Chinese Subtitles don't work

[Blueshift]

I'm trying to display Chinese subtitles. I can properly display Chinese subtitles when I find them in .idx files, but Chinese .srt files are gibberish (English .srt files work fine).

Here's part of a Chinese .srt file in Notepad. These are the same characters I see on the screen:

5
00:01:10,419 --> 00:01:12,182
ÎÒÒªÒ»Á¾¾È»¤³µ

6
00:01:12,388 --> 00:01:17,080
ÄãµÄµØÖ·ÊÇÂåɼí¶Èý½ÖÎ÷9212ºÅ£¿


Most of the Chinese subtitle files I find are .srt and very few are .idx, so I'd like to know how to display .srt properly.

I've read a number of things on this forum and have been trying them and other things I think of on my own for a few hours.

I have the Chinese IME installed.

Ironically, when I switched the "Regional and Language Settings" to Chinese (PRC) in Windows' Control Panel, all of the VLC menus displayed in perfect Chinese, but the subtitles were still gibberish.

WinXP SP3
VLC 1.1.1

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

You expected "你的地址是洛杉矶三街西9212号？"? This is occurring because you've configured VLC to English language. You can change only VLC's character encoding with Tools -> Preferences -> Subtitles -> Default encoding -> Universal, Chinese (GB18030).

[Blueshift]

You expected "你的地址是洛杉矶三街西9212号？"? This is occurring because you've configured VLC to English language. You can change only VLC's character encoding with Tools -> Preferences -> Subtitles -> Default encoding -> Universal, Chinese (GB18030).

That's exactly what I expect to see.

I followed those directions in another post, but it merely changes the subtitles to boxes. On another post, someone said that's because Chinese fonts aren't installed. I have Chinese fonts on my computer (as I said, VLC menus can be displayed in Chinese), and I can type into Skype / Notepad in Chinese. But still I downloaded and tried various Chinese fonts. None worked. In most cases, when I tried to change the font, the subtitles simply left the screen, and nothing was displayed at all.

Obviously it works on your end if you're seeing that, but something's still wrong here. Could it be because of Win XP? If it's a font thing, do you know which font your VLC is using and where to get that font?

Thanks for the help so far!

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

The squares are a font problem. I don't use Windows, so don't ask me. This works fine on Linux.

[Blueshift]

Thank you for trying Remi!

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[chesterdrawers]

I was having the same problem, but after much searching, I found some things that helped solve it for me:

First, I think the reason your .srt file is garbled is because it isn't encoded right. On the advice of another forum, I downloaded the trial version of NJStar, http://www.njstar.com/cms/ (incidentally, this program can also do Japanese & Korean.) Use this program (it's Universal Code Converter) to convert your .srt file to UTF8 --- it will create a new file in a separate folder (easy to find), with the same name as your original. Now when you open the *new* file in Notepad, you should see the Chinese characters.

Next, you need to set up VLC: Go to preferences, and in Subtitles/OSD, change Default Encoding to UTF-8. Set the preferences to "show all," and then go into Video - Subtitles / OSD and change "text rendering mode" from "default" to "Freetype2 font renderer." Now, expand the Subtitles/OSD menu and go down to "Text Rendering." Choose a Unicode font to display. (You may have to type out the file path for the font; I wasn't able to browse for it anyway. Of course, you'll want to choose a font with Chinese characters. I chose SimHei -- C:\Windows\Fonts\simhei.ttf).

Finally, save preferences, and restart VLC. When you begin your movie, simply choose the .srt file NJStar made for you via the Video menu, Subtitles track, Open file.

Worked for me, hope it works for you too.

[may90net]

I'm having the same problem in displaying the chinese subtitle in vlc player. I have converted the chinese subtitle srt file to many encoding such as UTF8, BIG5, GB18030 and etc, and i play each of it, but still it doesn't work at all. what should i do? Can anyone help me ASAP please?

[jcvd]

Another software to show Chinese language in order for VLC or any other software to show characters as intended

the one I'm using is NJSTAR

p.s. to choose subtitle tracks from VLC, go to Video-->Subtitle Tracks

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

As said many times. If you see boxes, then you need to select another font. If you see question marks or garbage characters, and only then, you need to select another character set (or re-encode the subtitle file).

[bewolff]

There might be an all-together simpler option.

