VLC subtitles Preferences
 

Hello there.
I am a devoted user of VLC but lately (as in recent versions) I am no longer able to set the subtitles preferences except for their color. I can no longer enjoy the relative size or their position nor the font effect (background/outline).
any ideas?

more info
 

What version of VLC are you using?

What is the source of your audiovisual files? (commercial DVD vs. Handbrake output vs. ripped commercial DVD).

the latest version on vlc. the subtitles file is an .srt file

Do you mean the version that was released in the last 24 hours, v. 1.1.9?

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

And you didn't answer Sumleilmus's question: What is the source of your files?

Should you need to revert to an earlier version, or if you want to try stepping back in versions to see with which version the issue begins, older copies of VLC are still available here:

http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc

vlc v-1.1.8
the source of the files are various but most are product of handbrake. but again the problem is not with the movie but with the subtitles.

First thing I'd try is the latest version. If that doesn't help, I'd go back to v. 1.1.7 using the link above simply to see if the problem appears for you in that version. The version you're using came out about two weeks ago, and it sounds like that may correspond to the arrival of the issues you're seeing. Even if 1.1.7 shows the problem, try using 1.1.6, too, just to help determine if the problem is VLC or something with your machine.

In terms of that last point, have you tried creating a new user account and testing VLC there? That's another way to help determine if the problem is somehow tied to your user account or something elsewhere.

I've tried 0.9.0 and it works but only the sizes, without the outline or the background...
I tried 1.1 and it already has the problem. 1.1.8 has it also on a fresh user.
Does it work for you?

Unfortunately, I don't have any movies with subtitles for testing. Worse, my version of VLC is really old. It's just not software I use much. Generally, when I play a movie on the Mac it's with Movist. You may want to give that a try, not to replace VLC, but because it can also handle subtitles, so it may be a good way to test your movies/subtitles.

thanks for the tip, it has a superb subtitle visualization controls, however, it doesn't have the tricks and shtiks that VLC has. I'll have to get used to it ;)
I can hope that VLC would adopt these kind of controls.

Another bonus I've found with Movist is it's ability to play louder than the system volume. And it works well with the Apple Remote if you have one.

For your VLC issue, I'm certainly not a movie ripping or subtitle expert, but I wonder if some of the information linked below applies. In a nut, VLC can't alter font properties for certain subtitle formats.

http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentati..._Use/Subtitles

subs
 

About those subtitles. Now the question is which Handbrake version?

The complexity of the handling of subtitles by Handbrake has increased. Most of the Handbrake output that I have seen has "burned in" subtitles that are actually part of the video track and for that reason not subject to easy modification, if subject to modification at all.

Handbrake does permit certain formats of subtitles to be muxed in but not burned in, as of version 0.9.4 I think. The latest version is 0.9.5. I have never figured out where to find or how to do the muxed trick that permits subtitles to be in multiple languages (for polyglots or their households), and would make them relatively easy to edit with settings such as the ones in VLC.

The issue may be the characteristics of your Handbrake output rather than VLC per se. Chat up the person who created the output for deep details of how the subtitles were encoded into the container.

Another point: in which container are your Handbrake files? .mp4?

The illustrations in the link NaOH gives show subtitles in formats such as .ass & .srt that look to be subject to some editing by VLC. Burned in ones, AFAIK, are not.

When you upgrade (or revert to an earlier version of) VLC, do you run its little AppleScript to reset the preferences?

I have found this helpful on a couple of occasions to get VLC's Preferences working right again. If you have updated via the built-in (Sparkle) updater, you won't get that AppleScript, but I don't think it's really necessary to clean up the prefs--you can just trash anything with 'vlc' in the title in ~/Library/Preferences/. There are a few .plists and a folder.

Movist
 

I just used Movist to examine a Handbrake mp4 with burned in subtitles. It sees no subtitles but I do (with my eyes). They are burned into the video stream.

Zero in on the format of your subtitles and how they are encoded and/or muxed and you should be rewarded with enlightenment.

may be you didn't realize it but I am talking about separated subtitle files that vlc play along the film, not burned into the video as seen when ripping with handbrake.

Have you tried leanmac's suggestion?

As he noted, the built-in Sparkle-based updater won't give you the script, so if you're not removing files manually you can get the AppleScript application for removing preferences by simply downloading the latest dmg.

yep, but i do it differently, i do it from within the preferences window (reset all pref's)

That's only resetting to default the preferences options you see and doesn't touch many of the files VLC creates. For example, on my machine, using the same reset procedure you're using

• ~/Library/Preferences/VLC has three files that went unchanged while there was one new file added;
• ~/Library/Preferences/org.videolan.vlc was unchanged;
• ~/Library/Preferences/org.videolan.vlc.LSSharedFileList.plist was unchanged;
• ~/Library/Preferences/org.videolan.vlc.plist was replaced with a new file.

I would try one of the other methods, especially since at this point other steps we've tried haven't yielded the effect you're seeking.

