The BBC have managed to improve the availability of subtitles in the iPlayer's streamed videos.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/12/iplayer_subtitles_increase_our.html
Indeed, before this week I hardly saw any subtitled videos but now every one I've tried has working subtitles almost straightaway. I thought it would be rather handy if I could somehow download these to keep.
So I did a bit of research and it turns out they use xml files to store the subtitles so the flash videos can load them on the fly. Using the programme meta data (http://beebhack.wikia.com/wiki/IPlayer_TV#Subtitles), the xml file is easily accessible. Inside the xml file each line is listed in this format:

All the elements are there - the id is subtitle line, we have the start and end time (although they need a comma and extra digit in the last set of numbers) and the line itself.
I thought it would be possible to download these xml files and quickly convert these into correct synchronised srt subtitles. Unfortunately my meagre knowledge of programming isn't up to it.
Does anyone have the skills to take this further? If someone could develop either a desktop or online tool to do it, it might be possible to create accurate subtitles for BBC programmes within minutes rather than hours and days it sometimes takes.
nl

@nl88: Could you get me the url of a current subtitle file?
For instance, Outnumbered 2x06?
Because the file name might be easy to figure out, ie. b0008dc8rstreaming89808204.xml seems to be b0008dc8r + streaming + 89808204 + .xml
The first part seems to be the id of the video in iplayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g7qzp/Outnumbered_Series_2_Episode_6/ ie. b00g7qzp for Outnumbered 2x06), maybe the other numbered part is easy to find out, even from a non-UK ip. So that all subtitles from iplayer could be easily converted automatically.

Thanks.

Not that much time available today, some quick and dirty processing, and with the already downloaded file, it looks like that :

475
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:28,960
I had bruises and a pattern of unexplained injuries.

476
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:30,600
Mrs Brockman?

477
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,000
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

I've made an alpha version available:
http://tools.swsub.com/bbciplayerxml_to_srt.html

I only tested it on the default values (pre-filled).
Feel free to test and report back here.

Obviously the following step will be to just give the PID and that the program do the rest, but I've got no time for that right now.

(edited to exclude the trailing dot from the url)
39 Steps seems to be http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/subtitles/ng/b00gd1qq_101380926.xml
Judging from the outputted srt, Bean's tool is not (yet) using xsl. It shouldn't be too hard to write the right code for this.

I updated it at work, added a radio button to choose between "Simple" xml file or "Complicated".
I tested with Simple for outnumbered 206 and Complicated for the 39 steps, and it produces correct srt AFAIK.

I'll put it on the website tonight (once back home), this way the person(s) who tested on Top Gear will be able to do it again as "Complicated" and get a correct srt.
It's still alpha, but it works for me, and it's better than nothing

I've been able to work on that this WE, basically, all that is needed now is to provide the first ID "b00g7qzp" found in the url of the episode (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g7qzp/Outnumbered_Series_2_Episode_6/ for Outnumbered 2x06), for instance.
The main issue, though, is to get a working UK proxy to get the second url with the link to the subtitles. Does anyone have one?
Because I've seen quite a few use of the tool , so I guess, maybe, somebody have that .
At the moment, I'm going through a proxy that works only 1 out 4 try, the 3 other trys, it just times out. If it's a web proxy, I should be able to use that as well. But it will be much easier with a real proxy.
Obviously, it's not something up to the public eye, so you can just "whisper" it to me, it's the private message of here . No need to create a new discussion, just whisper in this one.

Thanks for help!

Hi All,

If it proves to be working correctly for most series, I will no longer record anything on BBC for the site.

It's just been updated.

Now you should, also, get an unified srt, this one should be OK all the time if you get it. (At least, that's what I intend to create ).
But at the moment, the xml parsing for this one raises an exception if there's the "£" in the file, which happens quite a lot I guess, but unfortunately not in the 2 files I used to test during the day!
So I'll have to debug this a bit more, but I'm heading in the right direction .

Please feedback on anything you may find.

I found some time to work on this.

Now I think I have all the errors managed though you will get an ugly message with the reason
And it doesn't cache (anymore) if no captions are available. So you can try again later on (if you had nothing for some program, you can try again now, twice, as the first time, it will try to use the previous cache, display the error, and remove the cache, so the 2nd time it will go and get the data again).

Thanks Bean, it works great!

As those pages seem to behave correctly, they're now on the homepage (http://http://subtitles.toh.info), just one address to remember now

Wow, Great!
Thanx Bean XD

Excellent job, thanks. You've done far more than I ever imagined possible when I first made the post.

Worth stickying this thread to keep it at the top (or putting some sort of notice up) so others, particularly new members know the score?

