has anyone ever gotten subtitle filter to work?

[JimmyTheSaint]

I haven't been able to get the subtitle filter to actually embed the subtitles on any Macintosh computer for several years. I've always had Windows computers where it works fine, so that verifies that I know what I'm doing. At this point, I'm down to one Windows computer, and its only function is to run Avidemux when I want to embed subtitles in video clips. Plus, I have to keep a Windows partition on one of my Macs via Bootcamp as a backup. I'd like to go all Mac with my stuff, but inability to embed subtitles on the macos side is my very last sticking point. I've looked and googled for solutions for years and have tried all the things advised (fonts, etc.), and nothing has ever worked. In fact, after googling for years, I've never seen a single case where someone giving advice actually verified that they'd embedded subtitles on macos. So my question is not how do I do this or how do I troubleshoot it, as I've worked on that and failed for years. Rather, I'd just like to see if there's anyone who's actually done it and can verify that success is repeatable. Then I'll try to compare notes with that person to try to get mine working by imitation, as analytical advice and deduction and educated guesses have simply proved ineffective.

My concern is that there is no one who's actually every embedded subtitles on a Mac. For example, no one's ever replied with experience to this thread: http://avidemux.org/smif/index.php?topic=16201.0

[Jan Gruuthuse]

If that is the only purpose of windows usage, think switching to ubuntu.
On our avidemux demo channel 37 seconds video: Subtitle ASS long lines and moving text test

[JimmyTheSaint]

So then that would be my only purpose of Ubuntu usage. I think it would be a better solution to finally determine why the subtitle filter hasn't worked in years--if ever--on a mac.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

I don't have the apple hardware to test. So perhaps you can and report back to the developers.
Does it work with this sample subtitle file:

[Jan Gruuthuse]

short video howto Subtitle Hardcoding in to video

Lucky you, seems developer(s) have the hard/software to test. Could be you need an updated avidemux: http://www.avidemux.org/nightly/

[mean]

Just tried with a small .ass subtitles on OSX
Works fine
??

Maybe SRT=>Ass internal convert is broken

[JimmyTheSaint]

Yes, the supplied test subtitle file worked fine, subs moved with no crashing. On Windows, extracting the subtitle file from an mkv file, converting it to .ass with Subtitle Workshop, then using that .ass file has always worked fine. I then always do the same small tweak on the subtitle color and shadowing from my notes, without possessing comprehensive knowledge of all the formatting possibilities. That's the process that's always failed for me on Mac, even when the subtitle file has been extracted via Windows and verified to be working correctly on the Windows side. But after looking at your sample subtitle file that just worked on my mac, I conclude that it's user failure on my part: my lack of knowledge of the format and its headers must be a factor here. Here's how my file looks:

Code Select Expand

[Script Info]
Collisions: Normal
PlayResY: 640
ScriptType: v4.00+
PlayResX: 853
Timer: 100.0000

[V4+ Styles]
Format: Name, Fontname, Fontsize, PrimaryColour, SecondaryColour, OutlineColour, BackColour, Bold, Italic, Underline, StrikeOut, ScaleX, ScaleY, Spacing, Angle, BorderStyle, Outline, Shadow, Alignment, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Encoding
Style: Default,Rockwell Std,24,&H00FFFFFF,&H00FFFFFF,&H00000000,&H00C0C0C0,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0.00,0,3,0,2,20,20,20,1

[Events]
Format: Marked, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:01:40.89,0:01:45.32,Default,Default,0000,0000,0000,,Four billion years ago, the first marine life formed.


I note that the top of your file is different, with moving subtitles and whatever. But I only ever need to embed simple subtitles, modifying those digits to for simple appearance tweaks. I tried overwriting the top of my file with the top of yours, plus adding the following style after your "john" style:

Code Select Expand

Style: Default,Rockwell Std,24,&H00FFFFFF,&H00FFFFFF,&H00000000,&H00C0C0C0,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0.00,0,3,0,2,20,20,20,1
but that didn't work. So I assume I'm missing something simple about the file format that doesn't cause a problem on Windows, but does on macos. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

[Jan Gruuthuse]

I'm a basic user, so at 1st sight, i can't tell. Could be resolution related?

Perhaps you can find the issue with testing the script with video in http://aegisub.org/

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Or the font (Rockwell Std) is not installed or has different name or alias? or type is not matching (truetype font )
You could try: place font Rockwell Std ttf in same location as the ass subtitle file.

[JimmyTheSaint]

As I mentioned, I've looked into the font issue before, and none of the suggested solutions ever worked. In this case, I cut and pasted your style specification, changing the style name to "Default," as opposed to your named styles. I can't use a named style because these subtitles that I extract don't use that field. I used the font "Comic Neue" and your font size, which work in your sample .ass file like so:

Code Select Expand

Style: Default,Comic Neue,45,&H006CECEB,&H006CECEB,&H00000000,&H00222222,-1,0,0,0,100,100,0,0,1,3,2,2,2,2,2,1
But still no subtitles appear.

Then I tried a global search and replace to change all my "Default" subtitle lines' style to your "john," but I still got no subtitles. So right now, I'm using a file that's identical to yours (which works) up to the events, and all my events are formatted the same as your "john" style, but mine doesn't work. It can't be a font issue because your "Comic Neue" font works with your sample file. Yet mine is the sub file that's embedded in the mkv file, and which works properly with Avidemux on the Windows side. Can anyone provide a clue?

[JimmyTheSaint]

Actually, there's something funny going on with your subtitles. I make a clip from 0:30:22-0:30:42 of my video, but the subtitle that gets embedded from your file is "Here is a normal line," which should only embed from times 0:00:01-0:00:02. If there's something in the headers that specifies relative or absolute time scaling, I can't see it.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

there some conditions in front of the script. As I stated it is a test script.

most likely the font is not installed.
File (1.48 MB total): comic-neue-2.2.zip Will be deleted on 27 November, 2016
Download link: https://we.tl/HWnyQHgaLt

when you download

Aegisub is a free, cross-platform open source tool for creating and modifying subtitles. Aegisub makes it quick and easy to time subtitles to audio, and features many powerful tools for styling them, including a built-in real-time video preview.

You have following possibilities
- Windows    Full Install
- Windows    Portable Version
- OS X 10.7+    Full Install

It will give you a better understanding of subtitles.

I found more basic subtitle test files:

[JimmyTheSaint]

Those sample files didn't work, either. Thanks for giving me fonts to install, but as I said I've experimented thoroughly with the whole fonts thing in the past. I mean, it's weird that even the most common fonts don't work, so I think it's more than a simple font problem, or else there are no fonts at all installed on the several macs that all exhibit the exact same problem, where all the Windows boxes I've had worked fine.

Jan, thanks for trying you're not doing anything on Mac, and we're now repeating all the stuff I've tried in the past. I did post this in the MacOSX forum. So I still have the same question as I began with this thread: is there someone who has actually used the subtitle filter on macos and had it work? @mean says it works: I beg of you, please give me more information or at least a file that worked with the subtitle filter on macos. Is there anyone here who actually uses a mac that can see some sort of mistake in the portions of my file that I posted above?

[mean]

I tested with that one

[JimmyTheSaint]

I tested with that one

Well, that didn't work for me either. My mac's Font Book application verifies I have Arial installed, but the subtitle filter never embeds anything from your file. I've been through all the settings, but they're all the same as what works in Windows: video outpout := x264, audio output := copy, output format := mkv muxer, and everything else left untouched. I choose the subtitle file for the filter, no problem. It just never works on Macos (my MBR and my MacBook 12), but it works on Windows. Any suggestions?