[abrombo]

I am running Ubuntu 14.04. This problem occurs on some channels using both Kodi stable (Isengard) and Kodi nightly builds. It also occurs for both the mythtv backend wiht mythtvpvr addon and the hdhomerun live tv addon (written by Silcon Dust). On some programs on some channels (I am using Fios cable in Silver Spring, MD, USA), in particular on the PBS channels. If I turn on the closed captions they appear for a few seconds intermittently. That is the closed captions appear for a few seconds every minute or so of the broadcast (this does not happen on all shows on the channel). If I record the broadcast and play it back there are no problems with the closed captions.

Below is the mediainfo for a recording of one of the problem broadcasts -

General
ID : 285 (0x11D)
Complete name : Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - 2015-10-30, 8-00 PM - Murder and Mozzarella.mpg
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 1.28 GiB
Duration : 14mn 16s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 12.9 Mbps

Video
ID : 1131 (0x46B)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@high
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=15
Codec ID : 2
Duration : 14mn 16s
Bit rate : 11.7 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 11.9 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Active Format Description : Full frame 16:9 image
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.188
Time code of first frame : 06:24:19;08
Time code source : Group of pictures header
Stream size : 1.16 GiB (91%)
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio #1
ID : 1132 (0x46C)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 14mn 16s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -226ms
Stream size : 39.2 MiB (3%)
Language : English
Name : enrimary Audio

Audio #2
ID : 1133 (0x46D)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 14mn 16s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -282ms
Stream size : 19.6 MiB (1%)
Language : English
Name : en:Secondary Audio

Text #1
ID : 1131 (0x46B)-CC1
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : EIA-608
Muxing mode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 14mn 16s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

Text #2
ID : 1131 (0x46B)-1
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : EIA-708
Muxing mode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 14mn 16s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

Text #3
ID : 1131 (0x46B)-2
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : EIA-708
Muxing mode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 14mn 16s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[abrombo]

More information on closed caption problem. HDHomerun live TV gives more information about the problem by telling how the live tv stream is encoded. On almost all channels the encoding is mp2. On the ovation channel the encoding is h.264 for all programs. On this channel all programs have the same problem with closed captions as mentioned in the original post. However, if I record a program from this channel the encoding is mp2 on the recording and I have no trouble with playing the close captions on the recording. Does anyone have any suggestions or is this a Kodi problem with closed captions in any live h.264 stream.

[FernetMenta]

Can you record a h.264 program as h.264 so that the recording shows the issue?

[abrombo]

I recorded the "Boston Legal" on the Ovation channel via kodi mythtv-pvr. The results of mediainfo are below. If I playback the recording via the tv recordings menu on kodi there are many drop outs of the closed captions. If I play the copy of recording from the videos menu all the closed captions are present. Althought the file format is labeled MPEG-TS the video format is AVC and not MPEG-2. The closed caption formats are given below. If I use ccextractor on the file there are many errors. If you want a copy of the file give me an email address and I will put the video file on my Google drive and you can download it.

brombo@GA:~/Archive/Recordings$ mediainfo "Boston Legal - 2015-11-02, 10-00 PM - Live Big.mpg"
General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : Boston Legal - 2015-11-02, 10-00 PM - Live Big.mpg
Format : MPEG-TS
File size : 3.06 GiB
Duration : 59mn 58s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 7 309 Kbps
Law rating : TV-14

Video
ID : 2021 (0x7E5)http://forum.kodi.tv/newreply.php?tid=245904
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 59mn 57s
Bit rate : 6 366 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : MBAFF
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.102
Stream size : 2.67 GiB (87%)
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio #1
ID : 2022 (0x7E6)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 59mn 58s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -863ms
Stream size : 165 MiB (5%)

Audio #2
ID : 2023 (0x7E7)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 59mn 58s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -831ms
Stream size : 82.4 MiB (3%)

