New post
0

captioning via textzone

Avatar
John Peel
None
Follow


We recently finished a small project for a museum where we had a switch to change from English to Spanish captions on the videos presented at each kiosk. We had a separate video file for each. When the user flipped the language selector switch during a video, the Brightsign would switch to the appropriate file and begin to play it. Several people expected the captions to change while the video continued, not for the videos to start over. That got me thinking about whether it would be possible to synchronize a text feed that would overlay the video and allow us to do just that. Captioning and accessibility are becoming big issues in the museum world. We currently end up building separate videos for each language we want to cover. It would be incredible if there was a way to offer multiple languages without building a file for each. You would establish the time code for each caption then just cut and paste the appropriate text in. Here in Texas, we usually offer English and Spanish but on a recent trip to New York, I was struck by the help desk at the Met, they had 10 or more languages covered. This would be a big deal for us, I'm curious what your thoughts are on this. Thanks, John Peel
Date Votes

33 comments

  • 0
    Avatar
    RokuLyndon


    We have done this in the past...I have a script originally created for the hd2000 but it needs to be modified for the newer models.

    Here's a link to the sample files

    Your text would look like this:


    00:00:00:00
    So, the team involves a variety of people
    00:00:04:23
    we often compare the actual excavation
    00:00:08:23
    to the building project of the pyramids
    00:00:11:18
    because you have people who direct the whole thing
    00:00:14:18
    you have to be sure, in ancient times
    00:00:17:04
    the right type of stone was delivered on the right day
    00:00:21:05
    for the right job
    00:00:23:06
    to all the supporting staff, um
    00:00:26:22
    and so we now have teams a little bit like that
    00:00:29:01
    we have a large group of archeologists
    00:00:32:08
    professional archeologists who,
    00:00:34:29
    specialists in just excavating and recording
    00:00:38:17
    then we have specialists for the material culture
    00:00:42:15
    so we have an arheobotanist, a zooarcheologist,
    00:00:47:01
    we a ceramacist and her team
    00:00:50:07
    an osteologist for the human burials
    00:00:54:09
    a person who just specializes in bones
    00:00:57:08
    um, human, animal bone and human  bone
    00:01:02:08


    So, it can definitely be done.
  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel


    I've got several videos to work on for our upcoming exhibit. It opens in 4 weeks or so.  I'd love to test this out on them.  We could have a toggle to switch feeds to a different language?  Even doing just a single language, this approach saves a lot of time.  We have a half a dozen of the HD2000s sitting around now, but more HD410s and HD210s.

    Thanks
  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel


    In your autorun.bas, I can see that the language change is tied to a button press, How is it implemented?  One button for each, or a toggle?  Which button?

    It looks very promising.
  • 0
    Avatar
    RokuLyndon


    Yes, the button toggles which set to strings are used so that the video doesn't have to restart. I don't tknow what your time frame is, but I don't have the time at the moment to rewrite this for the current units, but it can be done.
  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel


    I'm taking the longer view on this, it would be something we'd plan on incorporating into everything we do moving forward. From my viewpoint, its a major feature.  I'm sure you can do this kind of thing with a computer based presentation but that's pretty intimidating for most folks.  I've not seen anything like this here or at major museums across the country.  At your price point, it is doubly attractive. I'd love to discuss possibilities with you down the road when your schedule permits.

    In the meantime, I'm going to start working with the HD2000s I've got.  The sample files represent the card contents?

    Very cool

    John
  • 0
    Avatar
    Jesse Heinzen

    We also would be very interested in implementing this for closed captioning.  Can you send more information about how this is done with the latest models of BrightSign?

    Jesse Heinzen

    Minnesota History Center

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    We are on the edge of a large expansion so this question has come up again.  Any thoughts?

     

    Thanks as always

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

    You are using the older hd2000 or newer players? I have an updated script for the newer players that parses files and displayed text based on video timer events. 

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    I have a lot of HD410 units that I'd like to be able to use.  I also have 2 synchronized shows running on multiple HD210 players.  I don't have any of new HD120 units here although I have installed a few elsewhere.

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    Jesse Heinzen

    Can you please send that script to us as well for the newer players?  We have a new show opening in Nov which will be using several HD1020s and would like to be able to implement this.

  • 0
    Avatar
    Alex K.

    You have to rip the subtitles from a video, save them as a *.txt file. Then script can read text file with timecodes and text for the video. Here's a link to a simple example:

    https://www.brightsignnetwork.com/download/Tools/Subtitles.zip

    If you have one of the new units (HD120-HD1020), you should open autorun.brs file in text editor and change video mode to supported one mentioned in this faq:
    http://support.brightsign.biz/entries/21144687-what-video-resolutions-do-the-hd120-hd220-and-hd1020-support

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    The sample file works on my HD410  Let me look into it  some more!

    Is there a way to reposition the text box?  I have one show that is portrait.  Also to set out points so there can be periods of time without a box on the screen?  I'll look over the autorun, I haven't done that yet.  IT looks very good so far, thanks

    Jesse, I'd be curious to hear about your progress too, shoot me a note at john.peel at thestoryoftexas dot com

     

    John

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

    This part of the code sets the resolution to 1024x768. You can see the starting x and y coordinates are based on  the getsafex and safey functions. These are values that are supposed to be far enough in so that overscanning wouldn't affect them. But, you can change them. So, you can set x = 100, and y = 200, for example. You don't have to use the safex and y functions. 

