Languages¶

Everything hikari shows in mpv (its menus, the tooltips of its buttons, the Skip opening › button, its messages and the season and episode labels of titles) comes in the 13 languages of uosc 5.13:


English	Español (España)	Español (Latinoamérica)	Deutsch
Français	Italiano	Polski	Português (Brasil)
Português (Portugal)	Română	Русский	Türkçe
Українська	中文（香港）	简体中文

Spanish and Portuguese come twice, once per regional variant: both read the same texts, and they differ in the audio and subtitle tracks hikari prefers. Palette names (Catppuccin, Nord, SCEPTIC...) are names, so they stay as they are. The installer itself only speaks English and Spanish.

Your system's language, by default¶

On a first install, the installer writes your system's language to ~~/hikari-language.conf: the Windows display language, the first preferred language of macOS, or LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES or LANG on Linux. The region picks the variant: Spanish from Spain (or with no region) is Español (España), Spanish from anywhere else (Mexico, Argentina, es-419...) is Español (Latinoamérica); Portuguese from Brazil (or with no region) is Português (Brasil), from Portugal or anywhere else Português (Portugal). Simplified Chinese (China, Singapore) is 简体中文; Traditional Chinese (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau) is 中文（香港）; any other language is English. Updates keep your choice.

Without that file (a copy made by hand), hikari follows LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES or LANG and otherwise speaks English.

Changing it¶

Alt+l opens the language menu, with each language written in itself and the current one marked. Pick one and hikari switches at once: open menus are redrawn, the skip button and the title of the file playing change, and the choice is saved for the next start.

uosc's own menus and buttons (Subtitles, Playlist, Chapters...) are translated by uosc, which only reads its translations when mpv starts. hikari tells uosc the same language (the uosc-languages script option), so after a switch a short message reminds you to restart mpv to translate uosc's menus too. Until then, uosc follows the language it started with.

Alt+l is listed in uosc's Key bindings menu, but not in uosc's main menu: uosc only builds that menu from input.conf when input.conf describes all of it, and hikari leaves uosc's default menu as it is.

To bind another key, use script-binding hikari_language/open-menu in input.conf.

Audio and subtitles¶

hikari's language also decides which audio and subtitle tracks mpv picks on its own, with a recipe made for anime:

Audio: a dub in your language when the file has one (for Spanish and Portuguese, of your variant), otherwise Japanese.
Subtitles: in your language. When the audio already is in your language, the dialogue subtitles stay off (a dub needs no subtitles on top), but forced subtitles still show: the track that only translates signs, on-screen text and song lyrics, which the dub does not cover. mpv knows it by the forced mark of the track.

With Español (España), that is the same as these three lines in mpv.conf:

alang=es-ES,es,spa,es-419,es-MX,ja,jpn
slang=es-ES,es,spa,es-419,es-MX
subs-with-matching-audio=forced

plus the choice between two tracks of the same language, which mpv cannot do on its own. There is nothing to turn on: it follows the language menu. Each entry has its own list of codes:

Language	Codes
English	`en,eng,en-US,en-GB`
Español (España)	`es-ES,es,spa,es-419,es-MX`
Español (Latinoamérica)	`es-419,es,spa,es-MX,es-ES`
Deutsch	`de,ger,deu,de-DE`
Français	`fr,fre,fra,fr-FR,fr-CA`
Italiano	`it,ita,it-IT`
Polski	`pl,pol,pl-PL`
Português (Brasil)	`pt-BR,pt,por,pt-PT`
Português (Portugal)	`pt-PT,pt,por,pt-BR`
Română	`ro,rum,ron,ro-RO`
Русский	`ru,rus,ru-RU`
Türkçe	`tr,tur,tr-TR`
Українська	`uk,ukr,uk-UA`
中文（香港）	`zh-Hant,zh-HK,zh-TW,zh,chi,zho,zh-Hans,zh-CN`
简体中文	`zh-Hans,zh-CN,zh,chi,zho,zh-Hant,zh-TW`

Japanese (ja,jpn) follows in the audio list. The regional codes are there because of how mpv 0.40 ranks tracks: a dub tagged es-419 or pt-BR, as many releases tag them, would otherwise lose to a jpn track. A region that is not in the list (say es-AR) still beats Japanese tagged ja-JP, but not a plain ja or jpn. Each variant lists its own region first: mpv takes a track tagged just es or spa as a match for es-ES too, so for Spain es-ES and es rank the same and es-419 comes after them, and the other way round for Latin America. Chinese lists its own script first and the other one last, so a Chinese dub tagged with any code of its list (or just zh) beats Japanese, whatever its script. A longer tag such as zh-Hans-CN or zh-Hant-TW is in neither list and, like an unlisted region, loses to a plain ja or jpn. Tracks with no language at all are left to mpv's usual rules.

Spanish and Portuguese: two variants¶

mpv only compares language tags, and many releases tag both variants alike. Crunchyroll, for instance, ships two Spanish subtitle tracks, both tagged es: Spanish(Latin_America) first and Spanish (Spain) after it, so mpv on its own always takes the Latin American one. hikari tells them apart:

mpv picks the tracks as usual, with the lists above.
If the audio track mpv picked is in your language but of the other variant, and the file has another audio track in your language of your variant, hikari switches to it. Then the same for the subtitles. It only swaps like for like: forced subtitles (signs and songs) for forced ones, full subtitles for full ones, external files for external files.

