Closed captions not working on LiveTV

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#:1.14.1
Player Version#:6.2.4
I’m not sure if this is a bug, or just some new way to turn captions on that I’m not aware of, but…
I cannot get closed captions on LiveTV using HDHomeRun Prime with Roku Preview player.
I have confirmed that “Roku Captions Mode” is “On” and Streams -> Subtitles -> EIA_608 (whatever that means) is set. But no captions appear on screen.

I know the stream has captions in it because they appear when I play the same channel stream with VLC player and turn on close caption stream 1.

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Some additional data. I have 2 Ubuntu Plex servers running server version 1.14.1. One server uses a Hauppauge WinTV dualHD USB tuner. The other uses HDHomeRun Prime.

Closed captions work through the server with the WinTV dualHD
Closed caption do NOT work through the server with HDHomeRun Prime.

I tuned to the same channel on each tuner (WinTV OTA, HDHomeRun is cable) to verify.

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I just re-tested with Roku Preview version 6.2.5 and I see the same bug.
-I play an ATSC OTA channel from WinTV dualHD via Plex I can see closed caption subtitles.
-I play the same channel on HDHomeRun Prime (cable) via Plex there are NO closed captions.
-I play the same channel on HDHomeRun Prime with VLC I DO see closed captions.

So, Plex appears to have a bug in closed caption playback from an HDHomeRun Prime source. Any users, or ninjas or Plex support staff care to assist? I can provide logs or perform other experiments to isolate, but it seems pretty easy to reproduce.

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And closed captions are still NOT working on 6.3.0 from HDHomeRun Prime.

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FWIW, I’m using Roku Preview 6.3.0 with HD HomeRun Prime (on an Extend) and my Mac Mini Plex server (1.14.1.5488). I am seeing CC subtitles from both OTA and Prime sources.

In Plex settings, I have Roku Captions Mode “ON” and Burn Subtitles “Automatic”.

Dashboard indicates video is being transcoded in hardware.

Anything you would like me to check?

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First, thank you very much for your reply. I’ve been at a loss on this for some time as my “solo thread” here indicates.

I too have Roku captions mode on, burn subtitles automatic, transcoding in hardware, PMS 1.14.1.5488, Roku Preview 6.3.0. I can also see subtitles when I select my OTA Ubuntu server.

But when I select my HDHomeRun Prime server (Comcast cable and Ubuntu 18.04) there are no subtitles. If I use VLC media player directly accessing the HDHomeRun channel I do get CC, so I know the subtitles are present in the stream.

I think that means the only remaining culprit is Ubuntu 18.04 PMS instead of your Mac Mini? But my OTA server is also Ubuntu 18.04. This is really a mystery. What does “(on an Extend)” mean in your reply above?

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Ah ha! Thanks @bobketcham. You didn’t fix it, but your reply certainly helped to further isolate a probable bug. I turned off hardware transcoding on my Ubuntu 18.04 (PMS 1.14.1) server with Intel i5-8400 and HDHomeRun CC subtitles have appeared!

So, I guess that’s something.

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An HD HomeRun Extend is a model of the HD HomeRun Tuners that has transcoding to h264 built-into its hardware. I can also get MPEG-2 directly from it,

One reason that I might be getting the subtitles via my Mac Mini’s hardware transcoding it that it is doing an H264 to H264 hardware transcode.

Edit: was also going to mention that I am aware you can stream MPEG-2 streams directly to some models of Roku, but I don’t have that fired up yet. I think I have failed to set my video quality to “original”.

Glad you found a solution or a workaround whichever you consider it to be.

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I’ve always noticed that hardware acceleration with intel quicksync has removed ability to use CC with a hauppauge card. Probably similar situation when your hd homerun does the conversion to h264 for you.

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Just tested this with the 1.15.1.710 server version, previously I would have to turn off HW transcoding to have this work, it now switches to mpeg2 -> 264 with burned it subtitles. Guess it also helps that it isn’t transcoding ac3 to aac anymore.

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AFAIK my HDHomeRun Prime is not doing (and not capable of) any video conversion. The only hardware transcoding that I enable/disable is in my Intel i5-8500 CPU. When I disable HW transcode I can see subtitles, when I enable HW transcode subtitles disappear.

And if I directly view an HDHomeRun stream with VLC I see subtitles. So, I think HDHomeRun is actually not a problem. It’s Intel HW transcode and/or Plex’s control of that feature that have a problem.

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So, sounds like it may be fixed in 1.15.1 then? That would be great news. Can’t wait for it to leave beta.

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I have added the server-linux tag to this thread, because the problem is on Ubuntu PMS, not roku player as I originally thought.

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I have removed the tag because this isn’t Linux specific.
It is LiveTV/DVR specific.

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I have a .ts file that demonstrates the bug on playback from a library. So, that would seem to rule out LiveTV/DVR specificity. Should I start a new thread?

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Yes but is still part of DVR/TV. It is “Plex Features” and is also platform agnostic.

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It seems like 1.15 is about to go Public “real soon now”. I’ll wait for that version before I push this further. Nobody wants to hunt down 1.14 bugs right now :slight_smile:
thanks @ChuckPa.

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And the problem continues. I’m now running roku player 6.3.2.5616 and plex linux server at 1.15.1.791.

When I play live TV with hardware transcoding there are no subtitles. If I turn off hardware transcoding subtitles appear. This work around is fine for me, for now. But are there any plans to fix this bug?

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