How can we know if a DVD player accepts IDX/Sub file?

[user2008]

I want to buy a DVD player with AVI support and that could read Idx/sub files. How can I find this information?

[jman98]

Look online for the product manual and read it. I want to warn you that correct idx/sub support seems very difficult to find. None of my DVD players or media players that say that they can play can do so correctly. They'll fail to display some of the subtitles.

[Ruut]

They'll fail to display some of the subtitles.

Could you please elaborate on that?

[handyguy]

Philips plays them just fine. try for a Philips 5990 or Philips 5992.

Player specs would say what it can play.

[jman98]

They'll fail to display some of the subtitles.

Could you please elaborate on that?

How is that not clear? If you don't understand the following, I will NOT post a follow up.

Suppose that your subtitles are the following:
Hello Nick.
Hello Jim.
Good to see you. It's been, what, 5 years now?

What you will see is:
Good to see you. It's been, what, 5 years now?

The first 2 subs aren't displayed at all. I am talking about random dropping of entire subtitle sections.

[user2008]

Look online for the product manual and read it.

I did that. It was not useful. They don't mention anything about idx.

[jimdagys]

Best thing is to use something like Fair Use Wizard, rip the whole DVD to avi/sub/idx, burn to cd (verify with your computer that you have 3 files, playable avi/sub/idx) and then test in a DVD player.
Here is 1 minute clip of avi/sub/idx. Download and burn the folder (yellow unzipped folder) to a cd or put folder on USB memory stick and test in DVD player. There should be subtitles when there is talking.
http://rapidshare.com/files/321534782/subidx.videotest.zip

[Ruut]

They'll fail to display some of the subtitles.

Could you please elaborate on that?

How is that not clear? If you don't understand the following, I will NOT post a follow up.

Suppose that your subtitles are the following:
Hello Nick.
Hello Jim.
Good to see you. It's been, what, 5 years now?

What you will see is:
Good to see you. It's been, what, 5 years now?

The first 2 subs aren't displayed at all. I am talking about random dropping of entire subtitle sections.

From the reactions you're getting, it seems I wasn't the only one being puzzled....

But, yes, I do recognize your problem: my Philips 5990 does that too now and then, when using IDX/SUB subs.
The only solution I found is 'reverse' a little and then playing again, magically the omitted subs appear. So it's definitly a player issue and has nothing to do with the way you made your subs.

[jman98]

Look online for the product manual and read it.

I did that. It was not useful. They don't mention anything about idx.

Note that some DVD players say that they support SUB subtitles, but this does not mean what everyone calls "sub/idx". If it says it supports SUB subtitles with no mention of IDX, it probably means that it supports a little used text format subtitle that uses SUB as its description.

I would not assume that a DVD player supports SUB/IDX unless it very explicitly says that it supports them.