.SSA / .A-S-S subtitle files play no problem on English OS computers with whatever video player. You can often find what you are looking for in TV shows or movies at the website -->> http://www.shooter.cn/

Note: .A-S-S is written without the hyphens, but the forums language filter interprets it as foul language and blocks it.

This is a all Chinese language site. You will first need to register. Google translate can translate the site enough that you can resister. Once you register, you can search for a title, such as Big Bang Theory, or with some specificity, Big Bang Theory S04E11. Don't worry about what TAB at the top of the page to select. The site searches for subtitles. (Incidentally, the top TABS say "Latest Subtitles", "Top Searched Today", "Popular this Week", and "I would like to upload.")

If you search renders a result with large grey download tabs, then your search was successful. If the search results simply look like a browser search result, then you syntax is somehow wrong. Look in the descriptions...you will usually see SUBRIP or .A-S-S or SSA. Subrip will get you the same SRT files you have been working with.

Typical Search Result Sample
The Big Bang Theory S04E11 / 生活大爆炸 第四季 第11集 720p 已经有1个人留下了评语
格式： Subrip 语言： 英简繁 制作：风软FRM字幕组 校订：720p时间轴: DeadZombie 上载：DeadZombie 发行：謦灵风软影视娱乐论坛 查阅次数： 178次 日期： 2010-12-26 18:35:54调校： The.Big.Bang.Theory.S04E11.720p.HDTV.x264-IMMERSE
28.40KB
下载次数：149次 翻译质量：10分(1人评价)
生活大爆炸第四季第十一集 / The Big Bang Theory S04E11【中英简繁 双语特效】 / 天才理论传 已经有2个人留下了评语
格式： SSA 语言： 英简繁 制作：女侠阿呆 fayy 鹿鸣谷 校订：女侠阿呆 fayy 上载：fayy 查阅次数： 1243次 日期： 2010-12-19 04:46:48
34.70KB
下载次数：1038次 翻译质量：10分(1人评价)

SSA and SRT will give you a result of a zipped file which when opened will give you two choices. The first is often "The.Big.Bang.Theory.S04E11.HDTV.XviD-FEVER.繁体&英文.ssa" 繁(fan2,po2) 体(ti1,ti3) &英(ying1) means traditional Chinese common in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.
The second is often "The.Big.Bang.Theory.S04E11.HDTV.XviD-FEVER.简体&英文.ssa" 简(jian3) 体(ti1,ti3) &英(ying1) 文(wen2) means simplified Chinese common in PRC.

You most probably want the simplified version, so try to memorize what that character looks like.

Additionally the uploaders there do a tremendous work. You will often find a zip file with as many as six or eight different options, including traditional and simplified versions of both SRT and A-S-S/SSA files and with or without accompanying English subtitles. They really are top notch. Look for something like "Fringe.S03E09.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION.简体&英文.A-S-S" for a recent episode of Fringe. The Chinese tag at the end says "Simplified & English". If you open the subtitle in Notepad is looks like this....

Dialogue: 0,0:00:06.57,0:00:07.97,*Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,你得回家了\N{\fn方正综艺简体}{\fs14}{\b0}{\c&HFFFFFF&}{\3c&H2F2F2F&}{\4c&H000000&}You have to go home.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:08.00,0:00:09.37,*Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,你不过是幻觉\N{\fn方正综艺简体}{\fs14}{\b0}{\c&HFFFFFF&}{\3c&H2F2F2F&}{\4c&H000000&}You're not real.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.10,0:00:11.22,*Default,NTP,0000,0000,0000,,那这个奥利维亚呢\N{\fn方正综艺简体}{\fs14}{\b0}{\c&HFFFFFF&}{\3c&H2F2F2F&}{\4c&H000000&}What about this Olivia?

About SRT
Making SRT display properly requires the basic language of you system be changed in the language settings. The drawback of this is that some of you software will now display an unattractive courier font in the headers and menus. Changing it back and forth can be tedious.

Supposedly there is software that will convert SRT to .A-S-S/SSA subtitle files, however I've never been able to make it work with the Chinese fonts. I've downloaded and tried "Coversor" but I always get an error with the Chinese. This is where I have been hung up. I expect it has something to do with my system's language settings or the version of the program. If someone could help me out there it would be much appreciated.

[backtoak]

This setting worked for me...Universal, Chinese (GB18030)

[aliguu]

ok i've finally decided to put this method that worked for me online for myselves memory and for everyone.

PROBLEM:
Chinese subtitle dont display properly on vlc, or funny fonts come out and no matter what settings you do on vlc it wont work.

