Most people who watches videos and movies on Windows PC will be familiar with DirectVobSub that serves as a DirectShow subtitle filter to display subtitles during video playback on various DirectShow-based media players, especially Windows Media Player. By default, Windows Media Player has limited support for subtitle formats, i.e. SAMI (.smi or .sami) subtitle files, but not more popular and common subtitle files such as .srt and .sub.

With DirectVobSub, which also known as VSFilter or VobSub, DirectShow based media players such as Windows Media Player (WMP), Windows Media Center (WMC), Media Player Classic (MPC), Zoom Player, The Core Media Player and more can support playback of the following subtitle formats:

  • VobSub (.sub, .idx)
  • SubStation Alpha or Advanced SubStation Alpha (.ssa, .ass)
  • SubRip (.srt)
  • MicroDVD and SubViewer (.sub)
  • SAMI (.smi)
  • PowerDivX (.psb)
  • Universal Subtitle Format (.usf)
  • Structured Subtitle Format (.ssf)

DirectVobSub integrates directly with DirectShow for usage by any supported media players, and the VSFilter.dll file can also be used as a plugin for AviSynth and VirtualDub.

A new version of DirectVobSub has been released on the Web. The new version number is 2.40.3093 and with the new version, DirectVobSub is now available for both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) Windows Media Player. DirectVobSub 2.40 includes a feature called “prebuffer subpictures” tweak.

Download DirectVobSub 2.4 32bit: DirectVobSub_2.40.3093_x86.exe
Download DirectVobSub 2.4 64bit: DirectVobSub-2.40.3093_x64.exe

Note that you need to set 64-bit Windows Media Player 12 as default (for Windows 7) or set Windows Media Player 11 as default (for Windows Vista) to use 64-bit DirecotVobSub meaningfully. By default, if you double click on a video media to playback, 32-bit WMP will load. Alternatively, manually run the x64 wmplayer.exe in the %ProgramFiles%/Windows Media Player/ folder (NOT %ProgramFiles(x86)%/Windows Media Player/ which contains x86 WMP) then open the video from menu bar.

DirectVobSub Configuration

VirtualVobSub supports Windows 7, Winodws Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, and Windows NT.