Pre-release: VLC 0.8.0-test2

[WiseWeasel]

It seems that version 0.8-t2 is still affected by a troublesome subtitle display bug in mkv movies. Subtitles seem to display fine in ogm movies, but the sides keep getting cut off in my mkv movies, and it seems like if it needs to display more than two lines of text, it will pile up extra letters on the sides, on top of the first two lines. The main difference between the ogm and mkv movies is that the ogm is widescreen format, while the mkvs are 4:3. I can't get the text to size down so that more would fit in the screen, or to take up 3 lines when it needs to. This is the only problem I'm having with 0.8-test2. The subtitles seem to be UTF-8 in all cases, recognized by VLC as subt format. Is there a way to make the subs display smaller or respect the aspect ratio of the video? I've tried changing all the preferences I could think of to fix this, to no avail. I was hoping 0.8 might fix this, but apparently not. Mplayer is unable to play these particular mkvs normally, instead playing them much faster than they're supposed to be played (though it doesn't seem to have problems with others, but the others that do work with mplayer also have this same issue with VLC). There is just something funky going on with the subtitle rendering in mkv files. Any suggestions? I've posted a screenshot of the rendering error here:

I'm running VLC 0.8.0-test-2 (0.7.2 is also affected) in MacOS X 10.3.5 on a 2x2GHz G5, 1 GB RAM. Apart from this problem, 0.8.0-t2 seems perfect, and works about as well as 0.7.2 so far. I hope this problem can be solved by the time 0.8.0 is released. Let me know if there's anymore info you guys need.

[Quovodis]

Firstly, congratulations on a great app!

I've been using 0.7.2 under Windows, to stream live TV directly from my Hauppauge PVR250 to Xbox based clients running Xbox Media Center. This has been running perfectly well (except I can't also view the streams on my Windows XP PC - but that's another story...)

However, when I try this beta, it crashes out as soon as you click the final 'OK' button to start streaming - all of the rest of the settings are the same as before - any suggestions?

Cheers


Andy

can you view the TV locally without streaming ?

[WiseWeasel]

Actually, I take back what I said about mkv being the only one affected. I found a 4x3 ogm movie, and that has the same issue with subtitle rendering as mkv. It seems to be a problem with all 4x3 movies that have subtitle tracks.

[Guest]

hi I being trying to transcode to file with this this version.. but it just seems to write the original file only. no matter what option you choose..

[WiseWeasel]

Oh, one more problem with the OSX version of VLC-0.8.0-t2 on 10.3.5 is that I seem to often get stuck in fullscreen mode, and hitting escape (or command-f) won't exit fullscreen mode. I can switch to other apps, using the command-tab combo, and VLC will play fullscreen as my background. The only way to exit fullscreen mode is by quitting VLC. This does not affect 0.7.2.

[fkuehne]

@WiseWeasel

Please try a late nightly build of VLC. The fullscreen-problem has been fixed some days ago.

[The DJ]

About the subtitles.
VLC doesn't wrap lines that are too long to display in the video window to the next line. The reason is simple. This requires quite some logic, and we simply haven't gotten aroud to that yet.

[WiseWeasel]

How about allowing us to reduce the text size? Thanks for your responses guys, VLC is the best player EVAR!!!

[markfm]

"trying to transcode to file with this this version"
I just transcoded an mp4v/mpga .mpg file, to both DIV3/mp3 and WMV2/mp3 .ASF files, no problem. Is there a specific from/to set of formats that you're trying?

"How about allowing us to reduce the text size"
At least for the time and marquee subfilters, use --freetype-fontsize to adjust the size. In the latest nightly builds, it's available through Settings -- Preferences. Check the "Advanced options" box, then go to Modules -- text renderer -- freetype; there's a setting for font size in pixels, or you can use the relative "Smaller" choice. Don't forget to "Save" afterwards, if you want to keep the setting between launches of VLC.
(VLC now provides 2 versions of controlling font size. If the size in pixels > 0, then you get that absolute size. If the pixel size = 0, then the small/normal/... type of selection works)

[WiseWeasel]

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Awesome, problem fixed. Thanks for the tip, markfm! Setting the text size to 20 pixels has solved everything. PERFECT! The only remaining bug I can find is a crashing bug when I switch audio tracks in ogm and mkv movies while they're playing. The workaround is to pause the movie, switch tracks, and hit play again. It's a minor issue, with an easy workaround, so no big deal. This is wonderful, good work, everyone!

