Arabic subtitles alignment

[bluemix]

As shown in the screenshot from ExoPlayer 2.0.4,

In Arabic (RTL), the dashes ("-") and the parenthesis, should start from the same direction as the Arabic language,
i.e., from the right to the left, as shown below.

Can you provide a solution to fix this? or is it already being fixed?

Thanks a lot :)

[ojw28]

We'd definitely like to make sure RTL captions work properly :). Please could you provide some sample media so that we can investigate the issue? It would be helpful if you could provide some information about a particular point in the video where the issue occurs, and the expected output at that position (similar to the example you provide above). This will help us verify a fix.

[bluemix]

Yes, sure.
The srt file:
69D8D411-3CFC-6E92-6CE6-0DDB43A62921_ar_transfile.txt

The mentioned caption was at line 4317
(or caption number 936 at time 01:27:35,270 --> 01:27:38,489).

The correct formatting should be as shown in the second screenshot
of my first comment above.

[ojw28]

This can likely be solved using Android's BidiFormatter class prior to painting the subtitle.

[bluemix]

@MurtadhaS
i think you might get benefit of this

[Furystorm]

Hello! Many years passed and this problem seems not fixed yet. I tested in exoplayer 2.14.2, the Arabic comma "،" , should stay at left, but appears at right. At the same time, the Arabic question mark "؟" appears at the correct place. Example subtitle text:
،في الحياة اليومية أو العمل
فكيف نسأل عن أسمائهم؟

If I use the webview by subView.setViewType(SubtitleView.VIEW_TYPE_WEB) , the Arabic comma appears at the correct place. But in this mode, the subtitle's style is unruly. For example, CaptionStyleCompat.EDGE_TYPE_OUTLINE the outline is oddly, CaptionStyleCompat.EDGE_TYPE_DROP_SHADOW the shadow is truncated at bottom. How to make correct style without embedded styles?

As mentioned above, how does BidiFormatter works? Or should it be used in exoplayer's code?

[icbaker]

If I use the webview by subView.setViewType(SubtitleView.VIEW_TYPE_WEB) , the Arabic comma appears at the correct place

That's great that the webview works well for this - but sorry to hear about your styling issues. I've dug down in more detail below, but I think we should continue further discussion on WebView styling in separate issues in order to keep this one focussed on the alignment problem in the canvas-based subtitle output.

If I use the webview by subView.setViewType(SubtitleView.VIEW_TYPE_WEB) , the Arabic comma appears at the correct place. But in this mode, the subtitle's style is unruly. For example, CaptionStyleCompat.EDGE_TYPE_OUTLINE the outline is oddly,

I can reproduce this in 2.17.1 (screenshots below), using the "TTML positioning" sample and the following patch to the demo app in PlayerActivity#onCreate:

    playerView.getSubtitleView().setViewType(SubtitleView.VIEW_TYPE_WEB);
    playerView.getSubtitleView().setStyle(new CaptionStyleCompat(
        /* foregroundColor= */ Color.RED,
        /* backgroundColor= */ Color.GREEN,
        /* windowColor= */ Color.CYAN,
        CaptionStyleCompat.EDGE_TYPE_OUTLINE,
        /* edgeColor= */ Color.BLACK,
        /* typeface= */ null
    ));

I've filed #10137 to track this specifically (so that we can keep this issue focussed on the alignment problems).

Outline screenshots

Canvas

---

WebView

---

CaptionStyleCompat.EDGE_TYPE_DROP_SHADOW the shadow is truncated at bottom.

I wasn't able to reproduce this using the dropshadow version of the patch above. The WebView and Canvas based outputs do look different, but I think the WebView output actually more closely reflects the sample shown in the Android system caption style settings window. Please can you file a new bug with clear repro steps (can be based on the demo app) and screenshots showing what you see (similar to what I've included here).

dropshadow screenshots

Canvas

WebView

[sajjadshahbazi]

I lose focus when using subView.setViewType(SubtitleView.VIEW_TYPE_WEB).
I think the subtitle widget keeps focus.
how to handle the problem?

[icbaker]

@sajjadshahbazi Please file a new issue in https://github.com/androidx/media with full details and repro instructions, and we can take a look.