30 replies to this topic

[pizzel]

I have many stream services in my lists which use VTT subtitles. As this format is not yet supported in E2, I think that adding this new feature would be a great and functional idea as WebVTT subtitles are becoming more and more popular for streaming services, and these in turn are more and more present in our lists.

Could it be possible to have this feature in our receivers?

Thanks.

[DimitarCC]

That are text subtitles that have extensive HTML type formatting with styles and so on.

It will be not easy to be implemented. Besides there is no example streams that use this.

[littlesat]

Is it possible to convert them to srt?

[WanWizard]

Please avoid any solutions that require client side rendering, like nodejs, an STB is not a powerful desktop.

[WanWizard]

Is it possible to convert them to srt?

 

Yes, very easy, just strip all the HTML5 nonsense, and anything after the from-until timestamps, and you're left with a valid SRT file.

 

So the quickest way to support it, is to strip these things on the fly, while reading and processing the VTT file. Obviously, you would lose al the fancy-pants HTML5 stuff, which you don't need anyway ( good for video presentations etc, not for movie subs ).

[DimitarCC]

The problem would be if that is sent embedded to the stream...Then there is no file to process. For local files i can agree.

[WanWizard]

If it is embedded in the stream, it is a separate pid that need processing as well, either in serviceMP3, or by gstreamer itself (which seems to have support for VTT)?

 

Step 1 is to get a video file that has VTT embedded, without it, there's nothing to test.

[littlesat]

FYI

 

https://www.dittotra...t media players.

 

Basic looks the same... but they can do multiple languages in one line and have html style things for italic etc....

 

When the multiple language is not used we only need to strip of the html stuff (all between <>)... as far I remember from long time ago we already do (and replace italic e.g. by specific colors in the first place and now I think this should work).

 

I'm not sure if this should work within a 'stream' as it depends on how it was 'packed' within the stream.

Edited by littlesat, 13 March 2025 - 16:21.

[WanWizard]

Yeah, that is what I wrote, VTT = SRT + HTML5 extensions (which basically allows overrides to alter the look and feel, colour, size, positioning, etc).

[littlesat]

Then first thing is... do we see the html style code already?

[DimitarCC]

that is the specs

 

https://www.w3.org/TR/webvtt1/

 

There are a lot of variants....

[littlesat]

OMG

[WanWizard]

Yup. It was never designed for TV video close caption, but for web-based video, as a means to have HTML markup linked to video timing (for example in online training, you can overlay text, pointers, move things as the video plays, etc).

 

Hence my remark that for "our" use, the best thing would be to dumb them down to SRT level when we encounter one.

[littlesat]

As far I know we already remove all between the < and >....

 

But I'm not 100% sure as it also could be that we only filter out <i> </i> <b> </b> etc.... and arranged that at least these are correctly shown...

 

It is too long ago I'm in every detail (I'm afraid more than 10 years ago).... a time I worked on subtitles with pieterg... I remember initially I color coded italics etc... 

Edited by littlesat, 13 March 2025 - 18:42.

[rantanplan]

https://github.com/s...198246cdbee8605

[ruai4]

Would it be possible to get ideas from here please?

 

https://github.com/o...2932c5e108e4c12

[Rick Hunter]

The AFN tv channels at 9.0 east has subtitels just like the tv channels in the USA. Do they use VTT also?

[Rick Hunter]

Also when I stream these channels to a vlc client I can watch the subtitles, so you can check is a program has subtitles.

[kalehrl]

Pluto and Samsung TV Plus services use VTT AFAIK.

[ruai4]

Using open atv 7.6 beta which includes the patch https://github.com/o...2932c5e108e4c12

 

on pluto services https://vuplus-suppo...plutotv-plugin/

 

for example pluto tv spotlight, the timing is wrong and it can not be corrected with delays.