Add subtitle support when streaming on Chromecast via Windows, for hearing-impaired users
Similar to this Android topic, when trying to play a file with subtitles (either embedded into a .mkv, .mp4, or other format as well as a separate .srt) subtitles do not appear. When playing on Windows 7 or mirroring the screen though Google Home to the same Chromecast, subtitles do work of course, so the problem is VLC, not the subtitles.
This is a required feature that is important for hearing-impaired users like myself. I enjoy streaming media via VLC because other apps like Sodaplayer (which does stream subtitles very easily) often does not work at all with Chromecast for some reason for some files, so I resort to VLC streaming, but unfortunately cannot have subtitles so often I miss what some people say or have to rewind 10 to 15 times trying to figure out what someone said, and sometimes even resort to reading the text of an .srt file and try to find where it was that a certain thing was said so I can understand it. Needless to say, this significantly degrades the viewing experience.
VLC is very laggy when trying to mirror the whole screen to Chromecast, and the media quality is low. Therefore, streaming is far preferred, but streaming without subtitles for hearing-impaired users is a significantly degraded experience.
In the Android topic, a dev for which many people were angry at for closing an unresolved topic (as shown by the angry imp emoji by multiple users), it was mentioned usefully that VLC would need to transcode the subtitles, and that it is not supported yet, but planned in the VLC 4.0.
Unfortunately, VLC 4.0 is not compatible with Windows 7, as mentioned in a previous topic I opened.
It was also mentioned that it would be CPU-intensive to transcode the subtitles. I am aware of this and do not care as I have a powerful enough CPU. I can stream via DLNA for my PS4 but I got rid of my PS4 because I only used it for video streaming and now I use Chromecast for my media streaming.
Therefore, transcoding the subtitles it important for VLC when streaming over Chromecast.
Many other users reiterated their desire for the same, before the dev Geoffrey Métais closed the unresolved topic.
It is important that VLC 3.0.x will be able to support subtitles for Chromecast streaming for hearing-impaired users who use Windows 7. Thank you.
VLC versions: 3.0.9, 3.0.10
Windows 7 x64