0.7.3 Fixes a few bugs
I have posted Lostify 0.7.3 on the download page. This release doesn’t add much new functionality, but fixes a few bugs from previous releases. The biggest of them was my bungled bundling (in 0.7.2) of a version of AtomicParsley that wouldn’t work on Intel Macs running 10.4 (Tiger). That’s fixed now… in fact, the version now bundled in Lostify should run on anything from 10.3.9 forwards (even if Lostify itself won’t run on 10.3.x any more, sorry). You can read about other changes in the version history or the release notes in the download itself.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
A suggestion: Could you add a flag so the closed-captions icon appears in iTunes and on Apple TV? It’d be great if Lostify could auto-detect captions and set the flag on its own.
Turbo.264’s software v. 1.3 passes along closed captions — but not subtitles — in a format that iTunes and Apple TV recognize and can turn on and off. (http://forums.elgato.com/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=2459) I don’t know if other software titles have a similar feature.
September 7th, 2008 at 3:50 am
I have just downloaded 0.7.3 and tried it. I get the following applescript error
The variable tDescription is not defined. (-2753)
when using the automatic add to itunes feature
September 7th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
JL - I have never seen the closed-caption icon on anything that lives in my local iTunes library. Do you have an example of an MP4 file in your local library (not just its listing on the iTunes store, which is different) that displays such an icon? If not, perhaps iTunes cannot display such a thing for local files.
pharwood - Drat. And here I thought I had put out a release with fewer bugs. Seems I should have tested the iTunes integration! (Duh!) Anyway, I have fixed the problem on my machine, but need to do some more testing and will post a new build tonight. I guess it’ll have to be 0.7.4??
September 9th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Re: Closed-captions icon.
I tested by renting two captioned movies. The closed-caption icon appears on the Apple TV for rented movies and I think it’s part of the video file, but I’m not sure. I’m too cheap to buy a movie to test one of those.
Here are details:
1) After renting a movie through the Apple TV, the screen for the movie under “Rented Movies” is identical to the one at the iTunes store (as seen through the Apple TV), so it includes the CC icon.
2) After renting a movie through iTunes, it’s only visible only in the folder “Rented Movies” which does not have the CC icon. After moving the movie to the Apple TV, the screen for the movie under “Rented Movies” is identical to the one at the iTunes store (as seen through the Apple TV), so it includes the CC icon.
3) The screen on the Apple TV shows the CC icon regardless of whether the Apple TV is connected to the internet. I conclude that the CC flag must be within the video file somewhere.
Will I be able to get any information through Finder or Terminal if I transfer the rented movie back to my iMac? Is the rented movie in some double-secret hidden location? (There’s a movie reference there.)
September 9th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
JL — the closed caption icon is not part of the movie file. The movie file probably has a special text track that contains the captions themselves, but the icon itself is part of the Apple TV’s internal software. It *may* be part of iTunes software too; I don’t know.
As far as Lostify goes, there are two questions:
1) can iTunes or Apple TV display a closed-caption icon on files that are not rentals, but that are part of your local library? If so, then it’s promising; if not, then there’s nothing Lostify can do. And if so,
2) what is it about the video file that triggers Apple TV or iTunes to display the closed caption icon — is it the mere presence of a closed-caption track, or is there some other metadata in the file that cues the software to show the icon? If the former, then the icon should theoretically show up on its own without help from Lostify (provided captions are present); if the latter, then we need a sample video file to determine what that special metadata is.
Make sense? Now, I don’t have an Apple TV, nor do I have any video files containing closed captions. I don’t know where Apple TV or iTunes places its rented movies, but if you can locate a file on disk that contains the movie, we might be able to analyze it to figure out if it has some metadata we could be mimicing to produce the CC icon. Let me know if you can find a file on disk to look at.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
1) Although I’d swear I’ve seen the CC icon on local files, I can’t seem to find a video that triggers the icon. I’ll come back if that changes; otherwise, let’s consider my request DOA. I’ll just add “(CC)” to the descriptions of my captioned videos.
2) Thinking about it, I suppose it makes more sense for QuickTime to test for the presence of a Closed Captions Track rather than relying on possibly incorrect metadata.
Would you like a 45-second captioned video to play with? It’s a 13.9 MB.
One can verify the presence of captions in QuickTime by pressing cmd-J. They appear as a separate track labeled “Closed Caption Track” with Format “Closed Caption”.