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lisamelton / other_video_transcoding

Other tools to transcode videos.
MIT License
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Add `--convert-dvb-subs` option. #155

Open ApolloniaUK opened 2 years ago

ApolloniaUK commented 2 years ago

Hi Don, sorry to intrude.

I've made a few changes to my installation of other-transcode to meet a few local needs and I thought this one might be of wider interest.

If the --add-subtitle option is invoked, by default other-transcode copies the selected subtitle track(s) in their original format. If the original format is DVB Subtitle (dvb_subtitle) then this causes problems with both MP4 and MKV output formats. In the case of MP4 output the transcode fails immediately, in the case of MKV some players don't support the DVB Subtitle format. This option, --convert-dvb-subs configures ffmpeg to convert DVB subtitles to DVD subtitles. This prevents MP4 output failing and the DVD subtitle format is supported by a wider variety of players.

Hope this is of interest,

Kind regards,

Alan.

lisamelton commented 2 years ago

@ApolloniaUK Thanks for taking the time to make and submit a patch.

Just out of curiosity, where are you getting input files with subtitles in DVB format? I've created at least three video transcoding projects during the last ten years and this is the first time anyone has requested a feature like this. While DVB might be an international standard, playback support for it is very poor.

ApolloniaUK commented 2 years ago

@donmelton Very happy to contribute.

The input files are recordings of over-the-air DVB broadcasts in the UK. The DVR is a Mac application called EyeTV which uses a USB connected tuner called an "EyeTV Diversity" (both from a company called Geniatech). As well as Geniatech's other tuners it also supports the HD HomeRun.

Not every UK DVB broadcast has subtitles but if they are present EyeTV does record them on their own stream(s). If your curiosity extends that far I could send you a sample or two.

Out of interest, I also added an option to set the output filename/filepath - would you like that as well?

lisamelton commented 2 years ago

@ApolloniaUK While I appreciate the effort, it's unlikely I'll take this DVB conversion feature in other-transcode since I think the few users out there with such subtitles (probably just you) would be better off converting their original streams before transcoding. But I'll think about it for awhile.

And I will definitely not take a patch which adds an --output option. Sorry, but it's by design that other-transcode does not have that. It's simply unnecessary.

ApolloniaUK commented 2 years ago

@donmelton

Whichever way you decide thanks for considering the patch - and thanks for such a useful tool. I've been using other-transcode and its predecessors for years and have found them very useful.