(applied) Few feature-requests to improve subtitles-support

[hugbug]

Hi,

first of all I would like to say THANK YOU to developer(s) for such a beatifull program and keeping it free and to forum members for great support here.

I am a long time user of BSPlayer and ZoomPlayer. I use the first to play HD-Movies (ts-recordings) with subtitles and the second for all other files. Looks like KMPlayer could replace them both.
The main purpose for me is watching movies with subtitles. Therefore I need the subtitles-support to be perfect :)
I' ve collected the list of feature-requests/issues, which, beeing implemented/fixed, will make the player just PERFECTLY suitable for the purpose. All of these request are very simple to implement (not a challenge for developer, only a tuning-work) and I hope them to be implemented.

1) Choosing subtitle-files (*.srt) in "Open File for TV (Ctrl+J)"-dialog (big thanks for it!) causes player to open it as media files (and therefore show error-message - "can't play this file"). The player should add the file as subtitles to the current video instead (as drag'n'drop does);

2) I could not find the way to change the offset-value for commands "Pull subtitle by 0.5 sec." and "Pull subtitle by 0.5 sec.". Looks like the value "0.5 sec." is hardcoded. "0.5 sec." is too much. I prefer to have too paar commands to adjust subtitles for short (0.2 sec. or (better) configurable) and long (1 sec. or (better) configurable) offsets like in BSPlayer. At least "0.5 sec."-value should be adjustible;

3) The playrate of subtitles (24fps or 25 fps) is mostly unknown. Therefore, if the subtitles and the movie are going out of sync, I need to stop playing, convert playrate of subtitles with an external program (Subtitle Workshop or a command line tool, I've found a couple days ago) and then start watching again with the converted subtitles-file. It would be great, if the player have two commands "Make subtitles slower" and "Make subtitles faster". The first command just multiply all timings of the loaded subtiles with 1.04271 (25/23,976) and the second command - with 0.95904 (23,976/25). Very simple to implement, but the effect would be awesome! Not needing external programs anymore (may be just for joining). These commands should be mappable to keyboard shotcuts, of course.

4) Although the Hue can be adjusted via Options-Dialog, I miss the dedicated commands "Increase/Decrease Hue" in menu "HW Color Controls (Overlay)" and therefore the ability to map them to keyboard shortcuts; Many HD-recordings, I'm watching, need adusting of Hue. I've used this feature very often in BSPlayer;

5) "Open File for TV (Ctrl+J)"-dialog displays incorrect file size for big files (tested with 8-10 GB files); not very important;

6) If the option "KMP Transform Video Filter" is disabled, the command "Playback info in OSC (Tab)" does not work. I guess it's because the infos are painted using special effects (transparency etc.). Is it possible still display the infos, but without effects, may be just with black background, if the transform filter is disabled? I need to disable the filter to make NVidia Purevideo working (it is the only decoder, that can play hd smoothly on my machine, because of dxva).

7) How to display OSD with the current play position and movie length (like OSD in BSPlayer or control bar in Zoom Player)? OSD with the name of the current media file and subtitles-file (would be great)?

I hope, I do not asking too much :)

Many thanks!
hugbug.

[z]

Thanks for your detailed explanation.
As much as possible, it'll be applied.

ps. You must be a very experienced user. ;)

[z]

By the way, I don't quiet understand about the 7th request. Would you explain it in more detail? And the 6th would not be applied as it causes a resource-hogging problem.

[hugbug]

Hi z,
thank you very much for response.

I've downloaded the latest beta and found, that the most my requests are already implemented. Awesome!

1) already implemented! New subtitles navigator under "Open dialog-boxes for tv-out". Thanks a lot! BTW, this navigator starts with the current folder, like "file navigator". Could it be possible to save current folders for "open file for play" and "open file for subtitles" separately? Just after the player is started, the current directory is the folder, defined under the option "start folder". Then the current folder for subtitles should be the first folder, listed in option "subtitles folder". I guess it would be more comfortable.

2) implemented! But a little broken. The options "short step" and "big step" are not saved. The command "Back big step" does not work. I'm sure these will be fixed later on.

3) implemented in another way, with new dialog. Not exactly, what I wanted, because this feature can not be used via keyboard shortcuts. I'll try to automate conversion with the program, I use for my remote control (eventghost). I have not tested the feature yet.

4) implemented! I figured out, that the commands for (HW-) brightness, contrast and hue are all using different steps. And these steps are too big: 4-12%. For example, for Hue the step 5 is used, which makes the command just unusable. Please make for all these commands the step 1! If someone needs bigger steps, then may be the option "step" is required?

