Tvheadend

What are you watching the stream on?

Hi,
I'm using XBMC (Openelec) to watch the recorded streams.
Yours Tolotos

When a video is playing, call up the on-screen menu, go to audio, and you can switch off the subtitles there. If you scroll down, there's also the option to make it the default for all videos.

Thank you thats the trick. I asked in a XBMC forum and they said no chance - the subtitles are rendered into the video pictures.

A strange response... the subtitles are a separate stream in the container, alongside audio and video. They're only rendered in if they're "forced" (e.g. such as when someone's speaking in a language other than that of the main dialogue).

I didn't see the XBMC post over there - can you point me to it, please, and I'll have a look. Thanks.

It was in a german forum: http://www.xbmcnerds.com/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=33751

Ah, that explains why I didn't see it on xbmc.org :-)

No, reading that thread I don't agree with the responses - to say that "subtitles... are generally not recorded" isn't the case if you're using a .ts container, my experience is that everything gets recorded - that's the point of the .ts (Transport Stream). The easiest way is open the file in VLC or mediainfo - both will tell you the different streams, including all audio (e.g. DEU for German and NAR for audio description) and the subtitles.

They don't come from teletext, however, since (assuming I remember my ancient history :-) ) that's an analogue signal that was embedded in the lines our TVs didn't used to display (e.g. 640 broadcast, 625 displayed). They're actually part of the DVB standard, so appear as DVB subtitles in the broadcast stream, e.g.

Yaffle your right and they are right too. in continental Europe they work both ways.

The Discovery channel that is broadcast multiple times to multiple countries in Europe uses hard coded subs (burned into video image) for any program that is in English. I have seen this in many places.

your best option is to check the subtitles in xbmc to see if they can be switched off. when the stream is playing press T (keyboard shortcut) and that will switch subtitles on and off, if they stay after pressing that button or show as none then they are hard coded.

What channel?
is this Satellite, cable or terrestrial?

It's the german ZDF HD channel over cable (KabelBW).
I can switch the subtitles off in XBMC.