CCExtractor

CCExtractor is an open source, portable, fast and completely free command-line software that can be used by anyone to effortlessly extract closed caption streams from MPEG and H264 video files.

In other words, the CCExtractor software lets you rip the raw closed caption (read: subtitles) data from a number of video type sources, such as DVD-Video, replay TV, most HDTV captures that lets you save the Transport Stream, bttv files, DVR-MS, Tivo files, and Dish Network files.

Command-line options

The program comes with a wide range of command-line options. To view them, as well as to view the usage message (helps you understand how to add the options and use the software to extract closed captions), run the ‘ccextractor’ or ‘ccextractor --help’ command in a Terminal app. The commands are organized in categories, such as network support, input formats, output formats, teletext, transcript, etc.

Getting started with CCExtractor

To install and use the CCExtractor software on your GNU/Linux operating system, you will have to first download the latest release from either Softoware or the project’s website, save the archive somewhere on your computer (preferably your Home folder), and unpack it.

Open a Terminal app and navigate to the “src” folder inside the extracted directory (e.g. cd /home/softoware/ccextractor.0.75/src). Run the ‘cmake .’ command to configure the program, followed by the ‘make’ command to compile it.

Finally, after a successful compilation process, install CCExtractor with the ‘sudo make install’ command. Use the program directly from the shell prompt by running the ‘ccextractor’ command (see the section above for available command-line options).

Runs on Linux, BSD, Windows and Mac

At the moment, it supports American TV captions (CEA-608 and CEA-708), as well as Teletext based European subtitles. CCExtractor is a cross-platform software that supports Linux, Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

What is new in this release:

• Fixed issue with teletext to other then srt.
• CCExtractor can be used as library if compiled using cmake
• By default the Windows version adds BOM to generated UTF files (this is because it's needed to open the files correctly) while all other builds don't add it (because it messes with text processing tools). You can use -bom and -nobom to change the behaviour.

What is new in version 0.79:

• Fixed issue with teletext to other then srt.
• CCExtractor can be used as library if compiled using cmake
• By default the Windows version adds BOM to generated UTF files (this is because it's needed to open the files correctly) while all other builds don't add it (because it messes with text processing tools). You can use -bom and -nobom to change the behaviour.

What is new in version 0.77:

• Fixed issue with teletext to other then srt.
• CCExtractor can be used as library if compiled using cmake
• By default the Windows version adds BOM to generated UTF files (this is because it's needed to open the files correctly) while all other builds don't add it (because it messes with text processing tools). You can use -bom and -nobom to change the behaviour.

What is new in version 0.76:

• Fixed issue with teletext to other then srt.
• CCExtractor can be used as library if compiled using cmake
• By default the Windows version adds BOM to generated UTF files (this is because it's needed to open the files correctly) while all other builds don't add it (because it messes with text processing tools). You can use -bom and -nobom to change the behaviour.

What is new in version 0.75:

• Fixed issue with teletext to other then srt.
• CCExtractor can be used as library if compiled using cmake
• By default the Windows version adds BOM to generated UTF files (this is because it's needed to open the files correctly) while all other builds don't add it (because it messes with text processing tools). You can use -bom and -nobom to change the behaviour.

What is new in version 0.67:

• This version adds UDP multicast support, bugfixes, and some minor features.

What is new in version 0.66:

• This version added the ability to auto-detect packets with CC data, several bugfixes, improved PAT/PMT output, and improved multi-program transport stream support.
• XDS support was extended with Content Advisory information and Copy Management information.
• Teletext code was updated.
• There were several other minor improvements.

What is new in version 0.64:

• Changed Window GUI size (larger).
• Added Teletext options to GUI.
• Added -teletext to force teletext mode even if not detected
• Added -noteletext to disable teletext detection. This can be needed for streams that have both 608 data and teletext packets if you need to process the 608 data (if teletext is detected it will take precedence otherwise).
• Added -datapid to force a specific elementary stream to be used for data (bypassing detections).
• Added -ru2 and -ru3 to limit the number of visible lines in roll-up captions (bypassing whatever the broadcast says).
• Added support for a .hex (hexadecimal) dump of data.
• Added support for wtv in Windows. This is done by using a new program (wtvccdump.exe) and a new DirectShow filter (CCExtractorDump.dll) that process the .wtv using DirecShow's filters and export the line 21 data to a .hex file. The GUI calls wtvccdump.exe as needed.
• Added --nogoptime to force PTS timing even when CCExtractor would use GOP timing otherwise.

What is new in version 0.63:

• Teletext support has been added.
• Bugfixes.
• Work on CEA-708.
• Better Hauppauge format support.

What is new in version 0.60:

• MP4 support has been added.
• The Windows version was writing text files with double \r.
• Closed captions blocks with no data could cause a crash.
• -noru (to generate files without duplicate lines in roll-up) was broken, with complete lines being missing.
• bin format was not working as input.

What is new in version 0.56:

• Added support for H.264

What is new in version 0.53:

• Force generated RCWT files to have the same length as source file.
• Fix documentation for -startat / -endat switches.
• Make -startat / -endat work with all output formats.
• Fix sync check for raw/rcwt files.
• Improve timing of dvr-ms NTSC captions.
• Add -in=bin switch to read CCExtractor's own binary format.
• Fix problem with short input files (smaller 1MB).
• Clean up regular and debug output.
• Add --no_progress_bar switch to help readability of redirected output.
• Add -out=bin switch to write RCWT data.
• Remove -bo/--bufferoutput switch and functionality.
• [Volker] Added new generic binary format (RCWT for Raw Captions With Time). This new format allows one file to contain all the available closed caption data instead of just one stream.
• Added --no_progress_bar to disable status information (mostly used when debugging, as the progress information is annoying in the middle of debug logs).
• The Windows GUI was reported to freeze in some conditions. Fixed.
• The Windows GUI is now targeted for .NET 2.0 instead of 3.5. This allows Windows 2000 to run it (there's not .NET 3.5 for Windows 2000), as requested by a couple of key users.

What is new in version 0.52:

• Support was added for frontends, which can now get realtime status information.
• The Windows GUI was rewritten.
• DVR-MS support was improved.
• Clean-up was finished.

What is new in version 0.50:

• [Volker] Fix in DVR-MS NTSC timing
• [Volker] More clean-up
• Minor fixes

What is new in version 0.49:

• [Volker] Major MPEG parser rework. Code much cleaner now.
• Some stations transmit broken roll-up captions, and for some reason don't send CRs but RUs... Added work-around code to make captions readable.
• Started work on EIA-708 (DTV). Right now you can add -debug-708 to get a dump of the 708 data. An actually useful decoder will come soon.
• Some of the changes MIGHT HAVE BROKEN MythTV's code. I don't use MythTV myself so I rely on other people's samples and reports. If MythTV is broken please let me know.
• Added new debug options.
• Other minor bugfixes and changes.

What is new in version 0.46:

• This release adds support for live streaming (it can now process files that are being recorded at the same time).
• It adds a new DVR-MS loop so that it no longer uses the generic MPEG code for DVR-MS.
• DVR-MS should (or will eventually, at least) be as reliable as TS.

What is new in version 0.45:

• A lot of work in DVR-MS support: fixes for issues in the MEPG code, the addition of autodetection, a force mode, and more.
• An updated Windows GUI.
• An option to allow long GOPs (many frames in the same GOP) for timing.
• Minor bugfixes.

What is new in version 0.44:

• This release adds an option to the GUI to process individual files in batch, i.e. call ccextractor once per file.
• It adds an option to prevent duplicate lines in roll-up captions.
• There are several minor bugfixes.
• The GUI has been updated to add the new options.