5) fixed! great.

6) would not be applied as it causes a resource-hogging problem. Can infos be displayed in a separate dialog, if it is easier?

7) I have found the option, it was already here :) It calls "Time display at top right". Unfortunately, it does not work, if the "KMP Transform Video Filter" is disabled. Could it be fixed? BTW, the font size cannot be changed.
I would like also to have the ability to display the name of the current file and the name of current subtitles. It would be great, if the infos, being displayed could be configured, for example via variables (e.g. "{filename}", "{fullfilename}", "{fullfilename.ext}", "{subtitlesfilename}", "{time}", etc.).

I would like to say THANKS again to developers and supporters.

I have few another ideas, which I"ll post next time :)

Best regards,
hugbug.

[z]

6. Isn't it enough with the info box? There is already a separate info dialog box.

7. It is the same case as the above. As KMP already creates several display surfaces for subtitles or messages, it is hard to do that. By the way, let's think if there is a better way to be replaced.

Other things will be considered.
Thanks,
z

[hugbug]

Hi,

3) I have successfully created a macro in eventghost to control the new "Convert subtitles FPS"-dialog. I have two macros: for conversion "25->23.976" and vice versa. I think, that the separate commands in KMPlayer for these conversions are not needed anymore. The conversion itself does not work, I guess it is just not yet implemented.

6) Isn't it enough with the info box? There is already a separate info dialog box.
Do you mean "Advanced Playback Info (Ctrl+Tab)"? I wanted exactly the infos, displayed with command "Playback Info in OSC (Tab)". It contains the name of current file, current fps and CPU load, among other things. And it formats the infos in a way very suitable to be displayed on TV. The dialog "Advanced Playback Info (Ctrl+Tab)" has scrollbox and is not optimized for TV.
Anyway, this feature is not so important for me.

7) OK, I understand the problem. Actually I do not need the time to be displayed instantly. It would be enough to have a new command "Show Current Time", which displays the text with exactly same infos like the "Display Time at Top Right" does, but as a standard OSD-Message. The message will disappear after some seconds like all other OSD messages. It is not just OK, but exactly what I want :)
Is it possible to implement another command (or two) to display the current file name and subtitles name as standard OSD-messages?

8) a little thing: after loading of (another) subtitles the adjusted "subtitles sync delay" stays unchanged. It should be reseted to 0, because it is unlikely, that two subtitles need the same delay sync.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
hugbug.

[hugbug]

Hi,

3) "Convert subtitles FPS"-dialog. The conversion does not work.
I figured out, why it does not work for me. I've tried conversions "23.976->25" and vice versa. I used the value "23.976" from combobox. But in Germany, where I live, the DecimalSeparator is ",". Therefore the function StrToFloat cannot convert the value "23.976". I need to type the value as "23,976". It is not very comfortable each time to change the point to comma.
The best solution were to replace the both "." and "," in user input with the current DecimalSeparator:
Val := StringReplace(StringReplace(Edit1.Text, '.', DecimalSeparator, []), ',', DecimalSeparator, [];

3.1) I don't really get how new commands "Convert Subtitle FPS: XX" are supposed to work. Looks like commands mean "Convert Subtitle FPS: XX -> 25".

I still think, that only two conversion are required: "23.976 -> 25" and "24 -> 23.976".

A short explanation.
Why conversions are required at all? It is because the movies encoded with PAL (25fps) and broadcasted on TV or saled on DVD in Europe (and other countries, that use PAL) are played 4% faster as it should and as they are played in a theater (PAL Speed-Up ([Only registered and activated users can see links]_speed-up) or here ([Only registered and activated users can see links])).
Therefore the subtitles created for PAL-DVD are faster than for NTSC-DVD. To use PAL-Subtitles with NTSC-DVD we must slow down subtitles with conversion "25->23.976". To use NTSC-Subtitles with PAL-DVD we must speed up subtitles with conversion "23.976->25".

We actually do not convert FPS, but change the speed of subtitles and the length of movie as well.

Another exmaple. Someone edit the video file and change fps to 15 to make file smaller to upload it on internet or to mobilephone. If after editing the movie's length is not changed, this means that the speed is also not changed. Then the original subtitles should be used with this 15fps video. He (she) should not convert fps of subtitles from original playrate to 15 fps.

That's why there are no subtitles for 12fps or 15 fps in the Internet. The only subtitles exists are for PAL-DVDs (25fps, the movie's length is 4% shorter as it should be) and for NTSC-DVDs (marked as 23.976fps or 24fps or 29.97fps, but all are the same - actual fps after deinterlacing is 23,976).

