The VideoLAN Forums

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This post is written for those who use VLC in the language "Chinese Simplified" or "zh-CN".
Solution tested in Windows 7 only.
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VLC 1.1.10 & 1.1.11 still fail to show the subtitles in Chinese Simplified , even if you set encoding be "GB18030" & type be some Chinese Simplified types.

Inspired by an article (http://fangzili.blogspot.com/2011/06/vlc1110.html),I found a temporary solution for this problem.

Solution:
Set encoding be "GB18030",and set TYPE be some CHINESE TRADITIONAL TYPES!
I tested in Windows 7 , both independent *.srt subtitles and the subtitles merged in .mkv video , can be displayed properly in VLC 1.1.10+ versions.

Some examples for CHINESE TRADITIONAL types on my Windows 7 computer : DFKai-SB, Microsoft JhengHei, MingLiU, MingLiU-ExtB, MingLiU_HKSCS, MingLiU_HKSCS-ExtB, PMingLiU, PMingLiU-ExtB.

Hope my post will help.

change the subtitles language by that u can do the changes for your subtitles or try downloading the english version and try it

Hey alboy,,,as before I would like to thanks for your tutorial. Yes, I have some movies with encoded or soft Chinese subtitles.

It does not work when I tested in windows vista..There is a few problems on some of the strings with c-format (like %d or%s). I can't change the order in which the %x, %d, %s, ... appear in %the strings. This is a limitation of the system I use to translate.

It is a problem at least for modules/access/dvdread.c:574

Could you help me to solve this???

VLC播放器2.0、2.1Windows版字幕中文（或其他非拉丁）字体bug修正：

如果一个字体的名称是非拉丁/非ASCII字母但是登录项是拉丁/ASCII字母，那么这个字体不能选择用作VLC的字幕字体。

比如你的Windows的系统区域是中国大陆简体中文，你将用不了宋体、微软雅黑等拥有中国大陆简体中文名的字体，只得使用没有中国大陆简体中文名的字体如DFKai-SB等。繁体和日文等也有类似情况。

要修正此bug，请将2.0文件夹（你的VLC播放器版本是2.1则用2.1文件夹）下的libfreetype_plugin.dll复制到<VLC安装目录>\plugins\text_renderer\下，覆盖原文件，即可。

以后版本的VLC将会修正此bug。

修正了bug后就可正常设置中文字幕识别了。设置方法为在Tools -> Preferences（或Ctrl+P快捷键） -> Subtitles & OSD中，把Default encoding设置为Universal Chinese (GB18030)（用于简体中文），或者Traditional Chinese (Big 5)（用于繁体中文），然后在Font一栏选择你想要用的字体。

修正补丁下载：
http://tom8.googlecode.com/files/VLC2Wi ... inFont.zip


VLC media player 2.0 and 2.1 for windows subtitle Non-Latin font bug fix:

If a font's name is non-Latin/non-ASCII but registry entry is Latin/ASCII, the font cannot be used for subtitle.

To fix the bug, replace the libfreetype_plugin.dll on <VLC INSTALL DIR>\plugins\text_renderer\libfreetype_plugin.dll.

Then you can configure the subtitle encoding and the font: "Tools" -> "Preferences" (or Ctrl+P) -> "Subtitles & OSD", have "Default encoding" be "Universal Chinese (GB18030)" (For Simplified Chinese), or "Traditional Chinese (Big 5)" (For Traditional Chinese), then set the "Font" to your favorite font.

download the libfreetype_plugin.dll:
http://tom8.googlecode.com/files/VLC2Wi ... inFont.zip

Or see ticket 6350: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/6350

The module on the ticket 6350 may cause heavy load.
When video playback stutters because of this module(libfeetype_plugin.dll), please stop using it.

I'm searching another workaround for the issue, but if someone have a patch, please tell me. (Please report on the ticket 6350)
The reason of heavy load is using GdiplusStartup/GdiplusShutdown frequently. These functions are heavy...

Hey alboy,,,as before I would like to thanks for your tutorial. Yes, I have some movies with encoded or soft Chinese subtitles.

It does not work when I tested in windows vista..There is a few problems on some of the strings with c-format (like %d or%s). I can't change the order in which the %x, %d, %s, ... appear in %the strings. This is a limitation of the system I use to translate.

It is a problem at least for modules/access/dvdread.c:574

Could you help me to solve this???

Same for me. I've searched on Google about it but I couldn't do much.

try this, hope it helps!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=80401#p316916

I had similar experience and record my solution in my blog :

http://alvinsiu.blogspot.hk/2009/08/squ ... f-vlc.html

With this method, I can read subtitle srt files having English, Traditional or Simplified Chinese characters.

Just to make sure that the srt file are stored in UTF-8 format.

Another solution is to open the file with Microsoft Word (right click to open it) and convert it to Simplified.

Then copy and paste back into the SRT and save as UTF-8.

