problem with hardsubbing .ass file (karaoke effects) using FFmpeg

[yakov]

i have a VPS with a ubuntu 14.04 and i use FFmpeg to hardsub ass file and its works fine except the karaoke effects , it does not show the color change only one word on each line , here's the code i used :

ffmpeg -i movie.mkv   -c:v libx264   -preset veryslow    -vf ass=sub.ass:shaping=complex 
       -c:a copy  -crf 25 -s 1920x1080   -sws_flags lanczos   output.mkv

[Budman1]

It would depend mostly on how the .ASS file is coded, especially the header portion. .ASS subtile headers set things like base font size, collision types, length of subtitle for each line etc.

Can you post the beginning of the subtitle file like the header and a couple lines of the subs themselves?

Also, some players/converters do not honor all the SSA/ASS subtitle changes, especially animated and karaoke. In addition, although .ASS subtitles allow for Karaoke, they are considered obsolete by that format (http://www.cccp-project.net/stuff/ass-specs.pdf) and I have had better luck using .SSA format.