mplayer2 - pgs subtitles NOT POSSIBLE - use mpv [SOLVED]

[dufeu]

Is it possible to play pgs type subtitles in mplayer2? I don't have the original mplayer installed and to be honest, I'd just as soon as not install it. i.e. I like to keep things as simple as I can.

I didn't used to care that I couldn't playback pgs subtitles but one of the anime release groups I follow now preferentially uses pgs subtitles (if available) and it looks like several other release groups may do the same.

I did try adding:

[ct85711]

What use flags do you have set for mplayer2? From some searching online, it seems PGS subtitles support is through the libmatroska, so I assume you may need to have matroska use flag installed.

[dufeu]

[ct85711]

Sadly, I am not sure on fixing it. From what I've been hearing, mplayer2 isn't self is considered dead (supposedly no dev work for over 2 years). The bad part is, regular mplayer isn't much better than mplayer2; so it's not much of an option. From surfing around on the web, very few video players in general even support matroska; mplayer, gstreamer, vlc, and xine.

Other than that, pgs format (Blueray subtitles) appears to have poor support (libmatroska was the only library that even mentioned to have any support).

[khayyam]

[dufeu]

[dufeu]

Caveats:

1. For all practical purposes, it's true that both mplayer and mplayer2 are no longer being actively developed.
   
2. While media-video/mpv was forked from media-video/mplayer2, it is not a drop in replacement for mplayer2. Among other reasons, all of the 'slave mode' code which enables mplayer2 to be run as a backend for third party GUI interfaces has been ripped out and replaced with jason support. At the current time, a cursory perusal of the MPV site does not have any third party GUI interfaces listed. For now, this means using either interactive keyboard commands or the built in minimalist GUI. {edit - Jan 11 2015 - was told there was a "hackey" way to use mpv as a backend for smplayer. Your on your own researching this further}
   Mouse point and click commands include the ability to go full screen and back, cycle through audio tracks, cycle through subtitles, play, stop, position and a few more. I found these to be adequate.
   
3. I don't know if the ebuild for media-video/mpv currently has a maintainer and I haven't yet checked. All steps listed here are at your own risk. {edit Jan 11 2015 - clarification provided - mpv ebuilds are actively maintained}
   
4. I haven't looked at the dependencies in the ebuild. In my case, I had no dependency conflicts.
   
5. Disclaimer: I am not a programmer and I'm not able to provide support. You have been wraned!

The mpv player works and properly supports bluray pgs type subtitles. Also, because mpv doesn't try to be a drop-in replacement for mplayer(2), there is no conflict in having mpv and mplayer2 installed simultaneously.

The latest stable version from upstream is 0.7.2. There are two problems here. The first is that all supported upstream versions are masked. The second is that the latest ebuild available at the time of this writing is 0.7.1. {edit Jan 11 2015 - masked due to issues with libav. If you don't have libav installed then safe to unmask}

MVP Installation steps:

1. Execute the following to set up a local mpv package directory:

   Code:

   mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/media-video/mpv/files cp /usr/portage/media-video/mpv/mpv-0.7.1.ebuild cp /usr/local/portage/media-video/mpv/mpv-0.7.2.ebuild ebuild /usr/local/portage/media-video/mpv/mpv-0.7.2.ebuild manifest

   
   
2. Now unmask the currently masked mvp ebuilds:
   

   Code:

   echo '<=media-video/mpv-0.9' >> /etc/portage/package.unmask

   We don't need to worry about unmasking the **9999 ebuild because it currently doesn't work.
   
   
3. Upstream currently recommends building mpv with lua support (for use with the built in minimalist GIU) but the ebuild does not set that by default.
   
   
4. Set USE="lua":

   Code:

   echo 'media-video/mpv lua' >> /etc/portage/package.use

   
   
5. Now install media-video/mpv:

   Code:

   emerge -D =media-video/mpv-0.7.2

Misc. Notes:

1. I can't recall offhand if the package 'layman' needs to be installed before you can use a local portage tree. If you run into a problem with either the ebuild or emerge commands, then you may need to install 'layman'. If so, there is documentation in Gentoo docs which will tell you how to do this.
   
   
2. You'll be able to tell if you've done the commands in step 1 properly if the ebuild command returns a message similar to:

   Code:

   ebuild mpv/mpv-0.7.2.ebuild manifest >>> Downloading 'http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/mpv-0.7.2.tar.gz' --2015-01-10 15:57:12--  http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/mpv-0.7.2.tar.gz Resolving distfiles.gentoo.org... 137.226.34.42, 156.56.247.195, 64.50.233.100, ... Connecting to distfiles.gentoo.org|137.226.34.42|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 2658772 (2.5M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: ‘/usr/portage/distfiles/mpv-0.7.2.tar.gz’ /usr/portage/distfiles/mpv-0.7.2.tar.g 100%[=============================================================================>]   2.54M  1.17MB/s   in 2.2s    2015-01-10 15:57:15 (1.17 MB/s) - ‘/usr/portage/distfiles/mpv-0.7.2.tar.gz’ saved [2658772/2658772] >>> Creating Manifest for /usr/local/portage/media-video/mpv

   There is a trick here. Usually, ebuild/emerge gets the name of the source package (including point release version) from the name of the ebuild. Many times, simply copying the previous version's ebuild is sufficient to create a proper ebuild for the desired version. This is only sometimes true for simpler packages. In this case, it worked fine.
   
   
3. If you want to try installing the mpv git repository's current version, then execute the following 'echo' commands instead of the above 'echo' unmask command :

   Code:

   echo 'media-video/mpv' >> /etc/portage/package.unmask echo 'media-video/mpv **' >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

   
   
4. If you use mask/unmask/keyword directories, modify the 'echo' commands appopriately - e.g.

   Code:

   echo 'media-video/mpv' >> /etc/portage/package.unmask/package.unmask echo 'media-video/mpv **' >> /etc/portage/package.keywords/package.keywords

   
   
5. I have ffmpeg-2.4.4 installed. I haven't any clue how well earlier versions of ffmpeg will work with mpv-0.7.2

edit Jan 11 2015 to correct typo in an echo command

Also - be sure to read the following post's (by khay) clarifying comments!
_________________
People whom think M$ is mediocre, don't know the half of it.

[khayyam]

[dufeu]

khay,

First, a big thank you for your clarifying comments! They are much appreciated!!