Help with Missing Subtitle Display in Mplayer

[jfluckey]

In the past I installed mplayer through the repository and had no problems with displaying subtitles. I decided to expand my knowledge and keep mplayer up-to-date with subversion. After installing the newest stable release, I get no subtitles. Attached is the mplayer output of the file I am playing. You will notice there are subtitles in the .mkv file. I have also attached my config file for inspection. The subtitles work in VLC, but I want to use mplayer, so "use VLC" is not a solution.

I have a truetype font in the ~/.mplayer directory named subfont.ttf which I copied over from /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts.

Please help me solve my problem. TIA.

MPlayer SVN-r34132-4.5.2 (C) 2000-2011 MPlayer Team

Playing movie.mkv.
libavformat file format detected.
[lavf] stream 0: video (h264), -vid 0
[lavf] stream 1: audio (dca), -aid 0, -alang chi
[lavf] stream 2: subtitle (text), -sid 0, -slang eng
VIDEO:  [H264]  1280x544  0bpp  24.000 fps    0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
Load subtitles in ./
==========================================================================
Forced video codec: ffh264vdpau
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264vdpau] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264 (VDPAU))
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 1536.0 kbit/100.00% (ratio: 192000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [ffdca] afm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg DTS)
==========================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
[VD_FFMPEG] Trying pixfmt=0.
Movie-Aspect is 2.35:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [vdpau] 1280x544 => 1280x544 H.264 VDPAU acceleration 
[VD_FFMPEG] XVMC-accelerated MPEG-2.

#======
# Video
#======
# Set video driver.
vo=vdpau,xv,
vc=ffh264vdpau,ffmpeg12vdpau,
# Use double-buffering. (Recommended for xv with SUB/OSD usage)
double=yes
#This sets the postprocessing into overdrive using all possible spare cpu cycles to make the movie look better
autoq=100
#Enter cache size
nocache=1


#======
# Audio
#======
# Set audio driver.
ao=alsa
# Set mixer channel
mixer-channel=Master
# Ajust volume differences. *
a52drc=1


#==========
# Subtitles
#==========
#subtitle code

# Text-based subtitles
#=====================
# Find subtitle files. (1: load all subs containing movie name)
sub-fuzziness=1
unicode=yes
#utf8=yes
# Resample the font alphamap. (1: narrow black outline)
ffactor=1
# Set subtitle position. (100: as low as possible)
subpos=100
# Set subtitle alignment at its position. (2: bottom)
subalign=2


#===========
# Appearance
#===========
# Disable screensaver.
stop-xscreensaver=yes
# Position window. (50%:50%: center of screen)
geometry=50%:50%

[Rubberman]

Check the configuration options for building mplayer (./configure --help). There may be an option to enable/install subtitle support.

[jfluckey]

Good idea. I just ran ./configure with no extra options. I figured subtitle support was automatic. It looks like I have an option I will try when I get home (could build and install from work but have no way of verifying subtitles show up, unless you know a way). I don't really know exactly what it really does, but no harm in trying it. Anyone know if a codec would affect the subtitles?

--enable-ass-internal enable internal SSA/ASS subtitle support [default: autodetect]

[jfluckey]

O.K., just ran ./configure --enable-ass-internal and I saw the following output:

Checking for SSA/ASS support ... no (FreeType support needed)

I will google, but any ideas?

[Rubberman]

O.K., just ran ./configure --enable-ass-internal and I saw the following output:

Checking for SSA/ASS support ... no (FreeType support needed)

I will google, but any ideas?

You need to install the freetype package in your system. What Linux distribution+version are you running?

[jfluckey]

I came to the same conclusion. I didn't see any option on the freetype website for git or subversion, so I will download and install when I get home. I am running Ubuntu: Natty. I also decided to run ./configure with the OSD menu enabled (disabled by default). I also ran "make install" and it gave me an error about mencoder and permissions, so I reran with root privileges. Again, I won't be able to give any feedback until I get home.

[jfluckey]

Installing the new build did not fix my problem. Also, I have FreeType 2 already installed per my Ubuntu Software Center. I installed SMplayer (Mplayer Frontend) hoping dependencies would get fixed, but mplayer still does not show subtitles. I can use SMplayer and enable subtitles... what gives?

[Rubberman]

Installing the new build did not fix my problem. Also, I have FreeType 2 already installed per my Ubuntu Software Center. I installed SMplayer (Mplayer Frontend) hoping dependencies would get fixed, but mplayer still does not show subtitles. I can use SMplayer and enable subtitles... what gives?

Yes. You want to build (make) as a regular user, but you want to install as root unless you are installing to the user space.