# UTF-8 Subtitle Charset **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202 "2008-07-21T11:20:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sipkhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sipkhoon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sipkhoon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 11:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/1 "2008-07-21T11:20:27Z")
Add UTF-8 to subtitle charset selection I have all my subtitles saved as UTF-8 format. For all the Chinese Traditional (Big5) and Chinese Simplified (GB) subtitles, I always resave them into UTF-8 encoding, so that I don't have to change the VLC setting, every time when I switch from Big5 to GB subtile, or the other way. But in Plex, I can't have UTF-8 as my subtitle charset, so all my Chinese language UTF-8 subtitles are not usable in Plex. Please consider adding UTF-8 to subtitle charset. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![bmfrosty](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bmfrosty/32/8_2.png) [@bmfrosty](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bmfrosty)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/2 "2008-07-21T17:50:04Z")
Can you provide a sample file? ---
**Author:** ![sipkhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sipkhoon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sipkhoon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/3 "2008-07-21T19:29:16Z")
Yes, the sample is as attached. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/elan/32/5_2.png) [@elan](https://forums.plex.tv/u/elan)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/4 "2008-07-21T19:40:22Z")
bmfrosty, please let me know what your recommendation is here 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bmfrosty](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bmfrosty/32/8_2.png) [@bmfrosty](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bmfrosty)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/5 "2008-07-21T20:20:33Z")
I’ll do some testing when I get home tonight. I know I’ve had UTF-8 subs work alright in .ass format. I just checked the file, and it seems to be using instead of or , and it’s missing that little three byte header that microsoft likes to throw on UTF-8 files. Also, it seems to be valid UTF-8 as the characters are viewable in windows notepad when I change the font to Arial Unicode. I’ve attached a file with some simple modifications (one with microsoft’s 3 byte header and another one with all the changed to ). Sip, If you could try out these files and report your findings, it would be appreciated. Also, if you could tell us what font you are using, it would be helpful. [sakura\_modified.zip](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/8/1/81539c5106951cadf8bb25f8f53b96ec85b1c875.zip) (24.5 KB) ---
**Author:** ![sipkhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sipkhoon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sipkhoon)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 1:49am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/6 "2008-07-22T01:49:00Z")
bmfrosty, Both srt files have the same result as the original, they are not encoded as chinese characters. I use Arial unicode font for VLC and Plex. ---
**Author:** ![bmfrosty](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bmfrosty/32/8_2.png) [@bmfrosty](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bmfrosty)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 4:44am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/7 "2008-07-22T04:44:01Z")
Just replicated here. It looks like it’s just not detecting it as Unicode. @elan Does the srt loader know how to deal with utf-8? ---
**Author:** ![elan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/elan/32/5_2.png) [@elan](https://forums.plex.tv/u/elan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2008, 8:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/8 "2008-07-22T08:20:53Z")
I’ll check it out. ---
**Author:** ![sipkhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sipkhoon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sipkhoon)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 11:33am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/9 "2008-07-29T11:33:32Z")
No luck with 0.5RC1. The Chinese characters in UTF-8 subtitle files still are not encoded properly. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/elan/32/5_2.png) [@elan](https://forums.plex.tv/u/elan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/10 "2008-07-29T18:18:31Z")
> [@](#): > > No luck with 0.5RC1. > > > > The Chinese characters in UTF-8 subtitle files still are not encoded properly. > > > > 😉 Sorry, it didn't quite make that release. Hopefully I'll have a chance to look at it soon. ---
**Author:** ![sipkhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sipkhoon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sipkhoon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 7:14am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/11 "2008-07-30T07:14:05Z")
Thank you Elan. Hope can watch Japanese movies with Chinese subtitle soon. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bmfrosty](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bmfrosty/32/8_2.png) [@bmfrosty](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bmfrosty)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2008, 8:20am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/12 "2008-07-30T08:20:29Z")
There’s probably a workaround. Try converting the srt subtitles to SSA and then playing them. I don’t know if there’s an app in OS-X that will do that for you though… I’ll poke around and see what I can find. ---
**Author:** ![sipkhoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@sipkhoon](https://forums.plex.tv/u/sipkhoon)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 6:25am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/13 "2008-07-31T06:25:17Z")
I use Jubler to convert srt to ssa, but it doesn’t help. The characters appear as square boxes… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![bmfrosty](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bmfrosty/32/8_2.png) [@bmfrosty](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bmfrosty)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/14 "2008-07-31T21:05:03Z")
Make sure you set the font in SSA to something unicode, and throw that font in a directory where plex will look for it… I can get you that directory name when I get home tonight. ---
**Author:** ![bmfrosty](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/bmfrosty/32/8_2.png) [@bmfrosty](https://forums.plex.tv/u/bmfrosty)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2008, 8:12am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/15 "2008-08-01T08:12:08Z")
Libass will find fonts in: /tmp/plex throw whatever font you want to use in there, and make sure that it’s specified in the ssa/ass file. ---
**Author:** ![MED10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19b73/32.png) [@MED10](https://forums.plex.tv/u/MED10)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 9:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/16 "2019-11-26T09:31:23Z")
try this, [https://mega.nz/#!OokHQCrA!tG-BVEfOQRRL\_CUvelLcEzP1mOV7GjeuXPIQCGS8FeU](https://mega.nz/#!OokHQCrA!tG-BVEfOQRRL_CUvelLcEzP1mOV7GjeuXPIQCGS8FeU) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 9:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/utf-8-subtitle-charset/202/17 "2020-02-24T09:31:27Z")
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