Tag Archives: XDS

Better Closed Caption Decoding in Python

I’ve just pushed out an improved version of my Closed Caption decoder to GitHub. In addition to decoding closed captions to SRT or SCC formats, it includes the following improvements:

  • XDS packet decoding
  • Improved handling of noisy and non-standard video
  • More complete handling of esoteric characters
  • Much easy to use in embedded projects due to separation into core library
  • A few performance improvements
  • Pre-built command line version for windows (PyInstaller generated)

The software is entirely public domain – so feel free to use it in your own projects.

You’ll still need FFMpeg installed – but effortless static builds for windows can be found here. I’ll try and get an OSX binary built in the next few days.

I’d still like to move the project further forwards still – but I really need ‘real-world’ closed-caption samples to make it happen. If you are interested in decoding closed captions, and would like to see this tool improved, please reach out to me: we may be able to help each other.