cc_decoder

ccDecoder is a Python Closed Caption Decoder/Extractor
Presented by Max Smith and notonbluray.com

Python 2.7+ and Python 3 compatible

Public domain / Unlicense per license section below
But attribution is always appreciated where possible.

My primary goal of this project was to extract subtitles from my Laserdisc collection (mostly simple
pop-on mode). I've tried to cover as much of the Closed Caption
spec as possible, but I am limited by a shortage of
test-cases. I would love to get it working on some more exotic captions (i.e. roll-up, XDS, ITV) but
really need some sample media to work with. If you have media that has these more exotic captions -
please drop me a line via my website (notonbluray.com)

Usage

$ cc_decoder.py somevideofile.mpg >> somevideofile.srt                  # Extract subtitles in SRT format
$ cc_decoder.py --ccformat scc somevideofile.mpg >> somevideofile.scc   # Extract subtitles in SCC format
$ cc_decoder.py --ccformat xds somevideofile.mpg >> somevideofile.txt   # Extract XDS information

Performance

About 10-20x realtime on my i7 machine. Primarily limited by FFMpeg
throughput.

A Few Notes

There are two scripts that make up this tool: A command line interface (cc_decoder) and a library
file (lib.cc_decode).

The library makes the assumption that a stream of images are passed to it that have closed caption
data embedded in the top. It also assumes that the images are wrapped in a object which will provide
standardized access to it. The library has minimal dependencies, and may be useful for an embedded
project.

The command line interface has many dependencies including PIL
(Pillow) and FFmpeg. Excellent builds of
FFMpeg are available at http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

If you use the command line tool - it's worth providing it with access to a fast temporary area for
writing data to, by default it will use the system default temporary area, which may share space
with your OS.