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subtitles on FTA broadcasts - newby info?

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RobertL

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Mar 20, 2008, 11:04:42 AM3/20/08
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On analogue terrestrial TV we make a lot of use of subtitles/captions
on text page 888. However, those same channels (BBC etc) broadcast
of satellite do not seem to carry the text pages. At least my cheap
FTA receiver (a Fortec Star Beta) does not seem to do it.

Is there a standard way in which subtitling is sent on FTA
satellite?

Can someone suggest a good tutorial on the subject?

thank you,

Robert

Jan Panteltje

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Mar 20, 2008, 11:21:56 AM3/20/08
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On a sunny day (Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:04:42 -0700 (PDT)) it happened RobertL
<rober...@yahoo.com> wrote in
<1e2ccc58-a593-4be3...@i29g2000prf.googlegroups.com>:

>
>On analogue terrestrial TV we make a lot of use of subtitles/captions
>on text page 888. However, those same channels (BBC etc) broadcast
>of satellite do not seem to carry the text pages. At least my cheap
>FTA receiver (a Fortec Star Beta) does not seem to do it.
>
>Is there a standard way in which subtitling is sent on FTA
>satellite?

They are send on a different PID in the transport stream:

show: selected program=bbc1
show: using astra2
Read 44 bytes - Found 8 services
Found program number 0
Found program number 6301
Program number: 6301 PMT pid: 261 (0x105)
pid 5000 (0x1388) video type is mpeg2
Language = eng pid 5001 (0x1389)
Language = NAR pid 5002 (0x138a)
setting PIDS for program number 6301 (0x189d):
video_pid=5000 (0x1388)
found 2 audio channels, pid: 5001 (0x1389) 5002 (0x138a)
selected_audio_pid=5001 (0x1389) language=eng
no ac3 pid found
teletext_pid=5003 (0x138b)
found 7 subtitle channels, pid: 2306 (0x902) 2307 (0x903) 2308 (0x904) 2309 (0x905) 2311 (0x907) 2313 (0x909) 2314 (0x90a)

I dunno if all these PIDs are really subtitles, or even if all are used.


>Can someone suggest a good tutorial on the subject?

I _did_ know how it worked, you need a tutorial on digital TV and the ETSI docs.

There are programs around that will decode and display the subtitles in case of a sat PCI card,
like for Linux mplayer (should so it?), and ffmpeg too?

If all this sounds like Greek to you, then forget it anyways, I am sure modern receivers can
do the subs (I hope).

DarthVader

Miles Collins

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Mar 20, 2008, 1:48:30 PM3/20/08
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* RobertL:

> On analogue terrestrial TV we make a lot of use of subtitles/captions
> on text page 888. However, those same channels (BBC etc) broadcast
> of satellite do not seem to carry the text pages. At least my cheap
> FTA receiver (a Fortec Star Beta) does not seem to do it.
>
I frequently watch subtitles on page 888 on BBC Yorks & stv (ITV Scotland)
but not e.g. ITV Granada, so it certainly is transmitted on some channels.

The Fortec star beta has "Teletext supported by OSD and VBI" according to their
website,
so VBI means you should be able to use the text function of your TV set, if the
inbuilt "OSD"
variant doesn't work.
I have had hanging VBI-processes happen occasionally with different receivers even
though everything else seemed fine. This could be cured by a reboot.

HTH, Miles

Broadback

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Mar 21, 2008, 4:35:15 AM3/21/08
to
Subtitle rendering is down to your satellite receiver. I use a Topfield,
that renders all sub titles perfectly, however the previous receiver I
had (sorry forgotten the make) was OK for BBC mainly worked on ITV and
was useless on Channels 4 and 5. I spent ages trying to bottom
this,never did get it straight in my little brain. :-(

Demonic

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Mar 21, 2008, 2:46:12 PM3/21/08
to
Although the BBC have ditched conventional teletext on their digital
channels they still send a cut down version with subtitles on Page 888.

The same subtitles are also available in the digital version but the UK
uses a non-standard version of it that is not available on international
STBs due to the need to buy a special licence to distribute the s/w.

Dem

RobertL

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Apr 9, 2008, 10:38:51 AM4/9/08
to
> > this,never did get it straight in my little brain. :-(- Hide quoted text -


rather belateldly, thank you all for your helpful discussion of this.
I'll play some more woth the Fortec Star beta (FSB). I did at one
point manage to get the teletext pages displayed twice, one via my TV
and at the same time (slightly shofted sideways) as part of the video
image generated by the FSB. I did try 88 but got nothing. Maybe it
was a an unlucky choice of programme.

Robert

MJ Ray

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Apr 10, 2008, 7:00:43 AM4/10/08
to
RobertL <rober...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> point manage to get the teletext pages displayed twice, one via my TV
> and at the same time (slightly shofted sideways) as part of the video
> image generated by the FSB. I did try 88 but got nothing. Maybe it
> was a an unlucky choice of programme.

I think the BBC indicate subtitled programmes with a [S] in the EPG
data. Many (most?) are subtitled. There's also listings for BBC-1
and -2 in teletext on BBC-1 London and BBC-2 England.

BBC World carries the UK News on teletext page 101 on most broadcasts.

Hope that helps,
--
MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Cycling on Satellite TV: http://www.cyclingfans.net/satellite
Free Sat TV FAQ: http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2006/astefaq
Webmaster cooperative @ WsM, Somerset http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

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