Extract EIA-608 Closed captions & convert to SRT

[Night457]

Continued from this thread here: https://www.first-loves.com/forums/view ... 54#p115954

This is NOT a Step-by-Step Guide, just a quick pointer to external solutions.

Shortest answer: ffmpeg.

VLC sees the CCs and plays them even though most of the usual file analyzing tools do not see them.
[Image][Image]
I think it is because they are embedded in the video.

I again tried a few of the failed techniques I had tried a few years ago because I could not remember what ultimately worked! I had it documented SOMEWHERE... probably in a bookmark on my old computer. Yeah, yeah, I probably actually DO have a backup of my thousands of bookmarks that were meticulously organized in folders, but I have been attempting a bookmark minimalist approach so I did not restore them. Some of the various recommended software options MAY have worked. (CCextractor, MyMP4Box.) I know I originally spent hours trying them all.

Reddit gave a ffmpeg Command that I Copied and Pasted into Command Prompt / Terminal and it worked:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffmpeg/comment ... do%20this:

Spoiler: Can I get them out with ffmpeg? Yes, you can! It's a bit hard to discover but it's quite possible. Just do this: [Code] And that should give you the eia-608 subs in srt format in eia608_subs.srt! Easy peasy. Note that -map 0:s:0 will select the first eia608 subtitle. If there's multiple you can select the next one with -map 0:s:1, and then-map 0:s:2, etc.

Naturally, it helps to be already familiar with using Command line.

The clever FFmpeg-GUI also does the same thing without the incomprehensible Line Commands:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/409 ... peg%2DGUI.

Spoiler: Use clever Ffmpeg-GUI. https://www.videohelp.com/software/clever-FFmpeg-GUI Load your video, click main, click extract subtitle stream, check the EIA 608 Box and click extract. Done.

Once the SRT is extracted it can be edited normally in SubtitleEdit, especially to remove the closed-captioned Monospace font.

[pillowbaker]

Oh dude, right on! Thanks for the info, Night. I can't be too sure, but I think I have come across this before.

Or maybe it was another situation that I recall more clearly, where a movie file has subs, scanning software recognizes subs, video player lists subs as an option, but when you turn them on, they appear nowhere in the movie!

I like your situation better.

[Night457]

I have groused in a couple threads about EIA-608 CCs but I never posted if any of the suggested solutions actually worked, until now. There are also movies with "blank" subtitle files embedded, or those that consist of a single period . on one line. I never understood what was the point of them.

[DreamScape]

Thanks for sharing! Now... I wonder how many movies I missed this on

[Night457]

I wonder how many movies I missed this on

I have seen them here and there but it is only in rare cases where they are the ONLY source of subtitles. Do an FLM search on EIA-608 to find the threads for films where I encountered them. Usually someone ese has already done the work of creating SRTs and posted them to a subtitle site. MPC does not seem to play them, but VLC seems to consistently show them as 4 Closed caption options. This I have seen a number of times, although I think usually from ripped full DVDs. Normally only the first one of the options has actual content. The others are sometimes used for alternate language translations or the like. The origin of this subtitle codec is North American analog TV captions. I think this or something similar is also what was used for CCs on NTSC VHS tapes. Why exactly we are still seeing this in modern digital files for modern movies I have no idea!

Technical information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIA-608

[DreamScape]

I encountered these in the wild just now

captions.png

When I used MakeMKV on the DVD, the new video had standard embedded subtitles

converted.png

I wonder if this is an easier way to rip EIA-608 subtitles.

[Night457]

Hey, I have seen something like that too as I use MakeMKV all the time. I think that shows up as a "lossy conversion" option of the CC subtitles. It makes sense it would be there as I am sure that MakeMKV uses ffmpeg like many other video processors. It is also easier for most people to use software with a GUI than to use ffmpeg on command line. (I have to copy-paste most commands.) I would still probably rip the resulting text subtitles into SubtitleEdit to make sure they are properly cleaned up, but it is always easier for someone to use software they already have and use (like MakeMKV) than to search out specialty software they would only rarely use (like FFmpeg-GUI). I can pretty much guarantee that the next time I encounter EIA-608 Closed captions I will have to go back HERE to figure out how to rip them because I just will not remember. Thank you for your post!

P.S.: OK, I'll bite. What movie is that?

[DreamScape]

P.S.: OK, I'll bite. What movie is that?

Als der Weihnachtsmann vom Himmel fiel, which appears to not be here yet. Those are dubtitles too and not easy to sync to the original film...

[ghost]

BTW: I use CCExtractorGUI fpr extracting closed captions from a video.

https://ccextractor.sourceforge.net/usi ... ndows.html

[Night457]

Thank you DS!

I think I tried CCextractor but was not able to get it to work for EIA-608, but I am no longer sure.