Black subtitle in HDR movies

[LeonTheBad]

When playing any 4K HDR movie, the subtitles show up black. Changing the setting does not work. It does not matter if the subtitle is embedded or loaded separately. It happens with all the HDR movies downloaded online.

3.0.6 and 3.0.7 show this problem, 3.0.4 shows subtitle correctly.

[Lotesdelere]

Please open Tools -> Messages (set Verbosity to 2) before you start the playback, and then paste the full resulting log here or on Pastebin.com if it's too long.

Also upload a short sample of a problematic file to Zippyshare.com (200 MB max) or to WeTransfer.com and then post the link to the file here.
http://www.zippyshare.com
https://wetransfer.com

If needed cut it with DGsplit and read here about how to do it:
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=57724&p=193335#p193335
100 MB max should be enough.

[LeonTheBad]

https://pastebin.com/Aa2A2D3T

https://www28.zippyshare.com/v/8vEHm19A/file.html
This sample has got embedded subtitles, which shows up black. Loading other subtitles results the same.

[unidan]

It's a known issue but there is no fix for now. Subpictures like subtitles are not yet converted to movie colorspace and transfer function. The converters exist but it lacks some code to create them correctly.

reported here: https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/22447

[sadimi4458]

Is there any plan for a fix yet? I understand you must prioritize, but if the subtitles are completely black, they are basically useless. Apart from being very annoying, I also think it makes VLC a lot less useful

[Novalis]

Guys it always easy to complain in the armchair...
but I must admit it is a killer. If you don't fix it the player is useless.
-1
Also all bluray menus are affected too.
-1

[moret14]

I'm experiencing the same problem, still apparently no fix. Black subtitles are unreadable in most scene's and changing subtitle color in settings has no effect when HDR is engaged. Please fix this!

[hilldoug750]

I am having the exact same issue with Ultra HD Blu-Ray Menus. if I have HDR Turned On, the Menu is blacked out/incredibly dark. When I turn HDR off, it looks fine

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/1n0WYRN

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I am having the exact same issue with Ultra HD Blu-Ray Menus. if I have HDR Turned On, the Menu is blacked out/incredibly dark. When I turn HDR off, it looks fine

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/1n0WYRN

You should file a bug about that.

[hilldoug750]

I am having the exact same issue with Ultra HD Blu-Ray Menus. if I have HDR Turned On, the Menu is blacked out/incredibly dark. When I turn HDR off, it looks fine

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/1n0WYRN

You should file a bug about that.

I put one on https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Thx

[ndnenigma]

This problem still exists even in 3.0.12. I see people have filed a few bugs about this but the issue still exists. This is the only reason I have been using 3.0.4 for the past while. Considering something was broken by an update, hopefully it's not that difficult to fix in a timely manner.

[nnnsqtr]

This issue is still present in 3.0.16.

Tried 3.0.4 as someone suggested above, and the issue is NOT present there.

[IceCool]

Year 2019 - black subtitles in HDR movies.
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Year 2022 - black subtitles in HDR movies.
lol

[Phillium]

Does anyone have a workaround for this? Kind of hard to play a movie if you can't navigate the menu.

[Lotesdelere]

You can create a new ticket on the VLC Trac with your above report, the link to your sample file (see post #2 of this thread) and the link to this thread:
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues

[bobbsk724]

there's a reddit post that says to use the opengl video output as a workaround. worked for me

[Muyfa666]

I just experienced this problem myself. Will create a ticket when I'm at home later.

In the meantime I found a workaround that I'd thought I'd share.

The OpenGL fix isn't good for me as it introduces choppy playback.

Instead I found that if I start the movie with HDR turned off, the subs are fine. If I turn on HDR while the movie is playing, the subs stay fine for the duration of the session. Not perfect, but at least it works for now and it's easy to do with hotkeys.

EDIT: I noticed there are open tickets about this issue in the tracker. Hopefully it gets fixed down the line.

[Mediawatcher]

On 2 December 2023, the problem still exists with the latest version.. OpenGL helps, but at the same time HDR colors are lost from movies. So, if you want to get the full benefit out of 4K HDR movies, you have to use version 3.0.4 + direct3d11 output and hardware acceleration.

[fullscreentimeslider]

Pretty unreal that this problem has existed for 5 years and it STILL isn't fixed. The entire point of VLC is to play video content and it still hasn't fixed the 4K HDR forced black subtitle glitch.

Instead I found that if I start the movie with HDR turned off, the subs are fine. If I turn on HDR while the movie is playing, the subs stay fine for the duration of the session. Not perfect, but at least it works for now and it's easy to do with hotkeys.

Good work around. Lets see if I can remember to do this in the future. It works as of now.
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[Tgo1014]

Just had the issue with black subtitle in VLC and found this topic here.

Instead I found that if I start the movie with HDR turned off, the subs are fine. If I turn on HDR while the movie is playing, the subs stay fine for the duration of the session. Not perfect, but at least it works for now and it's easy to do with hotkeys.

This solution "works", the subtitles are indeed back to the normal color, but the content it not playing in HDR. I just tested here and it fixes the subtitle problem but the image quality is lost, so not really a viable solution I would say.

[OmegaPrime]

For all that have encountered this issue in Windows Try Video Output Direct3D9