I was also going to suggest adding the new BBC HD channel given the number of repeats on it. Unfortunately, none of the older repeats seem to be available and of course the newer programmes are all on the BBC 1/2/3/4 lists anyway so it doesn't seem worth the bother at the moment.

Sorry guys, but I can't understand how to use iplayer for subtitles !

I live in Jordan, can I do that ?

I need subs for james may big ideas if possible

Thanks all

Posted By: Frozen

Sorry guys, but I can't understand how to use iplayer for subtitles !

I live in Jordan, can I do that ?

I need subs for james may big ideas if possible

Thanks all

To get stuff from the current things available on BBC iPlayer, just go there : http://subtitles.toh.info and at the bottom, pick the channel where your program was aired recently.
Then click on the link whose name matches the video you'd like.

To get things not currently available, you need to get the BBC iPlayer ID for the episode. Then go to http://subtitles.toh.info/bbciplayerid_to_zip.html enter the ID and pray that it has been requested in the past, so the link to the xml caption file can be retrieved from the locally cached xml file, and that the program will be able to create the subtitles from it.

Episodes ID are found from the program pages (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dvqll/episodes) for your James May Big Ideas, if you click on the first episode :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dtl3f the ID is the last part of the link ie. b00dtl3f

Thank you bean.

The result is negative :

ERROR: Episode is either not available anymore, or you've entered a wrong ID: b00dtl3f
ERROR: No stream ID for James.May's.Big.Ideas-Come.Fly.with.Me

but now I know how to do it.

I've moved the discussion to the Public area, it will be available for all to see.

The unified sub had small issues, and "Complicated" was most of the time the way to go.
boomer2 told me about it, but it completely slipped my mind. I've been reminded today, and I've made the necessary correction.

Now, on the 2 files tested that had issues previously (Ashes to Ashes s02E07, and Robin Hood S03E09), it's the same as "Complicated".

So, if no more complaint arises in the next few weeks, 'Simple' and 'Complicated' will be obsoleted, and only 'Unified' will remain, within the 'Unified' part in the name, as there will be only one file in the zip.

So it you notice issues, please notify me.

Posted By: paulanna

Really a great job.
Everyday I check the new subtitles but how can I see previous days? I mean on BBC1 now I can see sub from june 4th
to today. If I want to see June 3rd?
Thanks

You can't.
It's from the BBC rss feed, so it's what's currently availabled on their website (it's on purpose, this way it follows their guidelines about availabality).

If you want stuff from before, and that it has been on since march/april (I don't remember), there's a good chance the necessary location are cached, but you'll need to get the ID of the episode on your own, and to go to http://subtitles.toh.info/bbciplayerid_to_zip.html

Posted By: alioushk

Works great.Thanks.
I just got DW confidential from april (desert storm), that wasn't available when I checked in when it was aired (not cached). Then I forgot,and now it's there.
One question, which of the files do I use? The unified one?
Thanks

Unified now, yes. Normally, it should be OK every time.
I recently modified it as it was missing text sometimes because of tags inside of tags.

New site layout and design has been installed.

Direct link to the BBC iPlayer stuff is http://subtitles.toh.info/bbc-iplayer.html
As of today, Simple and Complicated subs have been removed from the zip file, only Unified remains.
If you were still accessing the site with tools.swsub.com, you will see that it, automatically, redirects you to the new domain name. As swsub.com does no longer exists, the domain name will not be renewed therefore it won't work when it happens.
You have access to all the tools from the homepage http://subtitles.toh.info/
The new design allows direct access via menu to all the bbc's page (and tools too) once you've already opened one (basic web stuff I wasn't doing till now )

I've had a report that some program ID (b00lz3gd - Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones: 2. North) didn't produce a working file.
It's because the sign "1/2" used in the file is not following utf-8 encoding as the file specifies.

I will surely do a quick "fix" of transcoding to utf-8 prior to parse, just to be sure, in a day or 2.

I might (later on) will try to use lxml instead of minidom, as it's more forgiving to such thing (normally) so that, even if the xml file is not completely valid, the subs will be generated.

Posted By: bean

I'll do some workaround later (convert the xml file to utf-8 from windows-1252) if the first parsing is not OK, and try to parse again.

Done.

It works on the files that were not working previously.
Hopefully they'll with the same wrong encoding when they do it badly.

Posted By: kris2099

Hi. Whereabouts can I download English subtitles for "The Sarah Jane Adventures" Series 3 Episode 6, etc?

It's aired on CBBC, so check the CBBC page.
It's there, not with the episode number number though, you have to find the episode name.