8) fixed. thanks!

Best Regards,
hugbug.

[hugbug]

3) I think FPS Conversion has a bug: although the start time of each subtitle is converted, the duration of the subtitle seems not to be converted. This cause a problem by conversion from 25 to 23.976 fps - overlapping of subtitles.

2) If the "second interval to push/pull subtitle sync" is changed from default value (5000 ms), it will not be correctly recognised by the program. The program uses "first interval" for both - first an second commands. After restarting of program the correct value is used for second interval. But each time I open and close Options-dialog the second interval is overwriten internally with the first interval again, and it does not matter what was changed in the options-dialog. So, each time I change something in Options, I have to restart the player to make the second interval working.

Thanks in advance.

[z]

There was no update after your second post in this thread.

Is it possible to implement another command (or two) to display the current file name and subtitles name as standard OSD-messages?
It'll be implemented. (shift+tab, changable hotkey)



3) "Convert subtitles FPS"-dialog. The conversion does not work.
The problem is the DecimalSeparator in language file. I think it can be fixed in german langage file.



The dialog "Advanced Playback Info (Ctrl+Tab)" has scrollbox and is not optimized for TV.
You are right. But as I mentioned, it is impossible as kmp needs to assign the resourses to draw subtitles and messages. Generally, there are some limitations to draw messages on Overlay or VMR surfaces.



3) I think FPS Conversion has a bug: although the start time of each subtitle is converted, the duration of the subtitle seems not to be converted. This cause a problem by conversion from 25 to 23.976 fps - overlapping of subtitles.

2) If the "second interval to push/pull subtitle sync" is changed from default value (5000 ms), it will not be correctly recognised by the program. The program uses "first interval" for both - first an second commands.


I'll check it.

Thanks,
z

[hugbug]

There was no update after your second post in this thread.
It's not important, but my second post refers to version from 5 Nov., later posts - to version from 6 Nov. :)

The problem is the DecimalSeparator in language file. I think it can be fixed in german langage file.
Thanks for the tip! I use english language-file however. I see, that the values from combobox are also listed there and can be changed. But I could not find the special definition for DecimalSeparator. It would be great, if the DecimalSeparator-constant could be defined in a language-file. In the current implementation I have to edit combobox-values in english.ini each time I download its latest version. Another solution were (as I have suggested before) always interpret both "." and "," as separators.

Anyway, it's not a problem for me, because I use macros in eventghost, so I do not need to use comboboxes. But it can confuse new users, that's why I'd like you to pay attention to this.

Best regards,
hugbug

[hugbug]

This post applies to the version from 12 Nov.

3) I think FPS Conversion has a bug: although the start time of each subtitle is converted, the duration of the subtitle seems not to be converted. This cause a problem by conversion from 25 to 23.976 fps - overlapping of subtitles.

2) If the "second interval to push/pull subtitle sync" is changed from default value (5000 ms), it will not be correctly recognised by the program. The program uses "first interval" for both - first an second commands. After restarting of program the correct value is used for second interval. But each time I open and close Options-dialog the second interval is overwriten internally with the first interval again, and it does not matter what was changed in the options-dialog. So, each time I change something in Options, I have to restart the player to make the second interval working.

Both issues are fixed. Thank you very much!


7) How to display OSD with the current play position and movie length (like OSD in BSPlayer or control bar in Zoom Player)? OSD with the name of the current media file and subtitles-file (would be great)?
Implemented (Filters -> Playback message (Shift+Tab)). Thanks!
I have a small issue with this great feature. In a fullscreen mode or if the window's width is just big enough, the third line of the playback message is not fully painted (see screenshot). It is reproducible with the screen width 1280 pixels and the font size of OSD set to fixed 14 (or bigger) or to 80 characters auto. The subtitles must be loaded.
I've also noticed, that the first line is painted with a different margin as the second and the third lines. It can be seen on the screenshot also.

Thank you for support.

[z]

It'll be fixed.

Thanks,
z

[hugbug]

Hi z,


Implemented (Filters -> Playback message (Shift+Tab)). Thanks!
I have a small issue with this great feature. In a fullscreen mode or if the window's width is just big enough, the third line of the playback message is not fully painted (see screenshot). It is reproducible with the screen width 1280 pixels and the font size of OSD set to fixed 14 (or bigger) or to 80 characters auto. The subtitles must be loaded.
I've also noticed, that the first line is painted with a different margin as the second and the third lines. It can be seen on the screenshot also.

Fixed. Thanks!

