Thai Subtitles in Android Box?

[scooterboy 120]

Hi

 

Guess this has been asked a few times along the way - though I don't seem to be able to find a solid answer.

 

I took the good advice of err...who was it now? a while back and finally bought me an Android TV Box - great. I'm learning a few things and it's going quite  nicely - when I have the spare time for such things, that is.

 

I can figure out how to download subtitles for a show or movie - again great.

 

How do I (or maybe CAN I?) see Thai subtitles as Thai language - not as some weird boxes on the screen?

 

Any of you guys able to see Thai subtitles properly?

 

Thanks for any good advice

 

Cheers 

 

 

[JaiMaai 246]

The main problem is that the default fonts included in Kodi don't  display Thai fonts properly. You need to either change the skin to one that includes fonts that do or modify a couple of XML files to add your own fonts such as TH Sarabun.

 

I did get Thai to display in the end but I  never found a reliable source for Thai subs. Where did you find them?

[johng 9,949]

http://www.thaisubtitle.com/     http://www.opensubtitles.org/

 

thai font   arial.rar

 

Just make a  backup/copy of your original  arial font and copy the Thai one into the correct directory  no need to fiddle with XML's.

Edited August 10, 2016 by johng

[Peterw42 9,963]

There is a great kodi system services add on called auto subs, it searches for subs every time you play a movie. As others have said, you need to put a thai font into kodi.

[scooterboy 120]

 

 

As stated by johng, I use opensubtitles, which has SOME Thai subtitles. However, there are many websites with Thai subtitles - unfortunately you can't "choose" them via Kodi. as they're not in their list.

 

I don't know if it's possible to somehow include another website in the list - I rather doubt it. Maybe if you have a Windows Kodi installation, it may be possible to make a work-around, but doing the same thing on an Android Box might not be possible.

 

Thanks to johng for the rar file. I'll look further into that one when I get my system up and working again. I'm at the moment changing the tv and don't have access to Kodi on the Android Box. 

 

[williewolf 99]

On 10/08/2016 at 0:47 PM, Peterw42 said:

There is a great kodi system services add on called auto subs, it searches for subs every time you play a movie. As others have said, you need to put a thai font into kodi.

How do you put the thai font into kodi? (Using android box), been struggling with this for ages so thanks for any help you can give.

[Peterw42 9,963]

2 hours ago, williewolf said:

How do you put the thai font into kodi? (Using android box), been struggling with this for ages so thanks for any help you can give.

 

Happy to help, it was a while ago, but i think I can remember.

First you need a app like es file explorer to go to directories, copy etc. The path is something like sdcard\android\zbmc\files\kodi\media\fonts.

Put the font in there, restart kodi, it will then be available in the system setting, subtitles in kodi. I used Arialuni.tff as it has does lots of languages.

I set it up years ago and promptly forgot, from memory you need to show hidden files and depending on version of kodi, you may have to add the fonts directory.

 

Let me know how you go

 

 

[scooterboy 120]

Well, I finally got my cables in place (for the moment, at least) and tried out your above suggestion. It seems that in the latest Android TV Box version of Kodi things have maybe changed a whole lot - there is no longer a "fonts directory" (or at least I couldn't find one). Neither was it possible to find arial.ttf or teletext.ttf files anywhere else in the system. However. these DO still figure in the Windows Kodi App (that I also have)!

 

I haven't quite given up, but obviously Thai subtitles now has a lower priority and I'll look at what I can do, when I have more spare time.

 

Thanks for your great ideas - which I imagine will work very well on earlier Kodi versions. Thanks too, for taking the time to give a good and detailed description - very useful!

 

Any other good ideas - then be sure to tell! 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

[Peterw42 9,963]

12 hours ago, scooterboy said:

Well, I finally got my cables in place (for the moment, at least) and tried out your above suggestion. It seems that in the latest Android TV Box version of Kodi things have maybe changed a whole lot - there is no longer a "fonts directory" (or at least I couldn't find one). Neither was it possible to find arial.ttf or teletext.ttf files anywhere else in the system. However. these DO still figure in the Windows Kodi App (that I also have)!

 

I haven't quite given up, but obviously Thai subtitles now has a lower priority and I'll look at what I can do, when I have more spare time.

 

Thanks for your great ideas - which I imagine will work very well on earlier Kodi versions. Thanks too, for taking the time to give a good and detailed description - very useful!