     

    vm.SetMode("1024x768x75p")
    x = vm.GetSafeX()
    y = vm.GetSafeY()
    w = vm.GetSafeWidth()
    h = vm.GetSafeHeight()

    rect=CreateObject("roRectangle", x+10, y+h-90, w-20, 80)

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    I'm trying a variety of caption ripping utilities to generate an appropriate text file.  Attached is a sample

    Are you using a specific one?  I see that you don't have out points, just the next in point, so text would always be on the screen.

    So a few questions

    A way to use out points for each caption (text box is empty in between)

    A way to do 2 lines of text in the text box

    A way to use this in a portrait mode ( I have 4 installations where I could use this)

    I' will keep working with the sample files, I've got a semi working txt file but it is erratic.  are there any reserved characters like quotation marks that can't be used inside the body of text?

     

    Thanks

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

    Your text file should be formatted utf-8. I thought there was a program called subrip that could generate the appropriate files. 

     

    This line creates the widget:

    text=CreateObject("roTextWidget", rect, 2, 2, 0)

     

    In this line the first number after the rectangle is line count. So, it's set to 2 lines. You can put a longer string.

     

    For rotation we need to change that last value from zero to an array. That would allow potratit support. Plus, you may need to adjust the values for the rectangle. The rotation value goes from 0 - 3. You want either 1 for 90 degrees or 3 for 270 degrees.

     

    text=CreateObject("roTextWidget", rect, 2, 2, {rotation: "1"})

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    Quick comment,

    The text box is dynamic, no issues with 2 lines of text.  I'm alternating in points and out points as caption numbers leaving the out points empty to get an empty box in between so for the most part, it works well.

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    I'm having an issue with my subtitles.txt file. At start up, the player freezes just after drawing the text box.  I see a black screen with the shaded text box at the bottom.  Nothing from there.  When I substitute the sample "subtitles" file, the video starts normally.  I created the file in notepad and saved as UTF-8 and also tried saving in different text editors like ultraedit.  I'm attaching the files. I don't really see an obvious issue and would appreciate your input.  I've spent quite a bit of time on this today.  It's the last hurdle to getting some of these out on the floor.

     

    Thanks

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    Disregard previous subtitles.txt file.  I found some bad timings that I thought might be the culprit but after correcting them it still freezes as before.

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

    Looks like this line below is the culprit. It creates an array of 100 items. Your sub file has more than 100. Please change that value from 100 to 300 or 1000. 

     

    subtitles = CreateObject("roArray", 100, true)

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    That did the trick.  Thanks.  I also was missing a time code at the end of my subtitles file, it didn't like that.

     

    So from here, I can't just add this function into a BRS file created by BrightAuthor can I? 

    We have several scenarios for implementation here. 

    1, We alternate English and Spanish.

    2. We have an English, Spanish Switch with on the fly switching instead of restarting the video.

    3, For now, they shows just loop with English captions but I do need audio.

    4 I need integrate this into a 3 screen synchronized presentation with captions on the center screen. again, with audio.

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    Getting audio up will turn me loose on about 4 stations,

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    I tried adding the following to the autorun.bsp but to no avail.  v.SetAudioOutput(0)

     

    Clearly I'm missing something.  I'd appreciate a look

     

    Thanks,

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

    Can you attach the autorun that you modified? You are trying to set audio output to analog? Your video, what type of file is it? If it's a vob file, your audio might be ac3 and not mpeg.

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    The audio was AC3.  I converted to MPEG and have analog audio.  On my list for this morning was to check the audio on your sample file.  You beat me to the punch. Thanks!

    We'd like to integrate the captioning into the methodology you worked out for us in this post: http://support.brightsign.biz/entries/21159463-if-then-statements-for-english-spanish-switch

    We would have to integrate the caption brs into the attached one, correct? 

    I would also like to be able to use serial control at some point to start and stop the video.

    one thing at a time though.

     

    Thanks

     

    John

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

    ok, this is a brightauthor autorun. Are you using this with a brightauthor project?

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    Attached is the project file.  We used a separate video for each language.  We had a switch that would kick from one language to the other. 

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel

    This is the final version of the project file.  My appologies

  • 0
    Avatar
    Museum

    Hi John,

    Did you ever managed to get the subtitle plugin script to toggle on/off + multiple languages.
    I have been searching high and low for a solution but so far no luck.

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    John Peel
    Unfortunately we didnt. can you email me? I'd like to hear more about what you are doing. john.peel at thestoryoftexas.com I've got some other ideas
  • 0
    Avatar
    Romeo

    Hi Museum,

    It is possible to do what you're trying to achieve but (currently) it requires a different customisation for each project. If you submit a ticket to support@brightsign.biz with a link to download the video file and subtitle text file and a description of how you want this to work then we may be able to provide you with a solution.

    Regards,

    Romeo  

Please sign in to leave a comment.