BACKGROUND:
TRUTH is that my computer/WINDOWS 7 is configured to display/input simplify or traditional Chinese.
So i can actually type Chinese in a blank NOTEPAD that I created and be able to view them correctly. YES. TRUE.
but then the .srt files downloaded from shooter.cn wont display correctly on my NOTEPAD, and always funny fonts to most cases.

MY SOLUTION using MICROSOFT WORDS 2010:
0. make sure u backup the .srt file.
1. right click on the Chinese .srt fie > Open with > Microsoft Words
2. choose an encoding that will display the Chinese in the preview window, and OK.
(In my case CHINESE TRADITIONAL/SIMPLIFIED auto-correct)
3. right click again on the Chinese .srt file > open with > NOTEPAD
(now u should have a WORDS windows displaying the subtitle in chinese that is viewable, and another NOTEPAD window displaying the subtitle in all un-readable funny fonts)
4. Select All (CTRL+a) & then Copy All (CTRL+c) the content in WORDS.
5. Go/click the NOTEPAD window, and do Select All CTRL+a, then do Paste All CTRL+v.
(you should now be able to view the subtitle in correct fonts/chinese that is view-able)
6. Go to opened WORD window and CLOSE program without making any save.
7. Go to the opened NOTEPAD window, and go to SAVE AS, and choose [UTF-8] in the encoding drop-down selection, (this should be next to the 'SAVE' button on the bottom). SAVE and CLOSE.

8. open VLC, go to TOOLS > PREFERENCES > SUBTITLE & OSD
-change the Default Encoding to [Universal (UTF-8)]
-change the Font to one that is meant for chinese, eg for traditional Chinese i use [SimHei"]
9. still in the TOOLS > PREFERENCES window, click on the left bottom corner, the ALL selection.
the menu on the left changes to more options.
-Double click "Video" > click 'Subtitle/OSD'.
-on the right side, change the "Text rendering module" to [FREETYPE2 FONT RENDERER]
10. click SAVE and CLOSE VLC for it to effect.

NOW re-open VLC and the chinese subtitle should work.

I had to do the 1-7 step repeatedly for any subtitle that isnt showing properly for it to work.
GOOD LUCK hope this helps!!!

[veetveetmano]

Thank you very much aliguu, I followed you instruction and wola!! i had subtitles. I tried your method for Japanese subs Of course i had to change the sub fonts in vlc player to "Meiryo". just registered in this site so that i can say thank you... Keep up the good work

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

It is a known issue that you cannot mix Chinese, Japanese and/or Korean languages. It affects pretty much any Unicode software, including VLC. There is no solution for that.

[andrlind]

aliguu, I created this account just to thank you! You did save me a lot of time! Thanks!

[k01b01]

I am laughing at aliguu's so called "solution" for naive users of VLC.

This is nonsense. The same video/Chinese subtitle works just fine in Windows Media Player Classic even the .srt file can not be displayed correctly in notepad. VLC must correct this stupid issue. I am not going to waste time to change all my .srt files just because VLC does not work. I will just dump VLC and use Windows Media Player Classic.

[Jfet]

After a lot of time and tinkering, I've gotten my subs to work in general. I don't know if this will work for others, but this is just what I did.

First, you need to make sure your computer's region is Chinese, I went with Chinese (Simplified, PRC).
If you're running Windows 7, this is under

Control Panel -> Clock, Language, and Region -> Region and Language -> Administrative tab

Once you are under Administrative, click on "Change System Locale" and change it to "Chinese (Simplified, PRC)" (I'm assuming Chinese Traditional would work too, but I haven't tried it)
Click "OK" and restart your computer (NEED to restart)
*Note: There is a "Location" tab too, but changing it doesn't help you

For VLC itself, this is just what worked for me.

Tools tab -> Preferences -> Subtitles and OSD

For simplified subs, select "Simplified Chinese Unix (EUC-CN)"
For traditional subs, select "Traditional Chinese (Big5)"

Now the tricky part. Each Chinese font can display simplified, traditional, or both types of Chinese. Also your fonts will differ depending on what Chinese software/language packs you have downloaded.
ie. Microsoft Yahei -> simplified Chinese
Microsoft Jhenghei -> traditional Chinese
DFKai-SB -> both

Some(most) fonts VLC won't be able to display correctly, so you might have to experiment a bit. For me, the 2 Microsoft fonts worked in general, and also DFKai-SB.
After you've changed VLC preferences, you must restart VLC in order for settings to take effect. If you're selecting fonts, you have to restart VLC EVERY TIME you change a font.

