MPC : Internal Subtitle render versus ffdshow or directvobsub

[uart]

I'm currently using Media Player Classic (MPC) 6.4.9.1 (and various other versions previously) and I've never had any problem displaying subtitles when watching regular DVD's. Now this is using only MPC's internal subtitle renderer ok. Recently however I've been playing around with extracting the "idx" and "sub" files to use with my mkv and avi encodes and although I've now got it all working I'm still a bit confused about some things.

At first I couldn't get these extracted subs to work, but then i discovered that there are at least two other ways (besides MPC's internal subtitle renderer) to get subtitles working. These are using the ffdshow or directvobsub filters, either of which I've found will let me get subtitles working with my extracted "idx/sub" files. So that's the first query. Why do regular DVD's display subtitles no problems with the internal renderer whereas my encoded files (mkv or avi) require using the subtitle option in either ffdshow or directvobsub to get them working?

The next thing I played around with was creating an "srt" file from my idx/sub files. Here I used avidemux, which is pretty tedious but eventually got the job done, and now to my surprise the "srt" subtitles don't require an external filter (ffdshow or directvobsub) to display and will work very nicely using just the internal subtitle renderer. So that's my second query, why do both DVD's and my encoded files + "srt" subtitles work with MPC's internal renderer whereas encoded files + "idx/sub" subtitles require the external subtitle renderers to work?

Anyway I'm glad I've finally got it all working but just a but confused about some of the inconsistency of it. And if anyone is wondering "why not just always use one of the external filters subtitle renderer and be done with it", well it's because I can only use my remote to control subtitles if I use the internal renderer. (It's kind of a HTPC and long story but I've tried everything and I just cant get my remote control to do anything at all with either ffdshow or directvobsub, but it works perfectly with internal MPC commands).

Can anyone explain what's going on? Thanks

[jagabo]

Upgrade to MPCHC?

[adamf154]

Thanks alot reading your post has just helped me with a problem i was having with subtitles on media player classic home cinema 2nd last post. https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/323393-Subtitle-problem-when-decrypting-bluray

[uart]

Upgrade to MPCHC?

No different

[jagabo]

Odd, MPCHC's internal sub renderer displays external idx/sub files on my computers without any problems.

[uart]

Odd, MPCHC's internal sub renderer displays external idx/sub files on my computers without any problems.

Thanks for the info jagabo.

Could you please let me know what your render etc settings are under "view->options->output->playback". Thanks

[jagabo]

Directshow video is set to "VMR9 renderless". In the VMR7/9 specific settings box I have Surface set to "3D surfaces...", VMR9 mixer mode enabled.

[uart]

Ok thanks. Can you test if the subtitles still work if you drop that back to "VMR7 renderless", "2D surfaces" and untick "VMR9 Mixer". My graphics card wont work with the VMR9 setting but is ok with VMR7. According to the everything I've read VMR7(renderless) should be sufficient to get subtitles working.

[jagabo]

Yes, they still work with VMR7 renderless and 2d surfaces.

Ah, I think I see what's going on. I was testing with AVI, MKV, and MP4 files. The external idx/sub files worked with all of those. But when I tried MPG and VOB files they no longer showed up. Maybe turning off the internal MPG source filter will help? The machine I'm on currently doesn't have an external MPG source filter so I can't test that.