The World is NOT a perfect place, and far from it when playing videos . more-so when you consider necessary audio codecs, and now if you want to see Korean translations on it -_- aside from the language knowledge AND time spent in translating, making a subtitle file is easy, thanks to a few popular dedicated softwares . understandably so, for most subtitles for ripped movies are done by amateurs belonging to movie-viewing groups . so check the subtitle is encoded correctly (explained towards the end of this Post) if all setting for the player seem correct ..


mountaineer Captain Mallory :” to tell you the truth, I didn’t think we could do it ”
explosive expert Corporal Miller :” to tell you the truth, neither did I ”
– from the ending scene of Guns of Navarone 1961 SC

Windows Media Player has been a simple beautiful video viewer
but even with the latest version 12 included in Windows 7
you have to install extra video codecs for more types of encodings continuously emerge
and battle for the crown of the most crispest yet in smooth play .

adding one by one, one eventually land on codec packs
of which Windows 7 Codec Pack and lately Shark007 have been the most all-in-one and at the same time : compatible with any video codecs popular encoders have been spreading .

still if you want to keep a safe and clean system
you best use an independent video viewer than including all the codecs
of which vlc Player has been the one for the last couple of years (that is Globally, while a few other local-brewed media player have been much more popular in South Korea – to be Posted ).

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similarily if you want to view TV programs and movies from all over the World
just as many types subtitles abound .
and if, among these you opt to watch Korean subtitles in vlc Player
you needed to tweak some settings
which has somewhat changed for the latest version of 1.1.11

( previous version needed different settings on different options)
this is for viewing the most popular Korean subtitle format in .smi

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tool > preference :

(bottom ‘Simple’ menu)
[ subtitles & OSD ] basic encoding : Default (Windows-1252) to Korean (EUC-KR/CP949)
Font : Default Arial to Arial Unicode MS
(if this font is missing on your choices : search for the web to install it manually, or install the whole Microsoft Office which will have it included by default)

(bottom ‘All’ menu)
[ input / codec ] subtitle Track : Default -1 to 0

all the rest best left in its Default settings .

 

if the should-be Korean subtitles still appear broken, chances are the *.smi subtitle file itself may be incompatible . most probably saved as a wrong encoded text file . thus, open the file and save it back with UTF-8 encoding option .

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not that you or I am fluent or not in a particular language
but it is incredible that subtitles on foreign motion pictures playing in post-Korean War almost up to the Seoul Olympics was literary at best usually forming a whole different story in itself !

and as the land was poised to become a download nation counting up to the Millennium
new kind of heroes emerged in American and Japanese TV-series fan forums
who eventually spread self-made subtitles surprisingly well understood and adapted
.. all for FREE 😉

thus I humbly dedicate this small post to them

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– another tweaking joy from Korea Tech BLog 2011 –

 

 

( March 10th 2013 Supplement ) note that settings effective for Korean character subtitles has changed during earlier course of this media player, thus settings mentioned on this Post concerns from version 1.1.11 to the latest 2.0.5