Linux Thai Subtitle Character Problem
#1
I can get the correct Thai characters showing with my Windows XBMC installation as I have put the arialuni.ttf font in my ... \.xbmc\media\fonts folder and selecting Thai character set in the system subtitles setting screen within XBMC screens. Great so thanks for all the great tips I got here in the Windows support section, BUT I just cannot do this with my Linux XBMC install (Geeksquad 8 image with Frodo 12.0) on my Sumvision Cyclone Nano Slim+ M3 media box and I really want to have it for my Thai family here.

I know what I need to do I think, but just cannot write the arialuni.ttf font file to the necessary folder, which I have discovered seems to be at /usr/share/xbmc/media/fonts and in there are the two only available subtitle fonts of arial.ttf (small non unicode file I gather) and teletext.ttf file. If I could add the arialuni.ttf file (larger file at over 20 MB) to this folder then I am certain I could get the Thai Sanscript characters working rather than the lines of rectangular boxes it now displays. Obviously that /usr area is write protected and I can see no way to be able to write or edit anything in there and can only read the file lists in XBMC. BTW I can put the Confluence skin fully into Thai fonts (which I do not want to do actually) so I know the arialuni.ttf installed in my \.xbmc\media\fonts folder (had to manually create the fonts subfolder in the media folder) is okay but still no good with the subtitles

Would i need some SSH access?? I have never used that SSH method yet although read a little about it but decided I did not need it with the current excellent installation and editing software within XBMC. So I have no idea how to do that as yet although I have installed this Putty program but never used it as yet as seen no need so far.

Please can somebody help me with this as I really would like to use the Thai language subtitles (where available) and would greatly appreciate any help given.

Update.

Managed to work out and read up on SSH commands and using Putty got into my Nano Slim+ box but still no way in any of the /usr folder tree can I get anything other than read only permissions so still cannot copy across form my /root/.xbmc/media/fonts the arialuni.ttf file. Just cannot write to the .usr/share/xbmc/media/Fonts folder. Maybe need to log in as usr instead of root but I have tried but needs a password I do not know ??

Can anyone help please, as it would be good if I can find a way to get full unicode support in subtitles especially for the difficult Thai character set.and could be useful for many here unless I am missing something and it has already been cracked for Thai character subtitles.

Is there maybe an .XML file somewhere for the subtitle configurations that can point the XBMC Subtitle addon to a TTF file (arialuni) on another location in the /root folder tree where I can write to? That maybe a workaround but cannot find such a relevant XML file in my initial searches
Reply
#2
Anybody got any info on this problem for me ?? Or is it as it seems an unsolvable problem with Thai character sets in the XBMC subtitles addon.??
Reply
#3
I assume you solved this by now, but if not what you need to do if you want to drop that arialuni.ttf into /usr/share/xbmc/media/fonts is to use the sudo command before the cp command:

sudo cp /root/.xbmc/media/fonts/arialuni.ttf /usr/share/xbmc/media/Fonts/

It may ask you to enter the password for the user you logged in as via ssh.

Then change the subtitle font via xbmc menu settings->-video->subtitles to arialuni.ttf.

You may then need to restart xbmc. To do that, choose "exit" from the power button in xbmc, and from your ssh session type:

xinit /usr/bin/xbmc --standalone &

Reading the docs I think you could also get this to work by dropping arialuni.ttf in XBMC folder (one level below
userdata) at XBMC/media/Fonts/as documented in:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=subtitles

But, anyway, the method I described above works, with the disadvantage of requiring you to use sudo, and you may lose the change if you upgrade or re-install xbmc, which would not occur if you made the changes in your home .xbmc directory.
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
Thai Subtitle Character Problem0