Arabic subtitle doesn't work vlc 2.0.0

Arabic subtitle doesn't work. I have vlc 2.00 mac. The old one work perfectly with Arabic subtitle. I changed the option to arabic widows 1256 but still does not work. It appears as squares. Thank you for your great program :).

It should work. Try the following:

• Set suitable default encoding in the preferences. (If the encoding of subtitles file is UTF-8, it doesn't need.)
• Set font in the preferences. Default value is Arial Black that doesn't contain any Arabic glyphs.
• Run VLC and play a short movie (1sec ok:-) from terminal.app: /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC -vvv >& /tmp/vlc.log And find the freetype log: [0x10409dcf0] freetype spu text debug: Using XXX as font from file /Library/Fonts/XXX.ttf

If Arabic font is properly set, you should see Arabic subtitles.

If you cant. Try the following:

• Reset preferences
• Delete font cache (~/Library/Caches/fontconfig)

And please attach a piece of srt files you use. (not a full but a short in 250kb)

Added attachment:

• macvlc_arabic.png

Here is an evidence. attachment:macvlc_arabic.png

Well, there are too many users (Windows/Mac) who complain that VLC2.0 doesn't work with foreign subtitles, but All of them work for me...

We must prepare a FAQ :-)

But there are possibility that the issue is really bug of VLC. So, I want to wait the user's reaction.

Maybe we can do something about it? Like quitting Fontconfig and using Mac APIs?

It worked when I changed the font to Arial instead of Arial Black. but the font is bad in Arabic and some of the punctuation marks appear as squares.

But the font in your picture is very good!!.

If you want an example of a perfect program in Arabic subtitles there is movist and the old vlc. I hop you fix the font in the next version. Thank you very much, I appreciate your help and your fast answer.

@busy Please upload your example srt.

Added attachment:

• sample.srt

Can you tell me what is the font in the picture ? I tried almost every font in vlc in the preferences but still the same bad font!.

Replying to [comment:5 busy]:

It worked when I changed the font to Arial instead of Arial Black. but the font is bad in Arabic and some of the punctuation marks appear as squares.

I attached the arabic subtitles using Arial next. previous one is KacstOne.ttf.

Added attachment:

• macvlc_arabic_arialq.png

I can't judge which is good or bad :-) Anyway thanks for the sample.srt!

I am sorry but, how can the old vlc and movist work with Arial Black in Arabic but the new doesn't ?

From 2.0, text renderer is changed from quartztext (using Mac OS X API) to freetype (library used widely Unices/windows). quartztext also exist snow but freetype is chosen by default.

I don't know well about quartztext, but maybe it has some fallback mechanism or another reason.

Strictly speaking, Arial Black doesn't contain Arabic, but have Latin-1/Cyrillic/Greek/etc.Arial contains Arabic.

Freetype renderer uses only glyphs that choosen font has. So, you can't use Arial Black for Arabic subtitles at least if you use freetype renderer.

If you choose quartztext renderer, maybe you can use Arial Black.(!!!!BUT I DO NOT TESTED!!!!).

How to choose quartztext renderer:

preferences->all->video->subtitles/osd -> change text rendering module Default to CoreText font renderer

Replying to [comment:4 jb]:

Maybe we can do something about it? Like quitting Fontconfig and using Mac APIs?

I don't know well about Mac APIs, so I cannot state my opinion.. Do you mean changing only font choosing algolithm from using fontconfig to using Mac APIs, right?

@busy I downloaded sample.srt, but what file encoding?

Any of my editor cannot detect the file encoding...

I attached the two pictures of playing with Arabic subtitles, using UTF-8 encoding file.

But I cannot detect file encoding of your srt file. Can you re-attach not plain file, but zipped file?

Added attachment:

• sample.rar

Replying to [comment:13 nkoriyama]:

How to choose quartztext renderer:

preferences->all->video->subtitles/osd -> change text rendering module Default to CoreText font renderer

Your way is working the good font came back.

If you choose quartztext renderer, maybe you can use Arial Black.(!!!!BUT I DO NOT TESTED!!!!).

I tried, it's working.