Identify why two seemingly equivalent SRT file are treated differently

chermesh · 02 Mar 2016

Hi,
I'm keeping video files on my win7 pc. I'm using Universal Media Server to transmit these videos to a TV set.
The way an SRT file is accepted by my DNLA puzzles me.
I have a whole set of SRT files, holding Hebrew subtitles, which were saved by MS Writer as unicode text documents, all accepted perfectly by the server and shown in clear legible Hebrew letters. One SRT file, however, shows up completely illegible.
How do I find out what's wrong with problematic file?

MilesAhead · 02 Mar 2016

Do the srt files specify fonts? If so are they the same?
Afaik srt files are only supposed to have the subtitle number, then a time line, then the text. But many people have added their own non-standard variations.

One quick way to check for weird things is to search the srt in an editor for curly braces. Search for '{' and '}' as they are often used as delimiters for these non-standard markers.

If you find any curly braces I have a small utility that strips curly braces and angle brackets from srt files. It is called SrtStrip and may be downloaded from my page below. Note that the program is just a script that looks for a left angle bracket and if found, deletes it and the next 2 characters to get rid of the character inside the brackets and the right angle bracket. What I was trying to get rid of were tags like this "<i>this is some italic subtitle</i>"

Likewise if it finds a left curly brace it stops copying the characters to the output until it finds the matching right brace. No rocket science was involved in the production of this utility. :)

Miles Ahead's Windows Downloads

chermesh · 02 Mar 2016

Thanks MilesAhead, but that's not the case. When I run the video I do see test' but instead of seeing legitimate Hebrew letters, I see a line or two of illegible form.
When I access the file using MS Writer, all text is as expected and no curly braces are tracked.