[Sfor]

Well, I've been playing around with a few Windows 98 compatible players a while ago. As the result I've managed to obtain a sufficient h264 coded video playback efficiency (on a single core P4 without GPU h264 acceleration), with just one flaw. None of the players I'm using seems to be able to handle subtitles sufficiently.

GOM Player (2.1.21.4846)
- does not handle some of the subtitles formats available inside of mkv files.
- during the time a secondary subtitle is visible the main subtitles are ignored
- some of the mkv subtitles are displayed delayed and/or for too short time period.

BS Player free (2.43)
- problems with backrard rewind function. The first key press rewinds only to the last key frame. It is necesary to hit the key a few times to get the desired result.
- problem with positioning of the subtitles. It is necesary to display subtitles on an overlay surface for the positionig to work at all. But the video playback is choppy in the moment a subtitle is displayed.
- during the time a secondary subtitle is visible the main subtitles are ignored

Media Player Classic
- I have failed to get the subtitles function working, so far.

[Sfor]

I've been experimenting with the newer GOM Player 2.1.24.5013. There were no changes to the way it handles the MKV subtitles, apparently.

On the other hand, I've confirmed, the same .SRT subtitles are handled correctly, when provided in a separate file. So, the workaround is to extract the .SRT files from .MKV.

[Vince4Amy]

I haven't tried it myself but have you given VLC a go?

[Offler]

Media player classic:
The subtitle filter in player does not work on Windows 9x. Same is true for CD audio player and some other functions. I dont know why, but i always suceeded when i downloaded original filter and installed it manually. At all i dont think that fixing bugs in Win9x version is the priority for the development team now.

For subtites with MPC:
Vob Sub 2.23. There are newer versions of this filter, but you may experience trouble when playing movies in YUV2 YV12 colorspace (in Win9x). This one works for me. Supreme quality of text, but at cost of CPU...

When you look on the settings of this subtitle filter you will see almost same settings which are included with Media player classic.

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Nero plays subtitles, I'm not sure the exact files but when I play a movie with nero 6 lite installed
the subtitles are on automatically.

[Offler]

Nero contains a lot of video filters. Dont know why for a CD-DVD burning sw.

[sp193]

Offler, on 28 April 2010 - 09:30 AM, said:

Media player classic:
The subtitle filter in player does not work on Windows 9x. Same is true for CD audio player and some other functions. I dont know why, but i always suceeded when i downloaded original filter and installed it manually. At all i dont think that fixing bugs in Win9x version is the priority for the development team now.

For subtites with MPC:
Vob Sub 2.23. There are newer versions of this filter, but you may experience trouble when playing movies in YUV2 YV12 colorspace (in Win9x). This one works for me. Supreme quality of text, but at cost of CPU...

When you look on the settings of this subtitle filter you will see almost same settings which are included with Media player classic.

For *almost all* video players like Windows Media Player 6.4, you can install FFDSHOW (Build 2322 was the last version that can run on Windows 98 without any "assistance") and VSFilter (aka "Vob Sub").

Actually, the MPC's subtitle filter never worked properly (Even on Windows XP) for me.... I heard that it's too outdated to work with the newer subtitle formats (Or something like that).