Hope this helps at least someone.

BTW, if you are desperate for Chinese subs to work, and they just won't. You can always download a Chinese video player (not recommended), like Baidu player etc.
From what I've seen, they shouldn't have any problems displaying Chinese subs, though I cannot say what kind of software/spyware/viruses they may bring along with them, so BEWARE, and consider yourself warned.

[mederi]

I tested VLC Extension Subtitler (lite) with some Chinese and Japanese subtitles in Central European environment (Windows XP, code page: ANSI Windows-1250).
Supported subtitle format: SRT.
As I did not know correct encodings of downloades subtitles I better used Notepad++ for manual conversion to UTF-8.

Testing some Chinese subtitles:
http://www.shooter.cn/xml/sub/239/239048.xml
Cloud_Atlas_2012_720p_BluRay_DD5_1_x264_PuTao.zip (171168B)

Code: Select all

Cloud.Atlas.2012.720p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-PuTao.eng.srt 140077 2013.1.21 23:44.44 Cloud.Atlas.2012.720p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-PuTao.chs.srt 202342 2013.1.22 22:37.40 Cloud.Atlas.2012.720p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-PuTao.cht.srt 202342 2013.1.22 23:18.14

Cloud.Atlas.2012.720p.BluRay.DD5.1.x264-PuTao.chs.srt >> Notepad++:
I can see SRT structure, correct timings, but there are squares instead of characters. I can see detected encoding in the status bar: UCS-2 Little Endian.
So in Notepad++ menu:
Encoding > Convert to UTF-8
File > Save

Now I play some film with this subtitle file in VLC media player => There are just squares displayed on the screen.
Reason: wrong font. There are no suitable fonts available in my computer.

Setting up Subtitler (lite) VLC Lua Extension script - edit "Subtitler (lite).lua" in text editor (Notepad++):

Code: Select all

-- Global variables: -- The path must contain only English characters! subtitles_path = "c:/subtitles/1.srt" -- fixed subtitle file. charset = nil -- means default UTF-8 encoding! output_osd = false output_dialogbox = true ------------------------ html1 = "<div align=\"center\" style=\"background-color:white;\"><a style=\"font-family:Verdana;font-size:36px;font-weight:bold;color:black;background-color:white;\">" html2 = "</a></div>" welcome = "Subtitler (lite)" osd_position = "top-left"

Rename subtitle file to "1.srt" and put it in the stated directory "c:/subtitles/"

Play some film in VLC, activate the Subtitler (lite) in VLC menu: View > Subtitler (lite)
Subtitler (lite) dialog box shoud be opened, welcome message should disappear and number of subtitles should be seen in title bar of this dialog box window.
Now I can see Chinese signs displayed on the screen

Testing some Japanese subtitles:
http://www.opensubtitles.org/subtitles/ ... ndables-ja
the.expendables.(2010).jpn.1cd.(3870646).zip (21908B)

Code: Select all

The Expendables (2010) DVDSCR XviD-MAXSPEED www.torentz.3xforum.ro.s 52145 2013.3.23 19:19.38

The Expendables (2010) DVDSCR XviD-MAXSPEED vvv.torentz.3xforum.ro.s >> Notepad++:
I can see SRT structure, correct timings, but there are weird signs and some squares. I can see detected encoding in the status bar: ANSI.
So in Notepad++ menu:
Encoding > Character sets > Japanese > Shift-JIS
Now there are only squares instead of characters.
Encoding > Convert to UTF-8
File > Save As... > Filename: 2.srt
Put the file in the stated folder "c:/subtitles/".

Create a copy of "Subtitler (lite).lua" in "..\lua\extensions\" directory, for example: "Subtitler (lite)2.lua".
Now edit "Subtitler (lite)2.lua" in text editor (Notepad++):

Code: Select all

subtitles_path = "c:/subtitles/2.srt" -- fixed subtitle file.

Play some film in VLC, activate both Subtitler (lite) in VLC menu. You can edit also title if you wish.
2 Subtitler (lite) dialog boxes shoud be opened, welcome message should disappear and number of subtitles should be seen in title bar of both dialog box windows.
Now I can see Chinese and Japanese signs displayed on the screen
How many different subtitles can you play this way?