 

Any other good ideas - then be sure to tell! 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am using the latest Kodi version (not krypton, as its only just out). As I said the fonts directory is either a hidden directory (you need to turn on show hidden files in the file explorer App you are using) or you need to add it using the file explorer app.

The default fonts dont exist as such, i think built into the original code.

I run kodi on a laptop as well, and added the fonts to the windows version as well.

Lots of how to articles if you google "kodi add font etc"

I know you said its a low priority but if you have a Thai GF or wife, its a high priority, lol. I have it set up the other way round as well, if I play a Thai movie, kodi goes and finds the English subs. It doesn't always find one, but when it does, it works well.

 

 

 

[scooterboy 120]

Heh - yep, priorities......

 

I'd given today (Saturday) as the last chance (for the moment) to fix this 'small' problem. Yesterday, I finished off my Kodi session by installing the fonts directory in the (hopefully) correct place with 2 new fonts (1 JohnG's, 1 from another site) and leaving things until today.

 

Still couldn't get anything to work at all today - couldn't even download subtitles from ANY source, though it was possible to CHOOSE a subtitle. Hmmm.....that meant looking at the error log, which is divinely full of very cryptic messages. I could only guess from the log that there was something wrong with the download subtitle path (even though there wasn't one specified) so I reckoned it was necessary to set everything back to default, after taking a backup. Oh - and my file explorer had "View hidden files" turned on (by default), by the way.

 

That apparently helped, as I was now able to choose JohnG's font under KODI System/Subtitles. After choosing several tv-shows/movies, all with a weird Rick Astley video (just what IS that thing?) I finally managed to choose a movie and download a Thai subtitle - it worked! Thai subtitles displaying, so the wife is very happy. I have to take another backup (just in case) - and to make a full "How-to-do" description -  and that's my lot for the next few days (other things call).

 

Many thanks for your immense help Peterw42 - and to JohnG for his arial file - and to all for your excellent advice and comments. Hope others can succeed in getting their Thai subtitles to work, too.

 

Cheers - and good viewing.

 

 

 

 

[williewolf 99]

On 11/08/2016 at 6:02 PM, Peterw42 said:

 

Happy to help, it was a while ago, but i think I can remember.

First you need a app like es file explorer to go to directories, copy etc. The path is something like sdcard\android\zbmc\files\kodi\media\fonts.

Put the font in there, restart kodi, it will then be available in the system setting, subtitles in kodi. I used Arialuni.tff as it has does lots of languages.

I set it up years ago and promptly forgot, from memory you need to show hidden files and depending on version of kodi, you may have to add the fonts directory.

 

Let me know how you go

 

 

Well i tried all day yesterday, added fonts to kodi and also to the skin but still no joy. On a plus note i got the subtitle search up at the start of the film and the subtitles are there but still just show as boxes after downloading them. Any more ideas? Totally stumped with this. I think the problem lies with the subtitle settings in the skin as there are only two choices, arial or teletext. I also downloaded and added a set of fonts that are supposed to eliminate any problems reading them but still no joy

[Peterw42 9,963]

There are 2 places you can add fonts, to the system or to the skin addon. As soon as you change skins then the font is not available . The path I quoted is to add to system. 

After you add the font, it should be in the drop down menu in System, video, subtitles, font to use for subtitles. (settings level set to expert) Also change System,video, subtitles, Character set to Thai.

That should work, let me know

[johng 9,949]

from my notes

 

Windows
copy airiel.ttf to /usr/share/kodi/addons/skin.confluence/fonts
in system/settings/apearance/skin change to ariel font and it should now display thai
no need to faf around with font.xml

 

in Raspbian XBMC 
/home/pi/.xbmc-current/xbmc-bin/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/fonts

 

I like to use a program called WinSCP  to transfer and edit files on the " android box"   in my case its a Raspberry PI

but I used it on a TOT  IPTV box too which is much more like the android boxes being used.

[williewolf 99]

Update. After trying all day yesterday I have finally had a bit of sucsess. My android box was getting rather slow due to putting too many things on so I decided to have a go on my laptop and BINGO! Finally got it to work on the laptop, showing a choice of three fonts now, the original two plus the one I added.

So now I still have to tackle the android box or is it possible to back up the laptop to a memory stick and transfer to the android box??

Again any help is extremely gratefull

[JaiMaai 246]

Take a look at the "Community Portal" at www.noobsandnerds.com. They have an add on installer that also has a useful full back-up utility.  Plenty of guides out there. Just Google it