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Opaque Box Border Style Not Working for SRT Subtitles #1412

Description

@andwan0

Describe the bug

Describe the bug

After updating SMPlayer from 25.6.0 to 26.8.29, the “Opaque Box” subtitle border style no longer works correctly with SRT subtitles.

In SMPlayer's subtitle settings, I have:

Subtitle border style: Opaque Box

With SMPlayer 25.6.0, SRT subtitles were displayed with the expected opaque background box.

After upgrading to SMPlayer 26.8.29, the same SRT subtitles and the same subtitle settings no longer display the opaque box. The subtitles are displayed without the expected opaque background.

This appears to be a regression between SMPlayer 25.6.0 and 26.8.29.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Options, Preferences, Subtitles, Font and colours
  2. Border style: Opaque box
  3. Opacity: 192
  4. OK to save changes
  5. Load video & load SRT subtitle
  6. Opaque background with opacity doesn't work anymore.

Expected behavior
Previous version 25.6.0 (2025-06-09) worked fine displaying SRT subtitles with opaque background & opacity.

Screenshots

Image

Your Enviroment

  • SMPlayer version: 26.8.29
  • OS: Windows 11
  • Multimedia engine you're using with SMPlayer (preferences -> general):
    [ ] MPlayer
    [X] MPV

Logs
No logs needed.

Additional context

Additional context

Version comparison

Working:

  • SMPlayer 25.6.0
  • Released approximately 2025-06-09

Not working:

  • SMPlayer 26.8.29
  • Released 2026-08-30

The issue can be reproduced using the same media, the same SRT subtitle file, and the same subtitle settings.

The problem specifically concerns SRT/plain-text subtitles. I am not referring to ASS subtitles which contain their own styling.

It may be worth checking whether this is related to changes in the bundled mpv version or to SMPlayer's handling of the --sub-border-style=opaque-box option and conversion of SRT/plain-text subtitles to ASS for rendering.

The mpv project still appears to support the opaque-box border style, so I suspect this may be a regression in either SMPlayer's subtitle option handling or the version of mpv bundled with SMPlayer 26.8.29.

The known-good regression range is:

SMPlayer 25.6.0 → SMPlayer 26.8.29

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