an HDPVR2. If it's h264, something must have been changed (inadvertently or not) in the settings. I don't remember doing anything like that; where in the settings should I look?

Closed captions are embedded in digital streams OTA The HDPVR does an analog capture via HDMI and there are no closed captions available.  The h264 was simply my clue that you aren't recording OTA.

If you want them you have to have them alway on from the STB.

Martin

[Joram]

Yes, it was recorded off the STB HDMI via an HDPVR2. If it's h264, something must have been changed (inadvertently or not) in the settings. I don't remember doing anything like that; where in the settings should I look?

Closed captions are embedded in digital streams OTA The HDPVR does an analog capture via HDMI and there are no closed captions available.  The h264 was simply my clue that you aren't recording OTA.

If you want them you have to have them alway on from the STB.

Martin

Thanks for that info, I had just finished checking some other channels and the same thing was happening there (no CC).

If we turn on CC in the STB, is there then a way to turn it off while watching a recording or live TV on NPVR? We do use CC for series, but having CC always turned on would make it challenging to play "Jeopardy" and annoying to watch baseball (there's enough, uh, stuff cluttering up the screen there already).

[mvallevand]

A blaster program doesn't care when it blasts so in theory that could be any CC toggle you might have. BTW I was speaking of digital OTA I should have added cable card which you use because it is digital and will have embedded CC'ing.

You might want to consider a real OTA tuner.

Martin

[Joram]

We've talked about getting an antenna, but the drawback to an OTA for us is that we record many programs from cable channels. And even some of the shows from broadcast networks that we record are on a channel (the local ABC affiliate) that has an extremely weak OTA signal.

Besides, she keeps telling me that she doesn't want to lose her husband trying to install an outdoor antenna.

About CC: Just to make sure I understand, if the HDPVR is set to record with CC set to On on the STB, then CC cannot be disabled while watching that recorded program on NPVR, right?

[sub]

Yep, just confirming what you've already discovered - you wont get any CC when capturing using an HDMI encoder device like the HDPVR2.

There is no CC delivered over HDMI. The HDMI is intended to carry the picture from a set top box to a TV, and their thinking is that if you want Closed Captions, you turn them on in the set top box, and then they're included as text overlaid on the picture sent to the TV (burnt into the picture). ie, there is no extra side channel of data sent alongside the picture which contains the CC info, so no way for the HDPVR to capture them in the recording.

If closed captions are important to you, you pretty much need to use a tuner, so that you get the raw broadcast capture.

[Joram]

Rats!    There's nothing to be done about this, but I'm still forging ahead with presenting NPVR as the alternative when CableCARD is disabled. I'll have a conversation with wife at some point regarding CC. The choice will boil down to which one to sacrifice -- the ability to enable/disable CC at will when viewing a recording, or the ability to store nearly unlimited hours of programming independent of both channel schedules and variable streaming rights. (It's happened that we missed out on shows on Netflix because the service's deal to distribute them expired.)

If we consistently did CC either all of the time or none of the time, there would be no issue. But some things we watch with, others without, and a few we start without but then turn CC on when there's a particularly garbled bit of dialogue. Guess we got spoiled. C'est la vie.

[Joram]

You might want to consider a real OTA tuner.

Martin, it's no problem to set up NPVR with both an OTA tuner and a Hauppauge HDPVR2 on the same PC, is that right? The OTA antenna would connect to a tuner and then to the PC via USB, while a second USB port would handle the HDPVR2. And then NPVR would recognize both, correct?

Just trying to get a sense of the range of possibilities here. Maybe an indoor antenna can capture enough OTA signals (with their respective CC feeds) to tamp down objections sufficiently (or maybe not).