I'll try ASAP but the thing is that there are few issues here:
1. there are two different locations for settings of ST rendering: one for mac and one for windows. the one for mac has three options: font, relative size and color - only the color works. the on for windows has more options in addition to the 3 mentioned above: text effects such as background or outline or fat outline; text position' absolute size etc.
any of the windows rendering settings that I play with has no effect whatsoever. in fact the only thing I am able to play with is the color of the text and that is only vie the mac rendering settings. i am not sure that VLC even have the ability to play with settings any more, could you check if it works for you? you can download any subtitle file from www.opensubtitles.org and change its name to suit any .avi file and activate that .avi with VLC, the subs would be loaded automatically regardless of the fact that they don't belong to the specific movie. then play around with these settings and see if it works for you. I've noticed that for any of these settings to take effect you need to quit vlc.
2. there is no longer control over the relative size of the text (of external subtitles)

Okay, I finally got a chance to do your test. Sorry for the delay. Mind you, on my machine I tested this with VLC version 1.0.5. The changes took effect for size, color and font style after I closed the movie window then reopened it (not the VLC window, just the window VLC was using for playing the movie).

I then went and grabbed the current version (1.1.9) for testing. I could adjust the font and the color, but the size would not change. And if it matters, I'm running 10.6.7. So, at least on my end, the issue seems to appear somewhere between versions 1.0.5 and 1.1.9.

in which of the two rendering options tab (Text renderer or Mac text renderer) are you setting the color, the size and the effect?
I ask because I was unable to set the outline or color from the text renderer even on this 1.0.5 which I just downloaded. However, I was able to change the relative size and color from the Mac text renderer. and the 1.1.0 already has this problem so I declare the 1.0.5 the latest which is good with this respect ;)

I'm not certain where you mean when you refer to the Text Renderer and the Mac Text Renderer. I made the adjustments I described above in Preferences > Subtitles & OSD. If you want me to test in a different way, just let me know what you'd like done.

see attached screenshots.
so how are you changing the font effect?

Gotcha. The picture I've attached shows where I was making changes. I'll go have a look now to see what happens in the approach you just described.

Mac Text Renderer: Changing any of the three options in that preferences panel had the configured effect appear in a movie.

Text Renderer: No changes made here had any effect.

What else can I test?

so what exactly do you mean by font style? were you able to play with the effects provided by the font pallet (cmd+T)?

By font style I simply mean the font, like changing from Helvetica to Minion Pro. In my earlier message, when I first said I'd changed the font style, it was by using the basic subtitle preferences and clicking the Choose button. That brings up the standard font-selection panel, like you mentioned with Command-T.

In that panel, I'm not certain which effects you're referencing. Do you mean things like the color? I can only change the color using the options provided in the VLC pop-up menu.

so no, I mean the Font effect as seen in the third picture posted earlier. well I think we can wrap it up... thanks for the help and the intention. The main problem was the relative size of the font and that is solved thanks to VLC 1.0.5! I hope that the VLC team would pick up on this issue and correct it in future versions.

Yeah, like I said a couple messages ago, I couldn't get anything in that Text Renderer preferences panel to work. Since I can't get VLC to display for me the settings you'd like it to provide, I don't have a firm sense of what how you want subtitles to appear, but did you play with the Stroke and Shadow options in the Movist preferences to see if they can achieve (or come closer) to what you want?

what do you mean, I never saw such preferences. please teach me oh grand master :)

In Movist, open its Preferences with the standard Command-Comma. In the Subtitle section, simply pick your desired colors for Text, Stroke and Shadow, then adjust the sliders to see if any of them produce the look you want. You'll probably most want to play with the Width and Offset sliders, but you're of course welcome to try the others.

One of the nice aspects I'm seeing with Movist is that once you release the mouse from a slider position, the effect appears in the movie. So you may want to have a movie playing and the preferences window open beside it.

(Grand master? You're learning me here, too. I've never worked with subtitles prior to this thread.)

Oh, you mean in Movist... got it ;) and as I said, this app is superior in its subtitle rendering capabilities.
well, once again thanks for the support.

we're all learning here
 

OK, after you guys made me red-faced (well, pink, anyway) for not getting the .srt detail, I bought an Italian (not my native language) DVD, found .srt English subtitles for it, transcoded with Handbrake 0.9.5 adding the .srt, and found, as you detailed, that VLC 1.1.9 will let me choose the font from Preferences>Subtitles and OSD. I discovered and then read here that for the changes to take effect, the current VLC playback window must be closed then re-opened, and, voilà, there are my chartreuse Big Caslon subtitles.

QuickTime Player, which in some iterations of Mac OS X is less jerky, and some iterations more jerky, than VLC for playback of .mp4 files, offers no flexibility with subtitles other than on or off, and uses a fat white sans serif font I dislike as the default. One might attack it with PropertyList Editor, but I think I'll investigate Movist instead.

(It was a DVD I'd been seeking for years, not a special purchase to keep up with you guys.)

Wow, a DVD image file, burnable, with .srt subs that work
 

OK, thanks guys.

I like to keep backups of DVDs, especially expensive, hard to obtain ones, like this one from Italy. Why? Children have fingers, jam exists, dogs have teeth, and other reasons.


I found I could make a DVD image file with the .srt subs at root level, and that MPlayerX (from the Mac App Store) will play the image file. If one mounts the image file before pointing MplayerX at it to play it, one can then _ALSO_ point MplayerX at the .srt file in the mounted volume, and, voilà, one is playing, more or less, a DVD while showing .srt subtitles embedded at root of the DVD. These are esoterica, to be sure. I'm off to try it with a meatspace DVD-R.

That things be clear, this is not a discussion of eliminating copy protection. It is a discussion of how to make use of .srt subtitles burned onto backup DVD-Rs.

Hey thanks a lot of this tip....I've been messing around with aegisub because I also wanted to change the subtitle display in vlc and don't have the preference options that others seem to have and rather than changing versions of vlc...(which I really like by the way) I found your post and voila...easy as abc in Movist....Thanks alot.