Subtitles not visible!

[Luke]

The original poster has a specific use case, and for that use case the HDR Fox T2 is far easier to use. Whether they value your claimed extra flexibility of the FVP-5000T is unknown since they have not stated in this thread. Personally for me the HDR Fox T2 plus custom firmware does everything I need from a Freeview PVR, what more does it need to do? I use an Apple TV 4K for my streaming needs.

The post that I was referring to was talking about 2 HD-FOXs, and not an HD-FOX and an HDR-FOX. There is also the issue of the HD-FOX, and HDR-FOX, subtitle inablity to reliably synchronise for those who use them.

No one until this post of yours (#18) has come near to explicitly stating that a solution could include ditching the recently acquired PVR-5000T.

 

[Luke]

If you actually use two HD-FOXes (one to record, the other to play back), you could even record direct to a USB hard drive and just take that with you. A small amount of CF jiggery-pokery is required to make that all work seamlessly.

The HD-FOX is very poor at subtitle synchronisation. Your suggestion of using 2 HD-FOXs is not a solution.

 

[Owen Smith]

They run from 90V to 250V according to the label, so that would be unnecessary.

Thanks, I should have checked that.

 

[Owen Smith]

The post that I was referring to was talking about 2 HD-FOXs, and not an HD-FOX and an HDR-FOX. There is also the issue of the HD-FOX, and HDR-FOX, subtitle inablity to reliably synchronise for those who use them.

I regard the choice of HD Fox vs HDR Fox T2 as a minor implementation detail in this discussion.

Lack of subtitle synchronisation on HDR Fox T2 and HD Fox T2 may be a fair point, I don't use subtitles (except for non English language content) so I don't know.

No one until this post of yours (#18) has come near to explicitly stating that a solution could include ditching the recently acquired PVR-5000T.

At no point did I suggest ditching the PVR-5000T. But @Black Hole suggested before I did using a Fox of some flavour at both ends for this specific requirement. The 5000T can be retained for other uses eg Freesview Play if desirable.

 

[Luke]

At no point did I suggest ditching the PVR-5000T. But @Black Hole suggested before I did using a Fox of some flavour at both ends for this specific requirement. The 5000T can be retained for other uses eg Freesview Play if desirable.

Agree, but your wording made it far more obvious that was what was being suggested.

 

[EEPhil]

As the subtitle stream is a video overlay, I imagine you could simply run the recording through an incantation of FFMPEG to combine it with the video stream.

If you are asking whether it is possible to take the TS file and use ffmpeg to hardcode the subtitles to a (for example) mpg file - then I'm not sure that will work - or am I confusing that with DVD subtitles? You can use VLC to re-record the video with permanent in-vision subtitles. ffmpeg will hardcode srt or other text based subtitles.

 

[EEPhil]

The original post is asking about recordings from a FVP-5000T.

Quite. Even though my responses may be long-winded, cack-handed or even wrong, I was trying to deal with the situation presented. I was surprised that the thread strayed into multiple Foxes as a solution.

 

[Black Hole]

What issues are there setting up an HDR Fox T2 or HD Fox T2 without an aerial?

All covered in Things Every... (click). There would be a show-stopper if the unit could not be initialised in the UK (or perhaps somewhere else it can be given an aerial signal), or re-initialised should a random installation wizard event occur (I don't recall ever having one on a HD-FOX).

Agree, but your wording made it far more obvious that was what was being suggested.

So you were reading things into my post that weren't there? I didn't realise I need to spell out what I'm not saying...

I was surprised that the thread strayed into multiple Foxes as a solution.

The OP asked for "any suggestions gratefully received". I didn't know "any" excludes alternative hardware suggestions which could lead to considerable convenience.

As for subtitle sync, I've seen mention of it but don't use them so not experienced it. Is it that bad for even casual users to find it unacceptable? I don't understand why that should be, it is (I guess) implemented in the SoC.

If you are asking whether it is possible to take the TS file and use ffmpeg to hardcode the subtitles to a (for example) mpg file - then I'm not sure that will work - or am I confusing that with DVD subtitles?

So far as I know, and I stand to be corrected, the subtitle stream carries video not text, and doing it this way means any character or symbol can be represented regardless of character mapping at the receiver. Creating a text .srt file from the stream requires OCR. Being video, I'm sure FFMPEG can run a simple video merge and bake the subtites into the main video payload.

Nonetheless, if I were the OP, the idea of recording to a portable drive and then simply taking it with me would be appealing, and so far as I know the only way to do that is use the record-to-USB function on the TV (if it has one), or use a HD-FOX to make the recordings (or some home-brew solution with a computer – eg RaspberryPi – and a tuner module). Discounting the home-brew, the only solution where we know we can control encryption/decryption is with HD-FOX or HDR-FOX (and HDR-FOX does not record directly to an external drive). Hence my suggestion. HD-FOXes are much smaller than HDR-FOXes too. If the sync issue is significant for the OP, then maybe not.

 

[EEPhil]

o far as I know, and I stand to be corrected, the subtitle stream carries video not text, and doing it this way means any character or symbol can be represented regardless of character mapping at the receiver. Creating a text .srt file from the stream requires OCR. Being video, I'm sure FFMPEG can run a simple video merge and bake the subtites into the main video payload.

I was wrong, you are right. It is possible to run a video merge - although you might need to add some parameters to specify the bitrates, quality etc,

ffmpeg -i input.ts -filter_complex "[0:v][0:s]overlay[v]" -map "[v]" -map 0:a:0 output.mpg

if the output is output.mkv -map 0:a may suffice.

