Easy (I hope) question re MPC & AVI.

[harryk]

I am trying to play a .avi file (with divx codec) on my PC, and have external subtitles that I have created with Subtitle Workshop show up. I have seen several references in this forum on how to do this with Media Player Classic. So I obtained a copy of MPC 6.4.9.0; and it plays the .avi file just fine. But when I select "File | Load Subtitle..." I get this message:

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Media Player Classic
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To load subtitles you have change the video renderer type and reopen the file.
- DirectShow: VMR7/VMR9 renderless or Haali's
- RealMedia: Special renderer for RealMedia, or open it through DirectShow
- Quicktime: DX7 or DX9 renderer for QuickTime
- ShockWave: n/a

---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Can someone explain this message to me? Which (if any) of these options applies to my .avi (with divx codec) file? And what do I need to do? Under "View | Options..." I found a tab under "Playback | Output" on which it looks like I can make this kind of change. But trying various options did not seem to help. Thanks for any assistance.

[redwudz]

I don't use MPC that often, but I just tried the latest version with a Xvid that had a subtitle file. I just selected the Xvid video and it gave me the same warning, but it played the subtitles without selecting them with no problem. Tried it again, this time, no warning showed, it just played the subs OK.

Your subs do share the same name and are in the same folder as your video? Such as movie.avi and movie.srt? I seem to have the best luck with .srt subs. I tried the same video in two other players, Zoom and VLC and they both played them also.

[harryk]

Yes, I have <movie>.avi and <movie>.srt in the same subdirectory (also tried <movie>.sub and <movie>.vsf).

But MPC doesn't show the subtitles. They show up fine in Subtitle Workshop (white letters on a black background); but not in MPC (and there is no black strip as if letters and background were both in black). I'm puzzled here.

[celtic_druid]

As the message says, MPC's subtitle renderer requires the output be set to VMR7/9 renderless or Haali's renderer. Won't work with say overlay.

[guns1inger]

Use VLC instead - never gives me grief about subtitles

[harryk]

Thank you all for the tips. Apparently I didn't try enough combinations for the output after the excellent tip from redwudz. I did finally get it working with MPC and .srt subtitles (with same name as video), and ignoring the "Load Subtitles..." option (which still gives me that same error). I used "View | Options | Playback | Output": DirectShow Video = "VMR9 (renderless)" (just as celtic_druid said I should - I thought I had tried that before; but it certainly works now). I'm pleased with the results.

As for tip from gunsl1nger, I noticed that several of the comments about VLC say that it does not support AVI files. So I didn't try it.

[redwudz]

VLC Media player plays about anything you can throw at it, including quite a few versions of 'AVI': http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html