Synthalingua Beta v1.2.2

[cyberofficial]

Synthalingua Beta v1.2.2

This is a significant feature and stability release. Version 1.2.2 introduces powerful new video post-processing tools, a visual refresh for the application, and critical bug fixes that improve performance and prevent crashes, especially for users on AMD hardware.

Pick up the portable version on itch!

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Key Features & Enhancements

Video Subtitle Processing (--subtype and --substyle)

This version introduces a complete workflow for adding your generated subtitles directly to video files, eliminating the need for third-party software.

• Burn Subtitles (--subtype burn): You can now permanently burn subtitles onto your video files. This is ideal for sharing on platforms that do not have their own subtitle support.
• Embed Subtitles (--subtype embed): Subtitles can be embedded as a soft, toggleable track. The output container is automatically converted to MKV to ensure maximum player compatibility.
• Custom Subtitle Styling (--substyle): When burning subtitles, you can now fully customize their appearance.
  • Font: Use any custom .ttf or .otf font by placing it in the new fonts/ folder.
  • Size & Color: Control the font size and color.
  • Run python synthalingua.py --substyle help for detailed instructions.

GUI and User Experience

• New Logo Rebrand: Synthalingua has a new logo. This begins a visual update to create an identity that is more in tune with the project's mission.
• New UI Companion: To make the application feel a bit more lively, a new friend now resides in the UI. This is a purely visual element and can be easily toggled on or off in the settings.

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Performance & Stability

• Improved UTF-8 Support:

  • Enhanced the handling of file paths and subprocess calls across the application (especially in transcribe_worker.py and sub_gen.py) to explicitly use UTF-8 encoding. This significantly improves stability when working with files that have special characters or non-ASCII names.

• Optimizations for Intel Users:

  • Refinements to the OpenVINO model loading and compilation process may result in slightly faster response times for users on Intel hardware.

• Stability Fix for AMD + FasterWhisper:

  • Removed deprecated functions within the transcription pipeline that were identified as a source of random crashes, particularly for users on AMD machines utilizing the fasterwhisper model source. The application is now more stable on this hardware combination.
  • Filtered out non-critical pkg_resources deprecation warnings from the console log for a cleaner user experience.

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Bug Fixes

• Resolved File Path Freeze: Fixed a very specific and rare bug where the program would hang indefinitely if a video filename contained a mix of Japanese Kanji and Roman letters. This was traced to an encoding issue when passing file paths to external processes and has been resolved with the improved UTF-8 handling.
• Improved FFmpeg Path Handling: The logic for burning subtitles now uses a temporary, sanitized file path to prevent special characters from breaking the FFmpeg filtergraph command.

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This discussion was created from the release Synthalingua Beta v1.2.2.