[mythtv-users] Storage Groups and Subtitles

[Raymond Wagner]

On 12/17/2010 10:25, Andy wrote:
> 1. mythvideo will not display subtitles for mp4 videos.  I can get the 
> same mp4 video to display subtitles in VLC.  These mp4 files are 
> created with handbrake to back up DVDs that I own.  I was under the 
> impression that mythvideo in 0.24 would correct this problem.  Did I 
> miss something or was I misinformed?

MythTV will play any text subtitles with the same filename and path, but 
with an '.srt' extension.  This is supported for both locally accessed 
files and those accessed over storage groups. I am unaware of the state 
of support for subtitles embedded in mp4 containers.

> 2. I cannot change the subtitle font in mythvideo.  While the white is 
> better than the yellow, the font is still not ideal.  Changing the 
> font under Playback OSD only seems to change the closed captioning 
> font in TV (live or recorded) but not the subtitle font in mythvideo.  
> Is there a way to change the subtitle font in 0.24?

When you rip subtitles from a DVD, either you get the bitmapped 
subtitles directly, or you run OCR software (which includes some time 
consuming training) to covert the subtitles to text.  Bitmapped 
subtitles are... bitmaps, images.  You cannot change the font or color.  
If you have text subtitles without running OCR, then that means you have 
ripped out the closed caption feed, which is really something entirely 
different from subtitles.

> 3. I linked my video files directly to my remote frontend using SMB 
> fileshares so that I can use VLC to correctly display subtitles with 
> adjustable fonts.  When I disable storage groups, I can view my videos 
> on the frontend, but I cannot view my videos in mythweb.  When I 
> re-enable storage groups, I have 2 of every video (one that will play 
> in VLC and one that will not).  I have tried to mark the "storage 
> group" version as non-browsable, but they all still show up.  Is there 
> a solution to this? 

MythVideo has been migrating over to storage groups for the last three 
revision.  Currently, MythWeb and the Python bindings only support 
MythVideo content over storage groups.  They cannot be used with local 
content.  External players cannot be used with storage group content, 
because external players do not know how to process myth:// URIs.

Since MythTV 0.23, MythVideo uses hashes to uniquely identify videos.  
It is not possible for a video to exist twice in the database.  The only 
possible way you could have duplicate entries is if you got yourself 
into Browse mode, in which case you are browsing the defined video paths 
directly, rather than working off the scanned media library.