CEA-608 support for Android with HLS streams

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Hello all,

I created this topic some days ago, but it was closed without I have a chance to reply CEA-608 support for Android

@ludovic.michaud Sorry if I was not clear, but I’m trying to play a HLS stream with CEA-608. I tested it on our Bitmovin web player and it worked, but it didn’t work on the Android player (currently running version 3.75.0).

I also tested the provided dash stream and I confirm that works.

Does the Bitmovin Android Player has CEA-608 support for HLS streams as well?

2

Do you please have a test stream available (please feel free to send me a DM)?
I’ll take a look.

3

Dear @ludovic.michaud, thank you for your quick reply.

I sent you an e-mail with the test stream, the subject is “HLS test stream - Bitmovin Community Topic 3127”

Can you check it, please?

4

Thanks !
I responded to your email. Let’s keep the conversation there and post a summary here if needed once the investigation is completed.

5

Summary of the issue, the Multivariant playlist is specifying CLOSED-CAPTIONS=NONE so the player is ignoring the subtitles.

You can either modify it manually, or use the Network API to modify it on the fly.

Example :

        val networkConfig = NetworkConfig()
        networkConfig.preprocessHttpResponseCallback = PreprocessHttpResponseCallback { type, response ->
            if (type == HttpRequestType.ManifestHlsMaster) {
                // do something (e.g. rewrite) for response.body
                var manifest = String(response.body)

                manifest = manifest.replace("CLOSED-CAPTIONS=NONE", "CLOSED-CAPTIONS=\"CC1\"")

                response.body = manifest.toByteArray()
            }
            CompletableFuture.completedFuture(response)
        }

        player.config.networkConfig = networkConfig

The web player shows the subtitles although they are not referenced in the manifest, but other platforms such as the Android Native SDK, Safari Native player etc, will not show the subtitle unless they are mentioned in the manifest.