[MPlayer-dev-eng] Subtitles

[The Wanderer]

Piotr Stachura wrote:

> Hello,
> I think that I join to correct mailing list. I'm not yet a developer
> but I'd like to send a "wish list".
> In win* there is a VobSub and it can read subtitles from avi files.
> mplayer (version 1.0pre5) cannot see that subtitles and sometimes an
> avi index it that files. I'd like to see subtitles without converting
> to ogm or mkv.

You're talking about soft subtitles in AVI files, right?

I've only seen that done once, and it wasn't done as a subtitle stream
(the way OGM and MKV and such do it) but by embedding the plain-text
subtitle file as a single block near the end of the file. If it weren't
for the fact that MPlayer's subtitle-file code expects to receive a
*file*, rather than a chunk of memory, then that block could just be
used as-is - but as things stand, I'm given to understand that
supporting such subtitles in MPlayer is not at all likely.

Someone wrote me a little program, which didn't compile straight out but
didn't take much effort to correct, to go through the AVI file and dump
the subtitle block into a separate file - which could then be passed to
MPlayer as normal. While not ideal in the least, because among other
things it makes viewing with subtitles a multi-step process, it's
certainly better than nothing; I should be able to make my modified
version of that source available if desired.

> Also I think that subtitle display is cool (alpha channel) and ugly
> (one font without position and addons like bold, italic, color, etc.)

This is, as I undestand it, because subtitles are displayed using the
same system as the OSD - and that is limited to one color and knows no
special styles. From my time lurking, I think it might become possible
to do this if the bmovl2 filter ever gets to the point of being
committed, but in the meantime I don't know how practical wanting to
improve font variability is.

You can, in fact, adjust what position the subtitles appear in, but only
en masse; try the keys 'r' and 't' for up/down movement, 'a' to cycle
among top/middle/bottom for default position, and 'man mplayer' on the
-subpos command-line option.

Also, yes, formally speaking this is the sort of thing which should go
on the users' list - but whether or not you would have gotten any
informative answer there is another question.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.