The VideoLAN Forums

I was excited to hear about a new version of VLC comping out, hoping that problems with advanced "soft" subtitle rendering would have been fixed, it has not.
As in earlier versions, the lack of this feature continue to keep fans of subtitled (foreign) video from using the player.

Lol.

Can you explain what platform you are in and what sample does not play so we can fix it ?

Sure thing.

an example file can be found here:
http://a.scarywater.net/ayako/%5BAyako% ... kv.torrent
I apologize that it is bittorrent, and it may not load very quickly, but I had trouble finding a file that is currently available.

In this particular file, the problem occurs in the first seconds of the file (in fact, if the subtitles aren't automatically selected, you will have to manually select them, then drag the progress-scrubber to the far left to re-start the video). In the first seconds, the screen contains a white background with blue text- this is the video itself. There are 2 sets of subtitles displayed simultaneously: a translator's note and the "translation" of the words spoken in the audio.

in smplayer (under ubuntu 8.04) and media player classic using the Combined Community Codec Pack (windows XP sp3), the translator's note is rendered in blue at the top of the screen, and the translation is rendered in pink with red outline on the bottom of the screen.

In vlc 0.9.2 (in windows XP sp3) and in vlc 0.8.6 (in ubuntu 8.04 - which does not yet have a package for the latest vlc) both the translator's note and the translation subtitle are rendered across the bottom of the screen, overlayed upon one another. All text is white with black outline, and a bit larger than the text rendered in the other players, so they span an extra line on the screen.

Sure thing.

an example file can be found here:
http://a.scarywater.net/ayako/%5BAyako% ... kv.torrent
I apologize that it is bittorrent, and it may not load very quickly, but I had trouble finding a file that is currently available.

In this particular file, the problem occurs in the first seconds of the file (in fact, if the subtitles aren't automatically selected, you will have to manually select them, then drag the progress-scrubber to the far left to re-start the video). In the first seconds, the screen contains a white background with blue text- this is the video itself. There are 2 sets of subtitles displayed simultaneously: a translator's note and the "translation" of the words spoken in the audio.

in smplayer (under ubuntu 8.04) and media player classic using the Combined Community Codec Pack (windows XP sp3), the translator's note is rendered in blue at the top of the screen, and the translation is rendered in pink with red outline on the bottom of the screen.

In vlc 0.9.2 (in windows XP sp3) and in vlc 0.8.6 (in ubuntu 8.04 - which does not yet have a package for the latest vlc) both the translator's note and the translation subtitle are rendered across the bottom of the screen, overlayed upon one another. All text is white with black outline, and a bit larger than the text rendered in the other players, so they span an extra line on the screen.

I have not tested the file just yet, still downloading, but what I read here suggests to me:
1: need to reset your Windows VLC 0.9.2, because it is not using the libass renderer, but the old pre 0.9.0 renderer
2: need to kick your ubuntu maintainers to add thenew VLC and remind them not to forget about the libass module either.

could you describe to me what it means to "reset" vlc?

here was my upgrade process in windows XP:
1) opened start->control panel->add/remove programs
2) removed vlc (I chose to "delete preferences" as well as the media player)
3) installed the vlc 0.9.2 available on the website.

2: need to kick your ubuntu maintainers to add thenew VLC and remind them not to forget about the libass module either.

Yeah, I guess this is something that will "wait for the next release" so I followed the directions here: http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/09/1 ... in-ubuntu/

Works great- solves linux problem. I think it uses the same renderer as mplayer, because side-by-side the subtitle rendering is identical.
Now for the windows problem.