I then use this link to convert to Traditional if needed:

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/conv ... ptrad.html

I use DFPBiaoKaiW5-HPinIn1WLU for English, Pinyin, and Chinese.

Let the text file be your encoding and you don't need to worry about vlc or MPC rendering the subtitles as squares.

Simple solution (this also converts the garbage subtitles back into the correct Chinese).

For example if I download a Chinese subtitle on a non-Chinese computer it looks like this:

1
00:00:02,067 --> 00:00:04,800
ÔÙ¸øÄã½²¸öÓÐȤµÄÆøÏóС֪ʶ

2
00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:07,533
ÓÖÒ»¸ö? Ì«ºÃÁË!

3
00:00:07,533 --> 00:00:10,867
ÅçÁ÷µÄ±ä»¯¿ÉÒÔÓ°Ïìµ½

but opening with MS Word changes it to this:

1
00:00:02,067 --> 00:00:04,800
再给你讲个有趣的气象小知识

2
00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:07,533
又一个? 太好了!

3
00:00:07,533 --> 00:00:10,867
喷流的变化可以影响到

and using the link I provided changes it to this:

1
00:00:02,067 --> 00:00:04,800
再給你講個有趣的氣象小知識

2
00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:07,533
又一個? 太好了!

3
00:00:07,533 --> 00:00:10,867
噴流的變化可以影響到

Then I just open the SRT again, save the converted text, save as "UTF-8" and it's done - works 100% of the time with all players including old versions of vlc.

Found one solution，in windows 7 subtitle default coding "universal, chinese (GB18030)" and font "Microsoft JhengHei" then the Chinese character can display correctly.

VLC播放器2.0、2.1Windows版字幕中文（或其他非拉丁）字体bug修正：

如果一个字体的名称是非拉丁/非ASCII字母但是登录项是拉丁/ASCII字母，那么这个字体不能选择用作VLC的字幕字体。

比如你的Windows的系统区域是中国大陆简体中文，你将用不了宋体、微软雅黑等拥有中国大陆简体中文名的字体，只得使用没有中国大陆简体中文名的字体如DFKai-SB等。繁体和日文等也有类似情况。

要修正此bug，请将2.0文件夹（你的VLC播放器版本是2.1则用2.1文件夹）下的libfreetype_plugin.dll复制到<VLC安装目录>\plugins\text_renderer\下，覆盖原文件，即可。

以后版本的VLC将会修正此bug。

修正了bug后就可正常设置中文字幕识别了。设置方法为在Tools -> Preferences（或Ctrl+P快捷键） -> Subtitles & OSD中，把Default encoding设置为Universal Chinese (GB18030)（用于简体中文），或者Traditional Chinese (Big 5)（用于繁体中文），然后在Font一栏选择你想要用的字体。

修正补丁下载：
http://tom8.googlecode.com/files/VLC2Wi ... inFont.zip


VLC media player 2.0 and 2.1 for windows subtitle Non-Latin font bug fix:

If a font's name is non-Latin/non-ASCII but registry entry is Latin/ASCII, the font cannot be used for subtitle.

To fix the bug, replace the libfreetype_plugin.dll on <VLC INSTALL DIR>\plugins\text_renderer\libfreetype_plugin.dll.

Then you can configure the subtitle encoding and the font: "Tools" -> "Preferences" (or Ctrl+P) -> "Subtitles & OSD", have "Default encoding" be "Universal Chinese (GB18030)" (For Simplified Chinese), or "Traditional Chinese (Big 5)" (For Traditional Chinese), then set the "Font" to your favorite font.

download the libfreetype_plugin.dll:
http://tom8.googlecode.com/files/VLC2Wi ... inFont.zip

Or see ticket 6350: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/6350

I use vlc 2.2.1 on windows 10 with traditional Chinese, and only MS Yahei can be displayed correctly, and other fonts will be transformed to Song std. However, the Japanese subs display well.
Maybe it is due to the system, because it works well on Windows 7 with simplified Chinese.
我用的2.2.1，win10繁體系統，只有微軟雅黑可以正常顯示，其他字幕都會轉成宋體。但日文字幕是正常的。
有可能是系統的關係，因為在win7的簡體版上顯示正常
See more at my question https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=129509

You can use now 3.0.0 nightly build, where it's fixed.

You can use now 3.0.0 nightly build, where it's fixed.

Dear Jean, I don't mean to hijack this but I am having one weird issue for many days which cant seem to be solved and I have also PM you but guess you haven't seen it yet.
I humbly request you to pls assist me on my dedicated thread here: https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 65#p483865

Not directly related to subtitles, but I came across that thread that mentions about strange Chinese characters so I wanted to jump in here.

I had a problem a few years ago almost with the same build version creating Chinese registry entries when certain VLC functions are ran, like streaming, capturing video.
My problem is here, is it a known bug with VLC creating Chinese registry entries?
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.ph ... 50#p483977