MPlayer can display subtitles along with movie files. Currently the following formats are supported:
MPlayer can dump the previously listed subtitle formats (except the three first) into the following destination formats, with the given options:
MPsub: -dumpmpsub
SubRip: -dumpsrtsub
MicroDVD: -dumpmicrodvdsub
JACOsub: -dumpjacosub
Sami: -dumpsami
MEncoder can dump DVD subtitles into VOBsub format.
The command line options differ slightly for the different formats:
VOBsub subtitles. VOBsub subtitles consist of a big (some megabytes) .SUB file, and optional .IDX and/or .IFO files. If you have files like sample.sub, sample.ifo (optional), sample.idx - you have to pass MPlayer the -vobsub sample [-vobsubid id] options (full path optional). The -vobsubid option is like -sid for DVDs, you can choose between subtitle tracks (languages) with it. In case that -vobsubid is omitted, MPLayer will try to use the languages given by the -slang option and fall back to the langidx in the .IDX file to set the subtitle language. If it fails, there will be no subtitles.
Other subtitles. The other formats consist of a single text file containing timing, placement and text information. Usage: If you have a file like sample.txt, you have to pass the option -sub sample.txt (full path optional).
Adjusting subtitle timing and placement:
If you experience a growing delay between the movie and the subtitles when using a MicroDVD subtitle file, most likely the frame rate of the movie and the subtitle file are different. Please note that the MicroDVD subtitle format uses absolute frame numbers for its timing, but there is no fps information in it, and therefore the -subfps option should be used with this format. If you like to solve this problem permanently, you have to manually convert the subtitle file framerate. MPlayer can do this conversion for you:
mplayer -dumpmicrodvdsub -fps subtitles_fps -subfps avi_fps -sub subtitle_filename dummy.avi
About DVD subtitles, read the DVD section.
MPlayer introduces a new subtitle format called MPsub. It was designed by Gabucino. Basically its main feature is being dynamically time-based (although it has frame-based mode too). Example (from DOCS/tech/mpsub.sub):
FORMAT=TIME # first number : wait this much after previous subtitle disappeared # second number : display the current subtitle for this many seconds 15 3 A long long, time ago... 0 3 in a galaxy far away... 0 3 Naboo was under an attack.
So you see, the main goal was to make subtitle editing/timing/joining/cutting easy. And, if you - say - get an SSA subtitle but it's badly timed/delayed to your version of the movie, you simply do a
mplayer dummy.avi -sub source.ssa -dumpmpsubA dump.mpsub file will be created in the current directory, which will contain the source subtitle's text, but in MPsub format. Then you can freely add/subtract seconds to/from the subtitle.
Subtitles are displayed with a technique called 'OSD', On Screen Display. OSD is used to display current time, volume bar, seek bar etc.
You need an MPlayer font package to be able to use OSD/SUB feature. There are many ways to get it:
Use the font generator tool at TOOLS/subfont-c. It's a complete tool to convert from TTF/Type1/etc font to mplayer font pkg (read TOOLS/subfont-c/README for details).
Use the font generator GIMP plugin at TOOLS/subfont-GIMP (note: you must have HSI RAW plugin too, see http://realtime.ssu.ac.kr/~lethean/index.php?pagename=MplayerKoreanFonts).
using a TrueType (TTF) font, by the means of the freetype library. Version 2.0.9 or greater is mandatory! Then you have two methods:
use the -font /path/to/sample_font.ttf option to specify a TrueType font file on every occasion
create a symlink:
ln -s /path/to/sample_font.ttf ~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf
If MPlayer was compiled with fontconfig support, the above methods won't work, instead the -font expects a fontconfig font name and defaults to the sans-serif font. To get a list of fonts known to fontconfig, use fc-list. Example: -font 'Bitstream Vera Sans'
Download ready-to-use font packages from MPlayer site. Note: currently available fonts are limited for ISO 8859-1/2 support, but there are some other (including Korean, Russian, ISO 8859-8 etc) fonts at contrib/font section of FTP, made by users.
Font should have appropriate font.desc file which maps unicode font positions to the actual code page of the subtitles text. Other solution is to have subtitles encoded in UTF-8 encoding and use -utf8 option or just name the subtitles file <video_name>.utf and have it in the same dir as the video file. Recoding from different codepages to UTF-8 could be done by using konwert or iconv programs.
Table 1.1. Some URLs
| URL | Comment |
|---|---|
| ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/fonts/ | ISO fonts |
| ftp://ftp.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/contrib/fonts/ | various fonts by users |
| http://realtime.ssu.ac.kr/~lethean/index.php?pagename=MplayerKoreanFonts | Korean fonts and RAW plugin |
If you chose non-TTF fonts, UNZIP the file you downloaded to ~/.mplayer or $PREFIX/share/mplayer. Then rename or symlink one of the extracted directories to font, for example:
ln -s ~/.mplayer/arial-24 ~/.mplayer/fontNow you have to see a timer at the upper left corner of the movie (switch it off with the o key).
(subtitles are always enabled, for disabling them please read the man page)
OSD has 4 states (switch with o):
You can change default behaviour by setting osdlevel variable in config file, or the -osdlevel command line option.
MPlayer has a completely user definiable OSD Menu interface.
the Preferences menu is currently UNIMPLEMENTED!
Installation
start MPlayer by the following example:
$ mplayer -menu file.avi