py-caption

pycaption is a caption reading/writing module. Use one of the given Readers to read content into a CaptionSet object, and then use one of the Writers to output the CaptionSet into captions of your desired format.

Turn a caption into multiple caption outputs:

srt_caps = '''1
00:00:09,209 --> 00:00:12,312
This is an example SRT file,
which, while extremely short,
is still a valid SRT file.
'''

converter = CaptionConverter()
converter.read(srt_caps, SRTReader())
print converter.write(SAMIWriter())
print converter.write(DFXPWriter())
print converter.write(pycaption.transcript.TranscriptWriter())

Not sure what format the caption is in? Detect it:

from pycaption import detect_format

caps = '''1
00:00:01,500 --> 00:00:12,345
Small caption'''

reader = detect_format(caps)
if reader:
    print SAMIWriter().write(reader().read(caps))

Or if you expect to have only a subset of the supported input formats:

caps = '''1
00:00:01,500 --> 00:00:12,345
Small caption'''

if SRTReader().detect(caps):
    print SAMIWriter().write(SRTReader().read(caps))
elif DFXPReader().detect(caps):
    print SAMIWriter().write(DFXPReader().read(caps))
elif SCCReader().detect(caps):
    print SAMIWriter().write(SCCReader().read(caps))

Supported Formats

Read: - DFXP/TTML - SAMI - SCC - SRT - WebVTT

Write: - DFXP/TTML - SAMI - SRT - Transcript - WebVTT

See the examples folder for example captions that currently can be read correctly.

Python Usage

Example: Convert from SAMI to DFXP

from pycaption import SAMIReader, DFXPWriter

sami = '''<SAMI><HEAD><TITLE>NOVA3213</TITLE><STYLE TYPE="text/css">
<!--
P { margin-left:  1pt;
    margin-right: 1pt;
    margin-bottom: 2pt;
    margin-top: 2pt;
    text-align: center;
    font-size: 10pt;
    font-family: Arial;
    font-weight: normal;
    font-style: normal;
    color: #ffffff; }

.ENCC {Name: English; lang: en-US; SAMI_Type: CC;}
.FRCC {Name: French; lang: fr-cc; SAMI_Type: CC;}

--></STYLE></HEAD><BODY>
<SYNC start="9209"><P class="ENCC">
       ( clock ticking )
</P><P class="FRCC">
       FRENCH LINE 1!
</P></SYNC>
<SYNC start="12312"><P class="ENCC">&nbsp;</P></SYNC>
<SYNC start="14848"><P class="ENCC">
              MAN:<br/>
         <span style="text-align:center;font-size:10">When <i>we</i> think</span><br/>
    of E equals m c-squared,
</P><P class="FRCC">
       FRENCH LINE 2?
</P></SYNC>'''

print DFXPWriter().write(SAMIReader().read(sami))

Which will output the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<tt xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/ttml" xmlns:tts="http://www.w3.org/ns/ttml#styling">
 <head>
  <styling>
   <style id="p" tts:color="#fff" tts:fontfamily="Arial" tts:fontsize="10pt" tts:textAlign="center"/>
  </styling>
 </head>
 <body>
  <div xml:lang="fr-cc">
   <p begin="00:00:09.209" end="00:00:14.848" style="p">
    FRENCH LINE 1!
   </p>
   <p begin="00:00:14.848" end="00:00:18.848" style="p">
    FRENCH LINE 2?
   </p>
  </div>
  <div xml:lang="en-US">
   <p begin="00:00:09.209" end="00:00:12.312" style="p">
    ( clock ticking )
   </p>
   <p begin="00:00:14.848" end="00:00:18.848" style="p">
    MAN:<br/>
    <span tts:fontsize="10" tts:textAlign="center">When</span> <span tts:fontStyle="italic">we</span> think<br/>
    of E equals m c-squared,
   </p>
  </div>
 </body>
</tt>

Extensibility

Different readers and writers are easy to add if you would like to: - Read/Write a previously unsupported format - Read/Write a supported format in a different way (more styling?)

Simply follow the format of a current Reader or Writer, and edit to your heart's desire.

SAMI Reader / Writer :: spec

Microsoft Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange. Supports multiple languages.

Supported Styling: - text-align - italics - font-size - font-family - color

If the SAMI file is not valid XML (e.g. unclosed tags), will still attempt to read it.

DFXP/TTML Reader / Writer :: spec

The W3 standard. Supports multiple languages.

Supported Styling: - text-align - italics - font-size - font-family - color

SRT Reader / Writer :: spec

SubRip captions. If given multiple languages to write, will output all joined together by a 'MULTI-LANGUAGE SRT' line.

Supported Styling: - None

Assumes input language is english. To change:

pycaps = SRTReader().read(srt_content, lang='fr')

SCC Reader :: spec

Scenarist Closed Caption format. Assumes Channel 1 input.

Supported Styling: - italics

By default, the SCC Reader does not simulate roll-up captions. To enable roll-ups:

pycaps = SCCReader().read(scc_content, simulate_roll_up=True)

Also, assumes input language is english. To change:

pycaps = SCCReader().read(scc_content, lang='fr')

Now has the option of specifying an offset (measured in seconds) for the timestamp. For example, if the SCC file is 45 seconds ahead of the video:

pycaps = SCCReader().read(scc_content, offset=45)

The SCC Reader handles both dropframe and non-dropframe captions, and will auto-detect which format the captions are in.

Transcript Writer

Text stripped of styling, arranged in sentences.

Supported Styling: - None

The transcript writer uses natural sentence boundary detection algorithms to create the transcript.

WebVTT Reader / Writer spec

Web Video Text Tracks format.

Supported Styling - None (yet)

vayam / pycaption