2009-05-29, 18:18
o man if this feature is added
then i don't need to set an external player
to mplayer..
then i don't need to set an external player
to mplayer..
2009-07-12, 17:33
I will take a look at this one once I have finished the work with subtitles (when using VDPAU). Unless some other dev is already working on it
2012-06-19, 00:47
Hmm could some developer take a look at this old topic and the ticket associated with it: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/4437
I've been trying to use XBMC as a PVR frontend for my VDR based HTPC (currently using XVDR plugins for this) for years now. But I've always had to turn it down due to the subtitles and audio track problems that would simply go away if I just could set a separate language selections for a) XBMC UI language b) audio track language c) subtitles language. Currently it's just a mess.
My native language is Finnish, but I can't stand using anything else but English as the interface language for computers. Local translations always suck so hard. So I want to use XBMC in English. This causes problems when viewing live TV. I'd like to use Finnish audio and subtitles and fall back to English if unavailable. For foreign material many Finnish TV channels broadcast an audio track for people with poor sight which is basically the Finnish subtitles spoken aloud by computer. This track is coded as being Dutch. Let's say the original programme is from Germany so the original audio track is coded as German. Now when viewing a program like this, very often the "Dutch" track is selected instead of the original German track. But I would of course prefer the original German track with the Finnish subtitles. Another problem is with the subtitles. Some channels broadcast multiple subtitles, e.g. Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. Most of the cases something else than Finnish subtitle is displayed by default. And the best or worst part is that you never know what you're going to get.
In commercial set-top boxes it's a standard feature that you can configure the interface language and set language priorities independently for both audio track and subtitles. I would really love to see similar functionality in XBMC. And this selection would of course be generic for XBMC, not just for live TV, so that the priority lists of languages for audio and subtitles would be taken into account when choosing DVD audio track/subtitles or external subtitles when playing movie files.
Someone mentioned setting the audio and subtitles manually. Sorry it really isn't an option if you're channel surfing and you have to pop up the audio menu 100 times in a night. Way too annoying, the correct settings need to be applied automatically each time you switch the channel.
Magic is good when figuring out defaults, as long as the bad defaults can be overridden. If the XBMC developers fear that implementing a feature like this would clutter the interface, I would be happy if the functionality would be available in the core XBMC and configurable by manually editing the XML config files under your ~/.xbmc, no UI needed.
I've been trying to use XBMC as a PVR frontend for my VDR based HTPC (currently using XVDR plugins for this) for years now. But I've always had to turn it down due to the subtitles and audio track problems that would simply go away if I just could set a separate language selections for a) XBMC UI language b) audio track language c) subtitles language. Currently it's just a mess.
My native language is Finnish, but I can't stand using anything else but English as the interface language for computers. Local translations always suck so hard. So I want to use XBMC in English. This causes problems when viewing live TV. I'd like to use Finnish audio and subtitles and fall back to English if unavailable. For foreign material many Finnish TV channels broadcast an audio track for people with poor sight which is basically the Finnish subtitles spoken aloud by computer. This track is coded as being Dutch. Let's say the original programme is from Germany so the original audio track is coded as German. Now when viewing a program like this, very often the "Dutch" track is selected instead of the original German track. But I would of course prefer the original German track with the Finnish subtitles. Another problem is with the subtitles. Some channels broadcast multiple subtitles, e.g. Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. Most of the cases something else than Finnish subtitle is displayed by default. And the best or worst part is that you never know what you're going to get.
In commercial set-top boxes it's a standard feature that you can configure the interface language and set language priorities independently for both audio track and subtitles. I would really love to see similar functionality in XBMC. And this selection would of course be generic for XBMC, not just for live TV, so that the priority lists of languages for audio and subtitles would be taken into account when choosing DVD audio track/subtitles or external subtitles when playing movie files.
Someone mentioned setting the audio and subtitles manually. Sorry it really isn't an option if you're channel surfing and you have to pop up the audio menu 100 times in a night. Way too annoying, the correct settings need to be applied automatically each time you switch the channel.
Magic is good when figuring out defaults, as long as the bad defaults can be overridden. If the XBMC developers fear that implementing a feature like this would clutter the interface, I would be happy if the functionality would be available in the core XBMC and configurable by manually editing the XML config files under your ~/.xbmc, no UI needed.
2012-06-19, 10:38
Ok, nice to hear, thank you. I just wanted to bump up this issue while searching for info on this topic and found this thread. I'm looking forward to the future, hopefully we'll see more action here sooner than another 3 years 
2012-06-19, 10:50
No it's not "on the list" it's in the code. In the nightly builds (no clue about PVR though) there are two options for the preferred audio and subtitle language in Settings -> Appearance -> International. I have added them and their integration into how xbmc's video player chooses audio streams / subtitles but I got no clue how PVR works so no idea if it works there as well or if it needs some extra love from someone that knows PVR.
2012-06-19, 16:04
Sounds really interesting! There's some locale related heuristics in the XVDR code. Most likely this can be and is adapted to use your generic framework, if needed. So hopefully I'm able to fully switch to XBMC as TV frontend when yaVDR distro that I'm using for HTPC stuff updates their XBMC packages to be built from a PVR branch with this code in merged. Might take some time to achieve that, though.
Now it would be perfect if also the mess with PVR development would get sorted and get everything in main branch and eventually into official releases, but I'm not holding my breath.
For the records, here's the relevant commits:
c5ffa0ef8d2715690065bf6e9b14adaf24940a84
3ba18fbf87055f6686b097bf15cfe56510e8ac07
4847bc7e841100b4e1081c45eaf5224227822c3b
PS. maybe it would be an improvement if you could configure a list of desired languages sorted by priority for both audio and subtitles. These would be then tried in order and the first matching is selected. But the current way is of course much better than what is used to be, thanks
Now it would be perfect if also the mess with PVR development would get sorted and get everything in main branch and eventually into official releases, but I'm not holding my breath.
For the records, here's the relevant commits:
c5ffa0ef8d2715690065bf6e9b14adaf24940a84
3ba18fbf87055f6686b097bf15cfe56510e8ac07
4847bc7e841100b4e1081c45eaf5224227822c3b
PS. maybe it would be an improvement if you could configure a list of desired languages sorted by priority for both audio and subtitles. These would be then tried in order and the first matching is selected. But the current way is of course much better than what is used to be, thanks
