Thanks, Marc. This is very helpful! <div><br></div><div>Aaron<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 3:01 PM, Marc Randolph <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mrand@pobox.com">mrand@pobox.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div><div></div><div class="h5">On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Aaron<br>
Delwiche<<a href="mailto:carbonel.tigereye@gmail.com">carbonel.tigereye@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Hi,<br>
> I'm a researcher who studies media content. I would like to create a<br>
> relatively inexpensive system that will allow me to capture video content<br>
> while also storing the closed captions in separate text files. This system<br>
> should have at least four separate tuners, and it should be possible to<br>
> easily skip between searchable transcripts and the actual stored video.<br>
> There are commercial systems that offer this functionality, but they are<br>
> extremely expensive (upwards of $18,000). I would like to come up with a<br>
> shoe-string solution that delivers comparable functionality.<br>
> Is MythTV a reasonable platform for this type of project? Is there another<br>
> platform that would be more workable?<br>
> I've done a bit of programming in the past with C# and <a href="http://ASP.NET" target="_blank">ASP.NET</a>, and am<br>
> capable of writing some of the code from scratch. However, if there are<br>
> affordable widgets out there that would perform these functions, that would<br>
> definitely be preferable.<br>
> Thanks in advance for your time. If you think this question would be more<br>
> appropriate in a different set of forums, please let me know.<br>
> Aaron Delwiche<br>
<br>
</div></div>Howdy Aaron,<br>
<br>
MythTV will easily handle your hardware/capture requirements, and cost<br>
20x less (just ballpark - maybe even cheaper if you're willing to buy<br>
used equipment off ebay).<br>
When you say "skip between searchable transcripts and actual stored<br>
video", you are probably talking about a some new functionality that<br>
isn't there, but it doesn't sound hard.<br>
<a href="http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Closed_captioning" target="_blank">http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Closed_captioning</a> mentions that<br>
<a href="http://ccextractor.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">http://ccextractor.sourceforge.net/</a> is used to generate .srt or .smi<br>
files, so I assume that all you would need to do is:<br>
1. Pop-up a window which displays lots of the caption text (so that<br>
you can see more context than just one lines worth)<br>
2. a user entry box to allow you to type some text to search for<br>
3. a "find next" button to launch finding the next occurrence of the<br>
entered text in the .srt or .smi and jump to that text in the pop-up<br>
window<br>
4. A "play this" button to to close the pop-up window and jump to that<br>
spot in the video (or else you use the "find next" or alter your<br>
search text).<br>
<br>
An interesting angle would be to allow the search at a higher level -<br>
not while viewing a particular captured show, but to search across a<br>
user-selectable list of captured shows. Or maybe that is what you<br>
intended on saying to begin with. Either way, sounds relatively<br>
straight forward to me.<br>
<br>
Adding the ability to search across shows could open up new<br>
possibilities for people trying to find a certain episode of a show<br>
(even though they don't care about CC otherwise).<br>
<br>
Disclaimer: I'm not a Myth developer, and barely play one on my MythTV.<br>
<br>
Have fun,<br>
<br>
Marc<br>
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</blockquote></div><br></div>