[WiseWeasel]

Actually, I have one more question. Is there a way to get subs to display until they are replaced by the next subs, or just stay indefinitely when VLC is paused? Sometimes, on some anime, there will be a bunch of dialog that goes by really quickly, and when I pause VLC to read it all, they will automatically disappear after a set amount of time, and I won't be able to read it all. Is there a way to have subs stick around until they are replaced, or stay indefinitely when VLC is paused? I see there's a setting in the svcdsub and cvdsub decoders for this, but not for subsdec, which I believe is the one used for ogm and mkv subs. Any suggestions? Oh, and the perfect sub size seems to be 20 pixels for most 4x3 movies.

[WiseWeasel]

Grr, I meant about 25 pixels, not 20. 'Bout time I registered here, so I can edit my posts...

[WiseWeasel]

Found another bug in the latest nightly build of 0.8.0 (200410140323) on MacOSX 10.3.5 (0.8.0-t2 is also affected). On many ogm and mkv movies, but apparently not on .avi divx movies, using the fast forward and rewind commands will not function properly, instead going to near the beginning of the file. 0.7.2 doesn't behave like this, so it appears to be a bug that cropped up in the 0.8 tree. Let me know if you guys need any further info or testing.

[Edit] I'd like to add that even in 0.7.2, the ffw and rew commands only step a frame or so at a time, instead of the usual 5-10 seconds or so that divx avi files are scanned through. [/Edit]

[Guest]

I cant seem to bind backspace or tab with any action.

[ironhead]

Saving some of the settings don't seem to work. I've download the windows installer and I'm trying to set the wxWindows interface to not embed the video, yet everytime I close VLC and go back in, its enabled again.

Never Mind.... just realized that the menu entries have the settings being over written.

[rpg]

When using vlc 0.8.0 test 2 on os x 10.3.5. there is a neon green 1 pixel wide box surrounding all video outputs. This is only visible when playing avi's full screen.

[WiseWeasel]

It seems like when I set the coreaudio Audio Output module device value to 1 (from its default setting of 0), then hit save and quit VLC, if I launch VLC by opening a VLC-bound document (.avi, .mkv, .ogg, etc.), or by dragging a document on the VLC app, this device value will revert to 0. If I set the value to 1, save, quit, and then launch VLC and then open a document with it, it will keep its device value setting of 1. To recap, launch VLC first and then open document = value remembered; launch VLC by launching VLC document directly = value reset to default. This is on MacOS 10.3.5 on a 2x2GHz G5, and happens with VLC 0.7.2, 0.8.0-test2 and the latest nightly build of 0.8.0. This is very troublesome, as files with ac3 or dts audio will crash coreaudio until I restart if played with VLC with the default audio device value. This is perfectly reproducible.

[Guest]

hello,
because I am on a slow computer I alwys had desynchronized audio problems with other players. only vlc could play everything in sync.
now with the new 08 betas i have often the same problems like in other players (it worked perfectly in 072). did you change something in the audio decode section? or why does it often run out of sync?
greets

[The DJ]

We changed something in the audio resampling to avoid a 'wobbly' sound. However this can indeed cause problems perhaps for slower machines. We are still experimenting with this. Thank you for your report

[lamp]

Now I have migrated to Mac OS X (Panther 10.3.5), will IGMPv3 be supported on MAC OS X?

Basically, I've been using VideoLAN for a long time on Windows platform. And I have been using VideoLAN as a multicast server and receiver on both IGMPv3 and MLDv1 (basically an IPv6 implementation of IGMPv2) on both WinXP and Linux to support SSM (Source Specific Multicast).

[The DJ]

Mac OS X does not support IGMPv3. i'm hoping that Tiger will in the future, but i'm not sure.

[Nano]

Hi!

I think VLC has some problem on processing Sami format subtitles....

It has always processing subtitles somewhere around 35 minutes from the start of movie and then gave me an error message of following "main: seek failed for slave 0 -> EOF".

I've tested about it with nightly build as of Oct. 28 as well as previous version including 0.72 version. All the same results....

Also, still can we adjust subtitle vertical position under the movie area?

For your ref., I'm using 1G Albook with MacOSX 10.35... I love VLC very much and thanks for your keeping great job...

[The DJ]

Ah, thanks i'll look into this. Vobsubs had similar problems, so i'll know where to look. should be fixed in a breeze.

[Guest]

Thanks! Mr. DJ Great job!!

Finally Problem on Sami Subtitle is fixed(as of Oct., 29)...
No error message anymore.. So fast!! Thanks again....

And adjusting the subtile vertical position with some functions such as its color and outline etc. under the movie area is only things left to be developed at this time. Any plan for that?

Thanks again for your great job!!!!!

Using 1G Albook with MacOSX 10.3.5...

[The DJ]

Yes we are definetly looking into improving the capabilities of our subtitle render system. However to do this correctly will take a great deal of time and patience.