CCExtractor 0.82

Rips closed captions in raw format from DVD and DVB/ATSC MPG files

ccextractor is a fast, easy to use closed captions extractor for MPEG files and not only. Supports HDTV transport streams, DVD and Replay TV.

In short ccextractor is a small program that processes MPEG 2 files and extracts closed captions data to generate subtitle files.

You can use this program to create .srt (subtitles) files for your TV captures, have transcripts so you can edit subtitles, etc.

You can pass as many input files as you need. They will be processed in order.
Output will be one single file (either raw or srt). Use this if you made your
recording in several cuts (to skip commercials for example) but you want one
subtitle file with contiguous timing.

What's the point of generating separate files for subtitles, if they are already in the source file?

There are several reasons to have subtitles separated from the video file, including:
· Closed captions never survive MPEG processing. If you take a MPEG file and encode it to any format (such as divx), your result file will not have closed captions. This means that if you want to keep the subtitles, you need to keep the original file. This is hardly practical if you are archiving HDTV shows for example.
· Subtitles files are small - so small (around 250 Kb for a movie) that you can quickly download them, or email them, etc, in case you have a recording without subtitles.
· Subtitles files are indexable: You can have a database with all your subtitles if you want (there are many available), so you can search the dialogs.
· Subtitles files are a de-facto standard: Almost every player can use them. In fact, many setbox players accept subtitles files in .srt format - so you can have subtitles in your divx movies and not just in your original DVDs.
· Closed captions are stored in many different formats by capture cards. Upgrading to a new card, if it comes with a new player, may mean that you can't use your previously recorded closed captions, even if the audio/video are fine.
· Closed captions require a closed caption decoder. All US TV have one (it's a legal requirement), but no European TV does, since there are not closed captions in Europe (teletext is used instead). Basically this means that if you buy a DVD in the US which has closed captions but no DVD subtitles, you are out of luck. This is a problem with many (most) old TV shows DVDs, which only come with closed captions. DVD producers don't bother doing DVD subs, since it's another way to segment the market, same as with DVD regions.

What kind of files can I extract closed captions from?

CCExtractor currently handles:
· DVDs.
· Most HDTV captures (where you save the Transport Stream).
· Captures where captions are recorded in bttv format. The number of cards that use this card is huge. My test samples came from a Hauppage PVR-250. You can check the complete list here.
· DVR-MS (microsoft digital video recording).

Usually, if you record a TV show with your capture card and CCExtractor produces the expected result, it will work for your all recordings. If it doesn't, which means that your card uses a format CCExtractor can't handle, please contact me and we'll try to make it work.