Can't View Chinese Subtitles.. all i see is block

[ppsky]

i downloaded a MKV video file.. it's detective conan... i downloaded videoLan hoping to watch it properly after failing to use media player and others.. i was so happy when the video started to show.. but when the Subtitles came out..(Chinese Subtitles) all i see is square block..

1. is there any way i can view the chinese Subtitles properly ?


2. someone translated the Subtitles into english in notepad, i was wondering how can i rip it into the mkv video file ?


Any Help will be greatly appreciated.. Thanks...

[The DJ]

You need to set a lettertype in the preferences, that knows chinese characters. Prefereces->modules->text rendere->freetype

[ppsky]

sorry, i don't get it.. whn i reach there.. i don't know what file to browse for

[frenchkiss]

to display chinese subs in media player you need to have a font installed with chinese characters, i suggest the Bitstream Cyberbit font (freeware) because it is a complete font with also japanese, korean,etc...

http://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicato ... s/windows/

[ppsky]

Thank you very much !! i can now watch my anime.. Thanks... for the help..

[soma36]

Hey thanks for this, to both Frenchkiss and the DJ. This has solved an issue that has been bugging me on a variety of media players for a while. While I have been always able to play the sub/idx combo correctly on VLC, downloaded .srt files never worked properly, even after changing the encoding for Japanese subs.

So, I now have proper working Japanese subtitles (My wife is Japanese but despite speaking English well, obviously likes the comfortability of watching with Japanese subtitles, especially complicated movies/documentaries).

So, for any noobs, this is the set up I have now.

First as french Kiss said, download the cyberbit.zip file from

http://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicato ... s/windows/

unzip, go to C->Windows->Fonts and install the cyberbit True font file from wherever you saved it. I also recommend saving it somewhere else also for ease of use (see later)

As said by The DJ, in VLC go to Preferences-> (check the advanced box in the bottom right corner so you can see everything) ->Video->Subtitles/OSD and scroll down and check the freetype 2 font renderer box.

Then, go to the submenu of Subtitles/OSD called Text Renderer.
This Freetype 2 Font Renderer menu will have an option called font with a browse button selectable. Select Browse and find the original cyberbit file that you unzipped and saved somewhere else for ease of use. Here, you can also change opacity, font size and a few other things. I found the default cyberbit font a little too thin so I bulked it up a bit here.

You should probably then press save in the bottom left.

Now as for displaying the subs, Shift-JIS seems to work best as encoding. If you want to change the default go to Input/Codecs->Other Codecs->Subtitles and change subtitles text encoding to Shift-JIS and save. This will mean, that basically, if your, for example in my case, avi and srt files are in the same folder, and have the same name, the Japanese subs should display correctly from one double click unless you have multiple sub files. Otherwise, everytime you want to load a movie with Japanese (and I guess Chinese, Korean subs etc), as long as you have done the first bit (ie up until fixing the freetype font rendering with the cyberbit font) then just
File->Open File and the rest should be obvious, except you will obviously have to click the "use a subtitle" box and then click advanced settings and there change the subtitle font encoding to Shift-JIS. Here you can also change relative size of the font, although I found it didnt make so much difference.

Then, click ok and you are away.

Apologies to those for whom this may seem obvious, but Ive tried to figure this out, and to be honest, a variety of expert opinions in a variety of places were not as clear as they could have been. I imagine people with less knowledge than myself would have a very hard time (Im no expert but I can handle myself). So, I hope this helps someone! At least, the way I explained it, I now having working Japanese subs, that are not tilted on their side (like they were in BS Player) or complete rubbish (as they were in VLC before I did a few fixes).

Cheers guys, this thread was a real help, even if it was for Chinese subs!!!