[mythtv-users] HD-PVR: unfortunately, closed-captioning is a deal-breaker

[jedi]

On Sat, Apr 04, 2009 at 09:54:27AM -0700, Jim Stichnoth wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 10:01 PM, Marc Barrett <mnealbarrett at cox.net> wrote:
> > I have held off buying an HD-PVR because the lack of
> > closed-captioning is a real deal-breaker for me.  I saw a
> > little blurb somewhere on the Hauppauge site that said
> > that they may add it in the future.  Would anyone know
> > of a tech support e-mail address at Hauppauge so I can
> > let them know that I am holding off buying one until they
> > address closed-captioning support?
> 
> >From what I read, the main problem is that there is no VBI-like
> standard for sending closed caption data over component outputs.  The
> workaround is to configure the STB to render the captions on the
> screen.  Of course this means the text will be "burned in" to the myth
> file (which may not be a problem for many).  One might even configure

...actually this is a very useful suggestion. I was pondering this very
problem myself. Captions are very important in terms of the WAF and late
night viewing. We always have them on, so it's not a big problem if they
are a part of the recordings. We don't "save" stuff. 

Something else: The driver has improved dramatically. When I first started
using it (pretty much after it was first released), it wasn't possible to
do "live TV" with it such that you could reconfigure your cable box with
it. This was a bit cumbersome as it required moving the box to a real TV
for tweaking the STB. The recent versions of the driver work well enough
as in a "live TV" mode that this no longer possible.

Now I only have to worry about figuring out the UI of the STB menus... '-)

> the channel-changing script to turn captions on/off on a per-channel
> basis.
> 
> I wonder what Hauppauge has in mind for captions.

BTW, does anyone know if there's a way to turn captions on and off using
the DTV serial control program? Switching the captions on and off on a
per channel or per show basis could be very useful.