9) There is an Option "Subitiles Folder" under "General -> When starting". The Option affects the command "Open -> Open Dialog Boxes for TV-Out -> Subtitles Navigator". It works, thanks! But, if I open Root Menu via commad "Open -> Open Dialog Boxes for TV-Out -> Root Menu" first and then select "Subtitles Navigator", the current folder is used instead of the option. Could it be fixed?

10) Since few Betas there are direct commands for FPS-Conversion without opening of "FPS-Conversion Dialog", like "Convert FPS 25-> 12", "Convert FPS 25-> 23.976". Is it possible to add another direct commands to make reverse conversions: "Convert FPS 12-> 25", "Convert FPS 23.976 -> 25"? With such a set of commands, any conversion could be done without opening of Conversion Dialog. It is important, if the player is used on HTPC, where the mouse and keyboard are not always available and the pc is controlled via remote control (my case).
For example, to make conversion from 12 -15, two commans should be applied: "12-25" and then "25-15".
Currently for conversion "23.976 -> 25" I use macros in Eventghost (software for remote controls) to control the player (emulate key presses and user input). With new commands the macros will not be needed anymore and the Conversion Dialog will not be displayed over video during playback, if I just want to correct the subtitles' playrate.

11) The commands "Open -> Load subtitle" and "Subtitles -> Load subtitle" seem not to work (open dialog is not displayed). It is not a problem for me, because I use "subtitles navigator for tv". Just a bug report.

Thank you for great support,
hugbug.

[z]

9, 11 --> Confirmed. It'll be fixed.

As for the 10th opinion, the author asks the reason why you need the conversion(12 to 15).

[hugbug]

9, 11 --> Confirmed. It'll be fixed.
Thanks in advance!


As for the 10th opinion, the author asks the reason why you need the conversion(12 to 15).
I do not need conversion 12->15 :)
But I very often need conversions 25->23.976 and 23.976->25. One of these conversions already exists, but the reverse conversion is available only via "Conversion FPS Dialog".
As I explained in this post ([Only registered and activated users can see links]), I think that the only required conversions are 25->23.976 and 23.976->25. I do not know why the author added so many conversions. But additional features do not bother me, may be someone needs them.
It would be strange, if the only reverse conversion "23.976 -> 25" existed. That's why I have asked to add all possible reverse conversions. The conversion "12->15" was only an example. If someone needs conversion "25->12", may be he (she) needs "12->15" also ;)

Best Regards,
hugbug.

[z]

The source FPS of subtitles displayed in conversion menu works dynamically corresponding to the framerate of video which is playing currently.

If you are playing a 23.976fps video file, the menu "23.976 -> 25" will be created automatically.

[hugbug]

Hi z,

I've checked it out. It works for avi-files. But for ts-files (90% of my videos) the menu always shows conversions "25 -> xx".
Even if the fps were detected correctly, I think, it does't help too much. The ts-recordings often are encoded with 29.97 fps or 59.9 (60) fps, but for conversions the 23.976 fps playrate should be used, instead of 29.97 or 59.9 (60) fps.
It's because for 23.976, 24, 29.97 or 59.9 (60) fps the subtitles with normal playrate should be used. And only for 25 and 50 fps the speeded up subtitles (PAL version) must be applied.

Therefore the conversions I need are "NTSC -> PAL" (23.976->25) and "PAL -> NTSC" (23.976->25).
Could it be possible to add discrete commands "NTSC -> PAL" and "PAL -> NTSC", which were always available regardless of the currently detected fps?

The following names would be also correct for the first command: "NTSC->PAL" or "23.976->25" or "Compensate Pal-SpeedUp" or "Slow down Subtitles".
and for the second one: "PAL->NTSC" or "25->23.976" or "Apply Pal-SpeedUp" or "Speed up Subtitles".

Thanks,
hugbug.

[z]

Did you try the latest beta? The option is a bit tweaked for convenience. Check it.

[hugbug]

Hi z,

I was on holidays and could't check the new version earlier. I've done this now. What can I say?

It's amazing! It's perfect! Thank you! :)

Great support.

I also figured out, that the command "Playback info in OSC (Tab)" now works even without "KMP Transform Video Filter" (see my the very first post, subtopic №6). Thanks again.

So, ALL my requests in this thread are now implemented/fixed and regarding subtitles' support the kmp player works now exactly how I want :cool:

Now I can start another thread with small requests to tune up "Open Dialog Boxes for TV" ;)

Best Regards,
hugbug.

[z]

Now I can start another thread with small requests to tune up "Open Dialog Boxes for TV"
Hey, where are you? I wish to know your opinion.

Actually, almost all your opinions above are nothing new but it gave a strong blow and reason to be considered again seriously. ;)