[FFmpeg-user] VDR recording - dvd subtitle track not decoded

[Richard F]

On 15/09/2015 09:06, Moritz Barsnick wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 22:45:54 +0200, Henk D. Schoneveld wrote:
>> VDR file format isn’t compliant to any ‘real’ standard, so I don’t
>> think you’ll find a solution here. Just my 2 cents.
> I think this is the core of the problem. VDR "documentation" (some
> forums and wikis were all I could find) says that this old format is
> "MPEG PES", ffmpeg identifies it as "mpeg" (i.e. MPEG program stream)
> with low score. I wonder if there is a specification/description of
> this format, or whether one has to look at the old VDR sources to
> understand it.
Yes, the sources are most probably the most accurate way.
But ffprobe lists the stream contents as shown below
I was hoping somebody would spot something in there that's stopping it
decoding

[STREAM]
index=3
codec_name=dvdsub
codec_long_name=DVD subtitles
profile=unknown
codec_type=subtitle
codec_time_base=0/1
codec_tag_string=[0][0][0][0]
codec_tag=0x0000
width=N/A
height=N/A
id=0x20
r_frame_rate=0/0
avg_frame_rate=0/0
time_base=1/90000
start_pts=263121610
start_time=2923.573444
duration_ts=1130656
duration=12.562844
bit_rate=N/A
max_bit_rate=N/A
bits_per_raw_sample=N/A
nb_frames=N/A
nb_read_frames=N/A
nb_read_packets=N/A
DISPOSITION:default=0
DISPOSITION:dub=0
DISPOSITION:original=0
DISPOSITION:comment=0
DISPOSITION:lyrics=0
DISPOSITION:karaoke=0
DISPOSITION:forced=0
DISPOSITION:hearing_impaired=0
DISPOSITION:visual_impaired=0
DISPOSITION:clean_effects=0
DISPOSITION:attached_pic=0
[/STREAM]


It's frustrating that ffmpeg is close but not close enough!
> You could then hack a workaround in ffmpeg (or some other demuxer) to
> get better access to the subs, but I doubt it would go upstream. ;-)
>
> Have you looked at VDR-specific tools such as vdrconvert and vdrsync?
> (I found something else yesterday which explicitly claims to support
> the old PES files, but can't recall what that was.)
Yes - once I build tcmplex from some ancient Mandriva sources....

Vdrsync ignores stream type BD (subs), but it still works despite its age.
Perhaps with a perl hat on and many wet flannels, the stream could be
extracted.

Any more help gratefully received
> Moritz
>