Text #1
ID : 2021 (0x7E5)-CC1
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : EIA-608
Muxing mode : SCTE 128 / DTVCC Transport
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 59mn 57s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

Text #2
ID : 2021 (0x7E5)-1
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : EIA-708
Muxing mode : SCTE 128 / DTVCC Transport
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 59mn 57s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

Text #3
ID : 2021 (0x7E5)-2
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : EIA-708
Muxing mode : SCTE 128 / DTVCC Transport
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 59mn 57s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Stream size : 0.00 Byte (0%)

Menu
ID : 2020 (0x7E4)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Duration : 59mn 58s
List : 2021 (0x7E5) (AVC) / 2022 (0x7E6) (AC-3) / 2023 (0x7E7) (AC-3)
Law rating : TV-14

[FernetMenta]

mpeg-ts is the format of the transport stream. it can carry mpeg or avc (h.264). not sure if I can do much if the file playes fine locally via video menu. do you run mythtv on a different machine? maybe you lose data when connnected to a remote server.

[abrombo]

mythtv and the ceton turner is on the same machine that contains the recordings and that I am playing the recordings on. Note that the same behaviour is exhibited when I look at the Ovation channel with the HDHomerun live tv addon for kodi and try to look at closed captions. For the channels with mpeg-2 streams the closed captions play fine even thought the mpeg-2 stream requires more bandwidth than the h.264 stream from the HDHomerun prime.

[FernetMenta]

we need to find out the difference between playing the file locally via video menu and vie mythtv recording. you said one is working, the other not, right?
is kodi on the same machine as myth?

[abrombo]

kodi is on the same machine as mythtv. If I play via the kodi tv recordings option the problem is present. If I play via the kodi video file option the closed captions/subtitles are ok. Note that in order to select files to play via the kodi video file option I run mythlink.pl to generate links with understandable names to the files recorded by the mythtv backend.

[FernetMenta]

So if I played the file you linked on my machine, I would not be able to to see the issue. correct? I am not familiar with myth and don't have a clue what this scipt does.
please pasterbin full debug logs for the working and failing case.

[abrombo]

I mispoke. I recorded another program from the Ovation channel. The video file drops closed captions no matter how I play it with Kodi. There were no error logs generated by Kodi when I made the recording or played it back. I have put the file on my google drive "Dharma & Greg - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.mpg" with the link -

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8noIR8...sp=sharing

[FernetMenta]

Could you provide a smaller sample? I am at a conference and hard downloading such a big file with hotel wifi

[abrombo]

50 Mb section of file is at link below

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8noIR8...sp=sharing

I edited it with Videoredo TVSuite 4. Subtitle behaviour in clip the same as in complete selection when played with kodi video file method.

[FernetMenta]

Does this only happen with the HDHomerun as a tuner?
What happens:
The sample has two types of cc, 608 and 708. The 608 does work, the 708 seems to be messed up. Kodi gives 708 preference over 608. This is why you observe the issue.

The question is if the 708 get messed up by the broadcaster, tuner, or Kodi does something wrong.

[abrombo]

I sent you a recording from mythtv-prv with ceton tuner. HDHomerun prime exhibits same behaviour. When I play recording with kodi I enable subtitles with the subtitle menu. The subtitle menu says there are no subtitles and the intermittent subtitles are played. No mention of a second subtitle. Note that subtitles are shown correctly on a Tivo system.

[FernetMenta]

I sent you a recording from mythtv-prv with ceton tuner. HDHomerun prime exhibits same behaviour. When I play recording with kodi I enable subtitles with the subtitle menu. The subtitle menu says there are no subtitles and the intermittent subtitles are played. No mention of a second subtitle. Note that subtitles are shown correctly on a Tivo system.

you don't see the 608 because 708 are present. I can make it work by ignoring the 708. the question is if the 708 are broadcasted correctly or buggy. if the tivo system shows the 608 it is fine but does not give any i fo about the 708.