Video with external subtitle file fails to play

[ajmas]

I am running into an issue that appears to impact both VLC on the Apple TV and VLC on macOS, whereby if a given subtitle file is present the video will fail to play.

Other notes:

- Video is of type .ts, using H264 video code and ADTS audio codec
- Removing the subtitle file results in the video play.
- The file is in vtt format and seems to convert without error to srt format
- Using the srt format in its place does not seem to make a difference

Looking at the messages window, for the VTT:

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main debug: VLC media player - 3.0.18 Vetinari main debug: Copyright © 1996-2022 the VideoLAN team main debug: revision 3.0.18-0-ge9eceaed4d main debug: configured with /Users/d-fu/vlc-3.0/extras/package/macosx/../../../configure '--prefix=/Users/d-fu/vlc-3.0/build/vlc_install_dir' '--enable-macosx' '--enable-merge-ffmpeg' '--enable-osx-notifications' '--enable-faad' '--enable-flac' '--enable-theora' '--enable-shout' '--enable-ncurses' '--enable-twolame' '--enable-realrtsp' '--enable-libass' '--enable-macosx-avfoundation' '--disable-skins2' '--disable-xcb' '--disable-caca' '--disable-pulse' '--disable-sdl-image' '--disable-vnc' '--build=x86_64-apple-darwin17' '--host=x86_64-apple-darwin17' '--with-macosx-version-min=10.7' '--with-macosx-sdk=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk' '--with-breakpad=https://mac.crashes.videolan.org' 'build_alias=x86_64-apple-darwin17' 'host_alias=x86_64-apple-darwin17' 'CC=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang' 'CFLAGS=-g -arch x86_64' 'LDFLAGS=-arch x86_64' 'CXX=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang++' 'CXXFLAGS=-g -arch x86_64' 'OBJC=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang' 'OBJCFLAGS=-g -arch x86_64' macosx debug: Playback has been ended macosx debug: Releasing IOKit system sleep blocker (37344) main warning: no vout found, dropping subpicture main warning: can't get output subpicture main debug: killing decoder fourcc `wvtt' main debug: removing module "webvtt" main debug: removing module "webvtt" main debug: removing module "record" main debug: removing module "cache_read" main debug: removing module "filesystem" main debug: removing module "ts" main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES main debug: removing module "record" main debug: removing module "cache_read" main debug: removing module "filesystem" main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES main debug: dead input main debug: changing item without a request (current 0/1) main debug: nothing to play

Looking at the messages window, for the SRT:

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main debug: VLC media player - 3.0.18 Vetinari main debug: Copyright © 1996-2022 the VideoLAN team main debug: revision 3.0.18-0-ge9eceaed4d main debug: configured with /Users/d-fu/vlc-3.0/extras/package/macosx/../../../configure '--prefix=/Users/d-fu/vlc-3.0/build/vlc_install_dir' '--enable-macosx' '--enable-merge-ffmpeg' '--enable-osx-notifications' '--enable-faad' '--enable-flac' '--enable-theora' '--enable-shout' '--enable-ncurses' '--enable-twolame' '--enable-realrtsp' '--enable-libass' '--enable-macosx-avfoundation' '--disable-skins2' '--disable-xcb' '--disable-caca' '--disable-pulse' '--disable-sdl-image' '--disable-vnc' '--build=x86_64-apple-darwin17' '--host=x86_64-apple-darwin17' '--with-macosx-version-min=10.7' '--with-macosx-sdk=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk' '--with-breakpad=https://mac.crashes.videolan.org' 'build_alias=x86_64-apple-darwin17' 'host_alias=x86_64-apple-darwin17' 'CC=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang' 'CFLAGS=-g -arch x86_64' 'LDFLAGS=-arch x86_64' 'CXX=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang++' 'CXXFLAGS=-g -arch x86_64' 'OBJC=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang' 'OBJCFLAGS=-g -arch x86_64' main warning: no vout found, dropping subpicture main warning: can't get output subpicture main debug: killing decoder fourcc `subt' main debug: removing module "subsdec" main debug: removing module "subtitle" main debug: removing module "record" main debug: removing module "cache_read" main debug: removing module "filesystem" main debug: removing module "ts" main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES main debug: removing module "record" main debug: removing module "cache_read" main debug: removing module "filesystem" main debug: Program doesn't contain anymore ES main debug: dead input main debug: changing item without a request (current 0/1) main debug: nothing to play

This is running on an Intel based 2019 16" MacBook Pro, with macOS 13.0.1

Any suggestions for further analysis of the issue?

For any devs: I can provide the video and subtitle files

[ajmas]

I just found that converting the .ts to .mp4, using Handbrake seems to have resolved the issue. I

I also tried simply repackaging with ffmpeg, using a script I previously wrote, and the result also works:

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#!/bin/sh filename=$1 src="${filename}" dst="${filename%.ts}.mp4" echo ffmpeg -i "${src}" -map 0 -c copy "${dst}" ffmpeg -err_detect ignore_err -copy_unknown -i "${src}" -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -c copy "${dst}"

I am curious as to whether failing to play when using the .ts container is considered a bug or expected behaviour?

[Lotesdelere]

I am curious as to whether failing to play when using the .ts container is considered a bug or expected behaviour?

It's a known VLC limitation:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 30#p321530
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 81#p528781
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 93#p530493

[ajmas]

Thanks.

Would it better behaviour for VLC simply to disable subtitle files in this scenario, rather than not play? I’ll discuss with the devs and see.

Either way, the conversion did help.

[fkuehne]

This is very hard to fix. We might have a solution for this in VLC 4, but I'm not sure.