Subtitles and second audio track

[M1CGP]

Hi all
New on here.

cannot find the answer of a couple simple questions

1, i have an .avi file let us say abcd.avi that is a divx5/6 file on my pc. i can transfer it to my Humax box over home network and it plays no problem.
i want to put a russian subtitle to this file (i have one abcd.rus.srt) i copy the srt file to Humax box. I get no subtitles when SUB button on remote pressed.

should it work? if so what am i doing wrong.

2 same but with Audio, i want to put an addional audio track to file abcd.avi so when audio select button on remote pressed you get alternative audio track played.

again should it work? if so what am i doing wrong.

On my pc, i go into folder select abcd.avi play with VLC and there is choice to which audio track to play and switch subtitles on/off all ok.

thanks if you can offer any help.
just a simple yes / no with maybe a simple fix.

David

 

[ABMorley]

No, it shouldn't work (AFAIK). The Humax only play the video file - it doesn't look for others. You'll need to merge the audio track and subtitles into the video file to produce one file. I imagine ffmpeg could do it, though I have no experience of this. I suggest you do that on a PC - whilst the Humax can run ffmpeg, it'll take ages.

 

[prpr]

whilst the Humax can run ffmpeg, it'll take ages.

It depends what operation you are doing. For simple multiplexing operations it is perfectly able. Anything that needs re-coding is a waste of time though.

 

[Black Hole]

cannot find the answer of a couple simple questions

There is a specific section for this kind of question here: https://hummy.tv/forum/forums/audio-video-file-manipulation.48/

i have an .avi file let us say abcd.avi that is a divx5/6 file on my pc. i can transfer it to my Humax box over home network and it plays no problem.
i want to put a russian subtitle to this file (i have one abcd.rus.srt) i copy the srt file to Humax box. I get no subtitles when SUB button on remote pressed.

should it work?

No. The HDR-FOX only provides subtitle capability as required to support the broadcast standard, ie a bit-mapped graphics overlay layer within an M2TS stream. To make your subtitle file compatible, you would need to find a way to rasterise the text and multiplex the result in with the video and audio streams properly time-synced, into a .ts file (M2TS format). The audio and video streams would also need to be appropriate - ie AVC/H.264+AAC (HiDef) or MPG+MP2 (StDef), from what I remember off the top of my head.

same but with Audio, i want to put an addional audio track to file abcd.avi so when audio select button on remote pressed you get alternative audio track played.

again should it work?

Similarly, you would need to recreate a .ts file that looked as if it had been recorded from broadcast, matching all the normal broadcast parameters.

The problems don't end there. There are also "sidecar" files that the HDR-FOX creates on recording, most notably the .hmt file, which provide metadata about the recording as an aid to special playback features. Playback of a home-made .ts file may be crippled by the lack of a suitably formatted .hmt file (we have ways to make a .htm, but I doubt they have been developed to support subtitles or alternative audio, if necessary).

All in all, you would be much better off with a fire stick or whatever, intended for general media playback, than trying to make the HDR-FOX jump through these hoops. You could even consider a Raspberry Pi - which is a small, cheap, Linux computer with HDMI output, capable of almost anything you might want and user-configured therefore future-proof.

 

[M1CGP]

Guys

Thanks for the replies.

ok looks like i need to move my pc next to the television and play the files from that.

thanks again
David

 

[Black Hole]

...or get a 10m HDMI lead.

Seriously: the RPi is not a bad solution. With a wireless mouse and keyboard it can be hidden behind the TV (bolt it to the VESA points), and even controlled with an RC handset. Plug it into your network instead of the TV, and it will be much better than any facilities offered by "smart" TVs. You could even use it for word processing and web browsing!