[TPFKAS]

I have Windows XP with the latets update of Windows Media Player 11.

I used to be able to see subtitles stored in local smi- files in the past, but I have not done it for a long time. Now I wanted to look at a movie with subtitles again, but it does not work anymore. I have turned subtitles on from the Security tab, but they just don't show up. Can anybody help me? TIA

[techie4fun]

Hi

I'm curious. You mentioned subtitles, so you are trying to watch a movie in Windows Media Player, correct?

[TPFKAS]

Yes, that is correct.

And I have a smi subtitle file with the same name and in the same directory as the movie. The format and content of the subtitle file is 100% OK, but I still cannot see it when I play the movie in WMP.

[mphenterprises]

Hi TPFKAS and welcome to PCWorld. :-)




If I may ask, what format are you watching? DVD, .avi, .mpg, etc.? The reason I ask is that I believe DVDs have the subtitles embedded within the disc itself. Just to cover all bases, try this:

- Open Windows Media Player

- Instead of going to the Security Option, go to DVD option...Click on the button under any of the selections at the top and click "More Options"

- Click the DVD tab

- The Advanced button should be available, click that button

- On the left side of the secondary window, you will see a list of options. Scroll down till you see "Subtitles" and make sure there is a checkmark in the box

- Click on Subtitles and make sure that there is a check mark in the box next to the word Subtitles on the right side

- Right underneath of that, you will see "Search in", make sure that radial button is checked and then click on the button with three dots. This will allow you to browse for the folder where subtitles are kept.

- Select the appropriate folder and click OK until you exit all Option windows

- Restart Windows Media Player and then try the movie again.

[TPFKAS]

Hi mph,

Thanks for answering.

I am watching an AVI file stored on a local hard drive, I think it's compressed with the DivX codec. The subtitles are in a separate smi-file in the same directory as the movie, so I would not think that the DVD tab has anything to do with it, would it? Going by your description I would think that this tab enables you to watch local stored subtitles when watching a DVD.

Anyway, I am now travelling and using my laptop and my problem is on my desktop at home. But on my laptop I have checked it out, but there is no "subtitles"-button. Under the advanced button on the DVD tab of the Options Window there is only an audio tab, nothing else...

I can check on my destop tonight (which is the European tonight ;-)) , but again, I don't think this has anything to do with it. Any other ideas?

TIA

[mphenterprises]

Hi TPFKAS. Yeah, I figured you were not watching a DVD but I wanted to cover all bases. Now, honestly, I have never had a need to watch .avi movies, with or without subtitles, so I am at a loss here. However, let's try to make sure you at least have your basics:

- Make sure you have the latest Codecs. You can download K-Lite Mega Pack by clicking this hyperlink.

- I did a quick search and found an interesting article about Syncronizing and merging subtitles into an AVI file. Now, I do not know if this will help your situation, but again, we are trying to give you the basics.

- If you are not tied to Windows Media Player, try to watch this movie via another player. VLC Player is a free application that handles just about any video format.



Try these options and we can go from there.

[TPFKAS]

Hi mph,

Thanks for your elaborate answer. To be honest, I don't like installing such codec packs, because my experience is that this can lead to all kind of conflicts on my machine. I am a very heavy video editor using a wide variety of video tools and they sometimes tend to use the wrong codecs when rendering video after editing. Any way, it is not a codec issue; I suspect it is a WMP installation issue.

I know various ways to actually merge the subtitles with the video stream. You can simply do it with VirtualDUB and a subtitle filter found here www.virtualdub.org/virtualdub_filters.html.

I also found another solution to play selectable subtitles in WMP: you can use VobSub, which acts as a plugin with WMP. I tried it and it works.

But you know I am one of these guys that just can't stand it knowing that WMP was able to do this in the past but now it does not anymore X-( Tonight I am going to try to roll back to WMP10 and see if I can get it working....

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

[mphenterprises]

:-) Not a problem. Yes, please post if a rollback works. If it does not, it appears you have alternatives. Wish there was more that I could suggest.

[TPFKAS]

No joy. I rolled back and ended up with WMP9. Not the desired result. I upgraded to WMP10 and still no joy, so I upgraded again to WMP11.

I guess I have to think of something else that causes this problem. What puzzles me is that you suggested to change a subitle setting under the advanced settings in the DVD tab and I could not find such a setting. What I did find is a settng related to Nero Showtime which is part of Nero. I am trying to uninstall that but I need to find put how to do that without uninstalling Nero.

[mphenterprises]

Hi TPFKAS. You know what, you are not t he first person to say this. We had at least two other people who could not access that Advanced feature within Windows Media Player. I am using Windows XP. I believe the other two people were using Vista. I do not know if that has anything to do with it or not; however, it is definitely something to investigate.

Regarding Nero....you may have to uninstall Nero completely and then reinstall Nero without Nero Showtime.

[TPFKAS]

Well, I am using XP, so apparently it is not an exclusive Vista problem. The button is not greyed out, but it first showed AC3filter options. After I uninstalled that, there are now settings for Nero Audio under that button.

I just uninstalled Nero Showtime, but still no luck with the subtitles. :(

[lilxkid24]

Try uninstalling it, then try reinstalling it, if that doesn't work maybe try a rollback and get back wmp10

[mphenterprises]

lilxkid24 said:

Try uninstalling it, then try reinstalling it, if that doesn't work maybe try a rollback and get back wmp10

TPFKAS said:

No joy. I rolled back and ended up with WMP9. Not the desired result. I upgraded to WMP10 and still no joy, so I upgraded again to WMP11.

Hi LilxKid. I believe he already did the rollback option. :-) A complete uninstall and reinstall directly from Microsoft is worth a shot. Nothing else seems to work.