[FFmpeg-devel] DVB Subtitles

Reimar Döffinger Reimar.Doeffinger at gmx.de
Wed Dec 4 16:25:00 CET 2013


On Wed, Dec 04, 2013 at 03:57:14PM +0100, Reimar Döffinger wrote:
> On 04.12.2013, at 14:37, JULIAN GARDNER <joolzg at btinternet.com> wrote:
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: Reimar Döffinger <Reimar.Doeffinger at gmx.de>
> >> To: FFmpeg development discussions and patches <ffmpeg-devel at ffmpeg.org>
> >> Cc: 
> >> Sent: Wednesday, 4 December 2013, 14:10
> >> Subject: Re: [FFmpeg-devel] DVB Subtitles
> >> 
> >> On Wed, Dec 04, 2013 at 12:26:15PM +0000, JULIAN GARDNER wrote:
> >>>   So as you see the canvas is being set to 1280x720 where as the subtitles 
> >> are sized for a 720x576 screen.
> >>>   >>2013-12-04_11:44:10.28027 [mpegts @ 0x3231f80] sub2video: using 
> >> 1280x720 canvas
> >>> 
> >>>   There is no DDS so the subtitles are draw in the top left corner and when 
> >> overlayed over the live video are in the wrong place and small compared to the 
> >> video.
> >>> 
> >>>   So my 1st idea is to change the way we set the canvas size, in this case it 
> >> would be based on 720x576 as there is no DDS.
> >> 
> >> Unfortunately my experience from MPlayer is that this will most likely
> >> break many streams.
> >> I don't know whether that is a sample with or without DDS (nor if it
> >> maybe specifies the size correctly in the stream properties), so it might
> >> not quite demonstrate my point, but if you create any patch make sure it
> >> will not break http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/sub/largeres_vobsub.mkv
> >> Remuxing that one to MPEG-TS and checking it still plays correctly might
> >> be a good idea, too.
> >> I'll tell you if I manage to find any other samples.
> >> But in principle the assumption of missing DDS -> use video size as
> >> canvas size seems more reasonable to me than assuming it to be in SD
> >> resolution (again, who creates HD content with SD subtitles? That must
> >> look like crap).
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> ffmpeg-devel at ffmpeg.org
> >> http://ffmpeg.org/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-devel
> >> 
> > 
> > I think the assumption is wrong on your part. DDS was added later to the DVBSubtitle spec to help fix this exact problem, it was not part of the 1st spec i worked with.
> 
> That isn't very relevant if the DDS was added before HD streams became common IMHO.
> 
> > All the DVBsubtitle engines i have used base their osd drawing on a standard screen UNLESS DDS is included.
> 
> That is a good argument. I confused myself thinking of DVD instead of DVB subtitles, I have a hard time to keep them apart, sorry.
> 
> > Read Appendix B of http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_en/300700_300799/300743/01.03.01_60/en_300743v010301p.pdf
> > 
> > This being the one that pertains to this problem
> > 
> > "b) DVB subtitles for an HDTV service where the on-screen graphics display is standard definition (720 by 576) 
> > and is upconverted by the receiver before being overlaid on the HDTV video image:"
> > 
> > The spec talks in terms of "standard definition" which is what is taken as default if no DDS is present
> 
> I still find it silly to both have a HD stream _and_ not have subtitles in HD _and_ not include a DDS, it seems really crappy way to do it.
> Still, at least the specs seems quite clear to me (though personally I think they should have strongly recommended including a DDS at least for HD streams where backwards-compatibility should not be much of an issue).
> I think that means that our decoder should set width/height to 720x576 unless it finds a DDS.
> Even that still leaves the d) case unhandled though (lower resolution subtitles that should be displayed on the bottom centre instead of scaled), but that would probably be more messy.
> Or does anyone think differently?

Unfortunately the decoder is even more broken:
    if (!avctx->width || !avctx->height) {
        avctx->width  = display_def->width;
        avctx->height = display_def->height;
    }

This means if we start out with one DDS but then the DDS changes to something else,
the context width/height will not be updated.
The problem is: we'd really want to have probing to scan for a DDS and
set the right values. However probing stops as soon as we set width/height.
So how can we default to a 720x576 width/height while still having probing
continue until a DDS is found or the limit is reached?
Does anyone know how this should be working?


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