Burnt in subtitles

[azz]

Hi

As a engineer who uses expensive enterprise transcoding and workflow products daily, i must say FFAStrans is brilliant!

Would be great if you would consider the ability to burn in subtitle files to the output (being able to specify the subtitle file on input via the watch folder, based on naming it the same as the video source, or an extra option via the manual submit)

thanks
Azz

[admin]

Hi Azz, welcome to the forum and thank you for using FFAStrans!

I'm very happy you enjoy FFAStrans and that you compare it with enterprise transcoders !

What kind of subtitles are you thinking about?

-steipal

[azz]

Hi Steipal

I imagine that ssa will give the best flexibility for burnt in workflows.

thanks
arran

[admin]

Have you tried creating a "Custom FFmpeg"-encoder preset that adds subtitles?

-steipal

[azz]

Hi

Haven't tried it, but have thought of that. But as all jobs wouldnt requires subs it would be good to be able to submit along with the source video and then use a condition to push to either a subbed or none subbed ffmpeg config

An unrelated question; is there any kind of api for FFAStrans? Or the ability to drop a job config file into somewhere to kick a job off against a workflow?

Thanks

[admin]

At this moment, I think the best you could do is to try an make some logical workflow that detects if there exist a sub-version of your original file. I would try this:
Create a workflow with a "Custom FFmpeg"-encoder preset that tries to find a matching sub (using file name variables). Maybe the node will fail if the sub does not exist. If so, connect a new node with the "same preset" but without the sub and set to execute on error. I think that would give you the result you're looking for, If ffmpeg does not fail in the absent of a sub then it probably will encode your file without any sub. Either way, you're good to go. I haven't actually tried this logic but you should give it a shot. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that FFAStrans will NOT support submitting sub in particular. It supports submitting files and it's the users job to create the workflow to deal with it. FFAStrans has many powerfuil features that lets you creat very targeted workflows.

And so to your unrelated question: I'm working on an API but it's a lot of work and I struggle to find time to do everything I want. But I assure you, an API is my top longtime priority but I have been forced to delay it because of time restrains.

-steipal

[azz]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a go.

Keep up the great work as this is a great application you have developed

[silverline]

Hi,
I'd like to revive this topic again. I have quite the same problem, but connecting a second "Custom FFmpeg" node behind the subtitle one does not work. The workflow simply stops working when there is no subtitle file and does not continue to the next node.
In the case a subtitle file exists both nodes are processed what is also not what I need.
Is there I way to form a condition that checks for the presents of a subtitle file? I just can't think of it right now.
thank you.

[azz]

Hi Silverline

What are you using as your subtitle input format?

I managed to setup a working workflow using ass inputs. The main subtitle input for the workflow was srt, but this is to be named as the same as the video input. I then wrote a command line app which is launched as part of the workflow which converts the srt to ass (applying my required formatting options). Using variables, the aas is then defined in my custom ffmpeg node.

I agree that a if file exists check would be a great feature, hopefully one that will be considered

In the meantime you could use a command line node to launch a batch file, passing it the file path you want to check. And the batch would look something like this:

IF EXIST "%1" (
REM Do one thing
) ELSE (
REM Do another thing
)

You could then have it exiting with an exit code of 1 if the file doesn't exist then have two nodes after the command line node, one of which will trigger on failure the other on success (that is assuming that the command line node is taking note of exit codes which i assume it will be).

Thanks
Azz

[silverline]

Hi Azz,
thanks for the reply. My subtitle file is an .srt file, which works fine in FFmpeg to get it burned into the video. However, not every movie we will pass through the workflow has subtitles. In case of absence of such file the node fails. There is a second node connected that is now set to "execute on error", but it does not execute... that would have been the simple solution. But doesn't work.
Since I am not very good in command line things or so, I have to ask a few thing.
Your suggestion would be to launch a file with the code you posted. would it be a .bat file? And if it would be executed, the "Do one thing" would point to another file containing maybe a FFmpeg command, right? Or can I trigger a certain node in FFastrans from such a file?
thanks a lot!