Local Subtitles for WMP

Description: This is a background plug-in for Windows Media Player. Its sole purpose is enabling textual subtitles, that accompany media files in formats not supported directly by Microsoft. The plug-in is intended primarily to Windows7/WMP12 x86/x64, since on prior OSes ffdshow can be used. On Windows 7, due to enforcing of Media Foundation framework and Enhanced Video Renderer, ffdshow can't (and shouldn't) be used any more. Almost everything is supported out-of-the-box. The three exceptions are: Matröška splitter (available from Haali in x86/x64), DTS audio to stereo convertion (available via ac3filter in x86/x64) and, finally, non-SAMI subtitles, mainly in SRT format, supported via DirectVOBsub/VSFilter, but the latter always modifies MF/DS pipeline, degrades performance, spoils native SAMI support, doesn't display unicode SAMI properly and shows subtitles over the movie picture, that is inferior to Microsoft's way - under the movie frame. History: 05.07.2011 - v1.6 Fixed per-machine and per-user settings both in installer and in the binaries. 28.03.2011 Installer with possibility to switch WMP to 64 or 32 bit. The switch works best on untempered registry. The switch doesn't change keys' owner, has minimum possible impact on registry and switchs completely (with file associations). 64 and 32 bit packages can be installed on the same 64-bit PC simultaneously. v1.5 DPI aware - works appropriately for all windows font magnifications v1.4b 1. Now it's possible to resize the font and change its weight. 2. Support for Right-to-Left global text direction. 3. Distance between lines can be changed and default font size is larger. TIP: Right click the subtitles button to set preferences. v1.3 1. Selection of global subtitle color. 2. Added support for "SubViewer 2" format. 3. If registered after "ffdshow", the latter doesn't hamper any more. v1.2 Added support for "MicroDVD" format with tags. v1.1 1. Added a button on WMP to load subtitles manually from any location. 2. Manual load of "SubRip (*.srt)", "SAMI (*.smi;*.sami)" and "Substation Alpha (*.ssa;*.ass)" formats. 3. Some minor format parsing improvements. v1.0 SubRip autoload in WMP. Features and limitations: 1. Supports "SubRip", "SAMI", "SubStation Alpha", "MicroDVD" and "SubViewer" subtitles manually and "SubRip" automatically, on WMP only, properly formatted in ANSI or unicode encoding. 2. Preserves full HTML formatting, found sometimes in SubRip files. 3. Displays subtitles in WMP natively: under the movie frame. 4. For automatic load (SubRip only), subtitles must reside in the same folder with media file and have their names prefixed with the name of media file. The rest of their names will appear in WMP caption menu. 5. Autoload supports multiple files simultaneously, so it's possible to provide multiple languages. 6. It's possible to choose different ANSI code pages, any windows font face, color, size, weight and line height (in plug-in's property pages). 7. Provides a button on WMP window to load subtitles manually! 8. Not a filter, doesn't modify MF/DS pipeline, has no performance overhead. 9. Installer enables to switch WMP architecture. System requirements: Windows XP or above (intended to Windows 7), x86/x64 Windows Media Player 10 or above (intended to WMP12), x86/x64 DirectVOBsub/VSFilter absent or disabled Installation notes: Run installer as administrator. Install only after finishing WMP's first run wizard, because, as a part of it, Microsoft sets 32-bit WMP as default and disables its own local subtitles. After upgrading windows to SP1, WMP once again runs this wizard and all the destruction in its wake. Reinstall the plug-in then. If installed 64-bit version, remember to unpin 32-bit WMP from taskbar. Haali Media Splitter, if not directed otherwise, associates MKV files with 32-bit WMP, so, if 64-bit is intended, uncheck the association or change the registry manually.