Linux media player that can handle subtitles properly?

RichDuffy · 16 Jul 2007 at 13:32

I've recently installed Ubuntu (Feisty) and installed VLC, having heard how brilliant it is. But it doesn't seem very good for subtitles. I watch a lot of anime, and the subtitles are mostly ok (albeit ugly), but whenever more than one line is spoken at once the two lines appear in the same space and are completely unreadable.

This is especially apparent in opening credits where two sets of subtitles appear at once, one English and one Japanese (Romanised). In Media Player Classic in Windows, one appears at the bottom as normal, the other appears at the top. In VLC in Ubuntu they both appear on top of each other at the bottom. Similarly if two people speak at once.

I also tried Mplayer, which showed only the English subtitles - the Japanese ones were nowhere to be found! And within the episode, when two people were speaking simultaneously only one person's dialogue was shown.

Anyone got any suggestions? Or will I have to restrict my anime viewing to Windows for now?

.walls · 16 Jul 2007 at 13:50

I use both VLC and MPlayer and haven't had an issue with subs on either (I too watch a lot of anime)...

Probably the reason you couldn't find the Japanese subs is because mplayer is substantially more powerful as a command line based player. the guis for mplayer that I have used have very limited functionality.

RichDuffy · 16 Jul 2007 at 14:01

=walls= said:
Probably the reason you couldn't find the Japanese subs is because mplayer is substantially more powerful as a command line based player. the guis for mplayer that I have used have very limited functionality.

Oh dear... I don't think I'm quite ready to be using media players through the command line... but if you can suggest anything CLI-based that I should try, I'll be happy to give it a go...

If I'm watching a normal file and only one character speaks at once, the subtitles are fine. That's quite rare in some of the stuff I watch though.

.walls · 16 Jul 2007 at 15:28

the sort of command I would use for anime (in a default build of mplayer) would be:

Code:

mplayer -slang en anime.mkv

but, you can add commands in to ~/.mplayer/config such as:

Code:

alang=en     #Use English audio (if available)
slang=en      #Use English subtitles
fs=1       #fullscreen

but you can override these settings with command line options (-slang jp)

Amongst other things, you can also choose the position/font of the subs or choose external sub files.

RichDuffy · 17 Jul 2007 at 20:47

Thanks for all that, I'm pretty sure I understand it all (alang = audio language, slang = subtitle language) But if I can demonstrate my problem, I don't think it's quite covered by just knowing how to configure the players (unless I'm missing something, which is quite likely

)

I'm using an English subtitle track over Japanese audio, and for the most part it's fine. Character says, "Hai", subtitle comes up "Yes". Fantastic. But on the opening credits the subtitles are supposed to appear in both languages simultaneously (in this particular case in a stylised font) but the Linux players seem unable or unwilling to handle this. I guess the screenshots I've taken can explain it better than I can....

Media Player Classic on Windows XP
VLC on Ubuntu
MPlayer on Ubuntu

Like I said, I may be missing something, and please tell me if I am

But other than that, is there anything else anyone can suggest?

freebooter · 17 Jul 2007 at 23:42

I have used kaffeine with xine for several films using subtitles without a problem.

RichDuffy · 18 Jul 2007 at 13:38

A lad at work has suggested there may be a setting to fix the VLC problem, so we're looking into that. If that doesn't work I can try Xine.

EDIT: Right, we've played around with VLC extensively, and the best we can do is make the subtitles look a bit nicer (using a nicer font essentially). We can't stop multiple subtitles from positioning themselves on top of each other. If two characters speak, you can't read what either of them are saying. Toggling between Fixed and Auto positioning for subtitles makes no difference.

In MPlayer, if two characters speak, one character's line is dropped from the subtitles altogether.

I've now tried Kaffeine, and the opposite problem occurs to MPlayer during the credits, i.e. the Japanese lyrics are shown but not the English. When two characters speak together, one's subtitle appears for the normal length of time, followed by the other for a split second.

I really want to make this work - I know I have the option of using Windows, but surely someone has addressed this kind of problem at some point....?

ANOTHER EDIT: I've found from another source that my problem with VLC is because VLC simply can't handle subtitles of that type and complexity, end of story. Okay, but apparently MPlayer is supposed to work fine, and there's something called libass that makes it 'work'. I can't find anything called libass in Synaptic (including Medibuntu) so is there anyone who can point me in the right direction on that front?