RealPlayer's 3GPP/MPEG-4 Text handling working?

[bond]

as i sniffed through the helix cvs recently i saw that there is an entry dealing with 3gpp text streams, so i thought i give it a try in realplayer

as 3gpp text in .3gp is basically the same as mpeg-4 timed text in .mp4 i tried a bunch of samples i create with the mp4box .mp4 creator able to write such text streams in .mp4 (as discussed here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=86050))

but when i play the samples in rp i dont get a picture (altough i have the mpeg-4 video plugin installed and the streams are simple profile) and also no text gets displayed (a sp-video-only file gets displayed correctly)

when i look at the clip proprities i see the following:
Stream: 0 Video Track
MIME type: video/X-RN-MP4
Max Stream Bit Rate: 295.0 Kbps
Avg Stream Bit Rate: 148.2 Kbps

Stream: 1 Text Track
MIME type: video/X-RN-3GPP-TEXT
Avg Stream Bit Rate: 0.0 Kbpsso rp seems to detect the text stream, also the first time i tried to play such a file i had to download the 3gpp plugin, which propably includes the text handler i assume

i uploaded a sample here (http://www.8ung.at/bond/timedtext_mp4box.zip)

[karl_lillevold]

Sorry, I don't know... Helix Player is more up to date with the latest Helix code, so I would ask the guys on https://player.helixcommunity.org/ in their discussion forum:
https://helixcommunity.org/forum/?group_id=154

[bond]

ok, if anyone is interested i know now what causes the problems in realplayer, its a combination of two things:

1) realplayer doesnt display any subs (excluding after seeking), when the first text sample doesnt start at 00:00:00.000, if the first sample starts at a later time than right at the beginning, realplayer doesnt display the subs.
2) also the first sample has to contain text and isnt allowed to be empty as realplayer stops displaying subs once it gets an empty subsample, eg if you want message 1 to be displayed from second 0-5, after that nothing to be displayed from sec 5-10, and after that another message from sec 10-15 (very common on movie subtitles!!), realplayer will not display any sub anymore after the empty one in sec 5-10

my samples started right away at 00:00:00.000 with an empty text sample, thats why realplayer didnt display any sub

i told the real devs already, i hope they will fix it soon :)

[Elias]

When I ran Linux, I tried the latest Helix player and an mp4 file with 3GPP Timed Text, it didn't support either one of them very well.

[bond]

what does "not very well" mean?

[Elias]

what does "not very well" mean?It just didn't work. It didn't play the MPEG-4 file nor did it display the subtitles in it. Perhaps the Linux version of RealPlayer is inferior to the Windows one, I don't know. I just never got it to work.

[bond]

elias, did the samples you tested have anything of this:

ok, if anyone is interested i know now what causes the problems in realplayer, its a combination of two things:

1) realplayer doesnt display any subs (excluding after seeking), when the first text sample doesnt start at 00:00:00.000, if the first sample starts at a later time than right at the beginning, realplayer doesnt display the subs.
2) also the first sample has to contain text and isnt allowed to be empty as realplayer stops displaying subs once it gets an empty subsample, eg if you want message 1 to be displayed from second 0-5, after that nothing to be displayed from sec 5-10, and after that another message from sec 10-15 (very common on movie subtitles!!), realplayer will not display any sub anymore after the empty one in sec 5-10

my samples started right away at 00:00:00.000 with an empty text sample, thats why realplayer didnt display any sub

i told the real devs already, i hope they will fix it soon :)also the compile you used was made from source from what date?

[Elias]

elias, did the samples you tested have anything of this:

also the compile you used was made from source from what date?I don't think it did. If you're interested in trying it out, just install Xandros Linux. It wasn't compiled, it came along with Xandros. To be honest, the Xandros Linux version of RealPlayer was even worse than the Windows version when it came to playing audio/video. Although, it wasn't full of loads of shitty banners and advertising and spyware like the Windows version is. Anyway, you should have asked me these questions three months back or something, because I'm on Windows now :)

By the way: in RealPlayer on Linux, I could play 3gp files with h.263 video and amr audio. I never could play any mp4 file.

[karl_lillevold]

I do not know which version Xandros ships with, but it sounds like an old version. People seem to have few problems with the latest Helix Player for Linux: https://player.helixcommunity.org/

Also, before you make remarks about Windows RealPlayer that perhaps were relevant a few years ago, especially the "spyware" allegations, perhaps you could take a look at this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68399

Thanks.

[Elias]

Also, before you make remarks about Windows RealPlayer that perhaps were relevant a few years ago, especially the "spyware" allegations, perhaps you could take a look at this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68399

Thanks.Unfortunately, it won't change my negative point of view on Real. Start following the MPEG-4 standard all the way (more like Nero, Apple etc), and I just might change my mind about Real. AAC in *.rm is no good to me. And where's AVC and SP/ASP?

And giving out my email adress and everything else about me just to download your player is not cool.

RealPlayer on Linux and Windows constantly suffers from security holes more than any other player. Why would I want to make my system more insecure by installing RealPlayer? Thanks, but no thanks.

[bond]

Unfortunately, it won't change my negative point of view on Real. Start following the MPEG-4 standard all the way (more like Nero, Apple etc), and I just might change my mind about Real. AAC in *.rm is no good to me. And where's AVC and SP/ASP?actually realplayer supports encoding/playing aac in .mp4
also it supports playing SP+b-frames in .mp4 (but only in the not freely available version)

it just seems they dont do much for fixing the 3gpp/mpeg-4 timed text support :(

and no, there is no need to spam this thread with "we want avc" requests or discussing security or other issues not dealing with timed text (use the existing threads dealing with these topics plz) ;)

[karl_lillevold]

Elias: You are of course entitled to your negative point of view; I am simply correcting some of the false and misleading information you are posting.

Therefore: RealPlayer fully supports and rips CDs to AAC in M4A. RealPlayer also supports Apple DRM, for iPod compatibility with the RealPlayer music store, the only iTunes alternative. If you encounter MPEG-4 video, RP will auto-update, but our decoder is not as compatible as we could wish for, since it does not support quarter pixel or GMC. It supports SP + B frames. H.264 is not yet supported.

You do not need to provide your e-mail to download the free player. Unfortunately, registration is required to run the player, but there is no need to provide correct information.. and there is absolutely no need to give out "everything else about you".

[karl_lillevold]

also it supports playing SP+b-frames in .mp4 (but only in the not freely available version)
If you have the Plus player, it will auto-update with Real's MPEG-4 decoder. The free version, however, will use Quicktime, if it is installed, to play back MPEG-4 Video.

[bond]

thx for the info :)