Broken subtitles? How to fix it!

[ExSport]

Hello all
During the weekend I spotted that on my Panasonic TV for which UMS automatically adds black bars to fix Aspect Ratio, subtitles are not missing and overlays each other.
So I was digging and testing and found some changes from past.
It seems new MEncoder builds (tested on Windows) have different behavior from past.
Panasonic and other renderers are using "-vf softskip,expand=::::1:16/9:4" so bad AR is fixed automatically.
But it doesn't work anymore.
When I removed "16/9" part, subs were correct but it is needed for AR fix so it is not a solution.
Then I found out that when I put "softskip" from beginning to the end, subs were rendered correctly! Tested with embedded soft subs (SRT).
So tried external SRT one and another problem. Subs were displayed twice overlayed, one white without special chars and second one in yellow including special characters (diactrics).
Fix was changing ":1:" to ":0:". In past if someone wanted to render subs outside the screen(to the added black bars), it had to be enabled (OSD=1). Now it is opposite.
Have to say, only SOFT subs are affected and when "ASS/SSA subtitle styling" is enabled. PGS or VOBSUB worked without problem without any modifications.
Final working change was: "-vf expand=::::0:16/9:4,softskip"
If used in Renderer.conf, working change is:

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CustomMencoderOptions=-vf expand=::::0:16\/9:4,softskip

I know that with some videos, when "expand" is used, picture will be sometimes corrupted. Because of that "softskip,expand=" is used in UMS code.
When I found this behavior, if I remember right, it doesn't worked when "softskip" was used at the end. I can't find what test files did this picture corruption so can't test if new command is OK or it will be better to use it on both sides of command line:

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CustomMencoderOptions=-vf softskip,expand=::::0:16\/9:4,softskip

Hopefully someone will reproduce it. I am sure because in last few months some people wrote that subs are overlayed or doubled so same what I spotted now.
ExSport
EDIT:
It seems with latest MEncoder versions I am not able to reproduce scrambled picture when "softskip" is not used at the beginning so it should be enough to use it at the end of the line only

[ExSport]

Seems you are ignoring me SubJunk
I know my posts are sometimes like spam but anyway useful for reading

[civ]

I finally got my new Panasonic TC-P50UT50 hooked up to the network today and tried UMS. Initially with subtitles enabled the aspect ratio was correct but the subs were doubled and on top of each other. When force-disabling subtitles in UMS Transcoding Settings, saving/restarting UMS, the video no longer shows subtitles but the black bars which corrected the aspect ratio disappeared, now stretching the content vertically.

Seems like I'm seeing the same behavior you described, ExSport.

None of the changes listed appear to correct the AR when subtitles are disabled. Are there any other changes necessary besides in Panasonic.conf?

[civ]

Ah, I had to force transcode and change

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DLNALocalizationRequired=false

to

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DLNALocalizationRequired=true

for the TV to be able to play the MEncoder version. It was unable to read the file without the change and seems to be working now. Black bars with correct aspect ratio and subs disabled.

[ExSport]

DlnaLocalization has nothing to do with forcing MEncoder engine.
Please disable it again and retest it. AR was not fixed because when subs are not needed and file is compatible, ums will skip MEncoder usage.
Use #Transcode# folder and play file with subs !starting! with [MEncoder]. It will force MEncoder to be used.
Thx

[valib]

ExSport thanks for your input. I included your formula to the internal Mencoder setting. It coul'd be enabled in renderer.conf by adding line

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KeepAspectRatio=true

and deleting the

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CustomMencoderOptions=-vf softskip,expand=::::1:16\/9:4

Great job.

[carlotino]

Last night I installed UMS for Windows 2.4.2 and the subtitles (external SRT) were displayed twice overlayed in my Panasonic SmartViera.

Will this be fixed in the next versión of UMS?

Thanks!

[ExSport]

The code is already implemented in beta versions but you can test it also with version you are using right now if it will work
Replace similar line in Panasonic.conf with this one

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CustomMencoderOptions=-vf expand=::::0:16\/9:4,softskip

Let us know if it works for you

[carlotino]

Thanks ExSport... you were right.