Edit (at 11:40): The .ts file was recorded from a DVB-T multiplex and has mpeg video. The ffmpeg command above gives a very blocky output, but converting to mkv does not. Adding a bitrate -b:v 1500 to the mpg version removes the blocky video but may have added audio dropouts (they may have been there before on the conversion to mpg without a bitrate). It looks as though it is better to convert to mkv if that is playable on the TV.
This is what worked for me:

ffmpeg -i input.ts -filter_complex "[0:v][0:s]overlay[v]" -map "[v]" -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac -b:v 1000K -b:a 128k output.mkv

 

[Owen Smith]

Quite. Even though my responses may be long-winded, cack-handed or even wrong, I was trying to deal with the situation presented. I was surprised that the thread strayed into multiple Foxes as a solution.

I viewed this question as how to record with subtitles and play back on USB stick in a holiday home. I saw the equipment being used as secondary.

 

[EEPhil]

I viewed this question as how to record with subtitles and play back on USB stick in a holiday home. I saw the equipment being used as secondary.

Strange that so many interpreted it that way. It's in the 4000T/5000T forum and referenced a 5000T. Being a simple sod, I saw the equipment used as the primary problem and sought solutions without extra expense etc. Ho humm!

 

[Owen Smith]

Strange that so many interpreted it that way. It's in the 4000T/5000T forum and referenced a 5000T. Being a simple sod, I saw the equipment used as the primary problem and sought solutions without extra expense etc. Ho humm!

A couple of HD or HDR Fox T2s (or one of each) on ebay is not a significant expense.

 

[trog]

Could he not just use a laptop connected to the TV when there, put all content onto laptop or a connected SSD here and play with VLC and simple drag and drop any needed subtitles from one of the many free subtitle sites?.

 

[EEPhil]

simple drag and drop any needed subtitles from one of the many free subtitle sites.

That would depend on what the OP is recording. Not all subtitles are available on websites. Also if you've recorded something (a film maybe) from a commercial channel complete with adverts, then you get the subtitles on-line without an ad break and possibly at 24fps or 30fps it's going to be a complete mess. I know, I've tried getting English subtitles for foreign films. Even if I get foreign subtitles and translate them if the FPS are wrong it's a nightmare.

 

[AyrtomH]

There are subtitles. My TV will play the .ts file but does not recognise the subtitles.

Phil - interestingly my recordings look like .mpeg files, rather than .ts (admittedly not Media Inspected) whether I save them directly on a stick in the back of the box, or via the network direct to my PC laptop. Also interestingly (or not) I recently bought the FVP-5000T in order to copy to USB, rather than to DVDs (which have subtitles enabled) via my Panasonic recorder, on the strength of reviews. Maybe I should be looking at the HDR Fox T2 if they handle subtitles better - they seem far cheaper 2nd hand than my 5000T was... ps many thanks for all your efforts above on my behalf.

 

[EEPhil]

Phil - interestingly my recordings look like .mpeg files, rather than .ts (admittedly not Media Inspected) whether I save them directly on a stick in the back of the box, or via the network direct to my PC laptop. Also interestingly (or not) I recently bought the FVP-5000T in order to copy to USB, rather than to DVDs (which have subtitles enabled) via my Panasonic recorder, on the strength of reviews. Maybe I should be looking at the HDR Fox T2 if they handle subtitles better - they seem far cheaper 2nd hand than my 5000T was... ps many thanks for all your efforts above on my behalf.

I'm surprised that saving to a USB stick on the 5000T is producing mpeg files. As I stated earlier I get ts files (and some other files with the same prefix)
It's worth using a media inspector. Somewhere in the hidden depths of my mind I seem to remember that the mpeg files transferred from a 5000T, possibly using drag and drop - if your Humax disk is looking like a network disk on a PC, are actually just renamed .ts files. There's a distinct possibility that the subtitles are there, just not playable from a ts file (renamed or not). That will be the same on a HDR Fox T2. It's up to you whether you want to go down that route - but I suspect files saved from that will lead you back to a similar question about subtitles not playing from a USB stick on the TV.
If you have the free ffmpeg you could try to convert one of your recordings, substituting the actual file name for input.ts in

ffmpeg -i input.ts -filter_complex "[0:v][0:s]overlay[v]" -map "[v]" -map 0:a -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac -b:v 1000K -b:a 128k output.mkv

If you get burnt in subtitles - job done.

 

[Black Hole]

I suspect files saved from that will lead you back to a similar question about subtitles not playing from a USB stick on the TV.

Indeed. The problem is not so much how you get subtitles onto the USB storage, but how to access them at the other end. That's why I suggested an HD-FOX as a playback device (issues with subtitle sync notwithstanding).

 

[EEPhil]

Unless I've missed something I don't think we know what or where the "other end" is - other than the TV. It may not be practical to leave a FOX-HD at the other end or transport it back and forth.

 

[AyrtomH]

More peerless advice from you guys for which thanks again.
Just to be clear, my aim was to try to do what I am already able to do with my Panasonic DVD HD TV player/recorder, namely copy series of the missus' favourite murder dramas, (where she's saving up ideas...) with subtitles, to play on a TV in a different location, in a more convenient format than the current DVD-Rs - i.e. USB stick.
Hence the purchase of the highly recommended FVP-5000T.
I'm not motivated or savvy enough to try to hack the files although I do appreciate people's efforts in describing methods above.
Google AI Overview suggests that the HDR Fox T2 mentioned above will save to USB with subtitles. Have I simply bought the wrong device (at several times over the odds price-wise)??

 

[Owen Smith]

@AyrtomH Are you able to add a box like the HD Fox T2 at the holiday home for playback of the recordings? You mention playing DVDs now so perhaps a playback box at the holiday end is possible? Your options change a lot depending on this.