It seems that dialog box with html/css1 is pretty universal.
Windows-1250 subtitles in VLC, UTF-8 Chinese "Cloud Atlas" subtitles in top Subtitler dialog box, UTF-8 Japanese "The Expendables" subtitles in bottom Subtitler dialog box:

Can anybody confirm that diplayed Chinese and Japanese signs are correct? Thanks.

[oryxy]

ok i've finally decided to put this method that worked for me online for myselves memory and for everyone.

PROBLEM:
Chinese subtitle dont display properly on vlc, or funny fonts come out and no matter what settings you do on vlc it wont work.

BACKGROUND:
TRUTH is that my computer/WINDOWS 7 is configured to display/input simplify or traditional Chinese.
So i can actually type Chinese in a blank NOTEPAD that I created and be able to view them correctly. YES. TRUE.
but then the .srt files downloaded from shooter.cn wont display correctly on my NOTEPAD, and always funny fonts to most cases.

MY SOLUTION using MICROSOFT WORDS 2010:
0. make sure u backup the .srt file.
1. right click on the Chinese .srt fie > Open with > Microsoft Words
2. choose an encoding that will display the Chinese in the preview window, and OK.
(In my case CHINESE TRADITIONAL/SIMPLIFIED auto-correct)
3. right click again on the Chinese .srt file > open with > NOTEPAD
(now u should have a WORDS windows displaying the subtitle in chinese that is viewable, and another NOTEPAD window displaying the subtitle in all un-readable funny fonts)
4. Select All (CTRL+a) & then Copy All (CTRL+c) the content in WORDS.
5. Go/click the NOTEPAD window, and do Select All CTRL+a, then do Paste All CTRL+v.
(you should now be able to view the subtitle in correct fonts/chinese that is view-able)
6. Go to opened WORD window and CLOSE program without making any save.
7. Go to the opened NOTEPAD window, and go to SAVE AS, and choose [UTF-8] in the encoding drop-down selection, (this should be next to the 'SAVE' button on the bottom). SAVE and CLOSE.

8. open VLC, go to TOOLS > PREFERENCES > SUBTITLE & OSD
-change the Default Encoding to [Universal (UTF-8)]
-change the Font to one that is meant for chinese, eg for traditional Chinese i use [SimHei"]
9. still in the TOOLS > PREFERENCES window, click on the left bottom corner, the ALL selection.
the menu on the left changes to more options.
-Double click "Video" > click 'Subtitle/OSD'.
-on the right side, change the "Text rendering module" to [FREETYPE2 FONT RENDERER]
10. click SAVE and CLOSE VLC for it to effect.

NOW re-open VLC and the chinese subtitle should work.

I had to do the 1-7 step repeatedly for any subtitle that isnt showing properly for it to work.
GOOD LUCK hope this helps!!!

Hi. Just created this form to contribute.

I tried the above methods and still did not work (although I did not try steps 1-7 repeatedly). I went tool, preferences, subtitles/osd, and in the fonts, I changed it from Arial to FangSong and then it worked!

Thanks to everyone's unique solutions.

[oryxy]

Corrections to above...

I copy pasted in the [SimHei], but you need to select it from the list in order to work properly, which it does for me.

[hellojwj]

dear all, I figured out a perfect solution. It seems that the main problem lies in choosing a suitable font coded with unicode. I find a chart showing fonts with their correspongding charset: http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/fonts.html. The only one for Simplipied Chinese is "Arial Unicode.ttf". It works.

[zdoe]

well - old thread, but the topic lives.

i have zero problems with the player itself, but the browser plug-in refuses to show UTF-8 .SRT's chinese characters, displaying boxes instead. yes, the font is right - i've selected arial unicode MS in the player settings, which i assume carry over to the plug-in.

the .SRT in question is bilingual - top-line zh-CN, bottom line en-US.

win7/64 - 32-bit vlc 2.2.1.

any pointers.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Settings do not carry over the the plugins, because in many cases, that would end up breaking the plugin. Unfortunately, there is no way to configure the plugin.

That being said, the plugin is on its way out. Whether we like it or not, Mozilla and Google are killing native plugins support. So there is very little incentive for anybody to further develop the web plugin.

[zdoe]

on the way out...!?

what a pity. i know chrome doesn't let the users do what they want anymore, but mozilla, 2!

do we know of any other tools / setup that would allow streaming of media from an MKV container?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Mozilla has not stated if/when they would disable NPAPI totally. But they already formally deprecated it and blocked automatic loading.