A track's variant comes from the region in its tag (es-ES; es-419, es-MX, es-AR...; pt-BR; pt-PT), or else from its title:

Variant	Words in the title
Español (España)	España, Spain, Castilian, Castellano, [ESP], European
Español (Latinoamérica)	Latin, Latino, Latinoamérica, LATAM, América, 419
Português (Brasil)	Brazil, Brasil, BR
Português (Portugal)	Portugal, European

A Spanish track whose tag and title say nothing counts as Spain's (Crunchyroll only names the Latin American one). A Portuguese one could be either, and loses only to a track of your variant.

Some releases put the signs and songs in a track without the forced mark, titled Spanish [Signs], Signs & Songs, Carteles, Forced or the like. When mpv picks one of those as your subtitles and the file has full subtitles in your language, hikari takes the full ones, even of the other variant: dialogue with another accent is better than signs only. If that track is the only one in your language, it stays. A title that also says the subtitles are full ones, such as Full + Songs, Dialogue + Signs or Spanish (non-forced), does not count as signs only.

So with Español (España) that Crunchyroll file plays the Spanish subtitles, and with Español (Latinoamérica) the Latin American ones. With a dub of your variant, the forced signs track of your variant is preferred too.

A dub of the other variant does not count as yours. Say you picked Español (España) and the file has the Japanese audio, a Latin American dub and Spanish subtitles from Spain. mpv on its own would play the Latin American dub (it is Spanish, and Spanish comes before Japanese) and show no subtitles. hikari plays the Japanese audio instead, with the full subtitles of Spain. The same the other way round (Español (Latinoamérica) and only a dub from Spain) and for Brazil and Portugal. This needs the dub's tag or title to say which variant it is (es-419, es-MX, Spanish(Latin_America), Castellano...): a dub tagged just spa with no telling title could be yours, so it plays. It also needs a Japanese audio track; without one, the dub stays. With an alang of your own, the dub is your list's choice and hikari leaves it.

Some things stay as they are:

Subtitles of the other variant only: they are used. Subtitles with another accent are better than none.
Whether to show subtitles is still mpv's decision with the options above (with a dub in your language, only forced ones): hikari only changes which track of your language is used, and plays Japanese instead of a dub of the other variant.
Tracks you chose (menu, keys, --aid/--sid, a resumed position) are never touched, and neither is anything with lavfi-complex.
It lasts for that file only. The next file starts again from mpv's own choice.
Your own alang or slang still win. With hikari's lists, hikari may take any track of your language. With a list of yours (or one changed since hikari set it), hikari only chooses between tracks with the same language tag, the ones no list can tell apart: two tracks tagged es (or es and spa, which are the same for mpv), but not es-419 and spa. So with slang=es-419,en in your mpv.conf, a track tagged es-419 stays even next to a spa one titled CR_Spanish. The signs rule above still works with a slang of your own, but only between tracks with the same tag, the ones your list does not tell apart.

A script of your own that sets aid or sid (such as a sub-castellano.lua that picks the Spanish subtitles by their title) wins over hikari: once it has picked a track, mpv no longer treats the choice as its own and hikari leaves it. If hikari's choice is what you wanted, you can remove that script.

When it applies¶

When mpv starts, before the first file opens, so the first episode already gets it.
When each file is loaded, for the choice between variants.
After every switch with Alt+l (also between the two variants of a language). If a file is playing, mpv picks its tracks again with the new languages, and hikari checks the variant again, but only for the tracks picked automatically: an audio or subtitle track you chose yourself (from the menu, with a key, with --aid/--sid or saved with your position) stays. The next files use the new languages anyway.

hikari only sets these options while mpv runs; it writes them to no file, so uninstalling hikari leaves nothing behind.

Your own settings win¶

If you already set alang, slang or subs-with-matching-audio yourself, hikari leaves that option alone:

Audio and subtitles are separate. With an alang of your own, hikari still sets the subtitles, and the other way round.
The subtitles go together, all or nothing. subs-with-matching-audio only makes sense with the slang it goes with, so with a slang of your own hikari leaves subs-with-matching-audio alone too, even if you never set it (mpv's default then applies). With only subs-with-matching-audio of your own, hikari still sets slang.

It checks each option when mpv starts and takes it as yours when:

it was set on the command line, or
it no longer holds mpv's default value: from your mpv.conf, a file it includes, a profile applied at start, the settings of mpv.net or another script, or
the mpv.conf of your config folder (~~/mpv.conf) has a line for it outside the hikari block and outside any [profile], even one that writes mpv's default value (subs-with-matching-audio=yes).

It also stays away from an option that someone changed after hikari set it (set alang ... in the console, another script, an auto profile while it is active).

The values that AnimeJaNai comes with are the exception: see AnimeJaNai below.

The only setting hikari cannot see is one that writes mpv's default value from somewhere other than that mpv.conf (an included file, /etc/mpv/mpv.conf, or a profile applied at start). Profiles that apply on their own later (with profile-cond) set their values over hikari's while they are active, as usual.

To let hikari decide, delete your alang, slang and subs-with-matching-audio lines from mpv.conf (all of them, or just the ones you want hikari to take over) and restart mpv. To keep some preference of your own, keep only that line: for example, alang=ja,jpn always plays the Japanese audio, and hikari still picks the subtitles in your language. A slang line takes the subtitles out of hikari's hands, as said above: add your own subs-with-matching-audio line if mpv's default (yes) is not what you want.

AnimeJaNai¶

AnimeJaNai ships portable_config/mpv-animejanai.conf, which its configuration includes, with these two lines:

alang = 'jpn'
slang = 'eng'

They are AnimeJaNai's defaults rather than a choice of yours, so hikari does not count them as yours and applies its recipe over them. It checks it by reading that file the same way as mpv.conf (comments and [profile] sections do not count) and only when all of this holds:

alang still holds jpn (or slang holds eng) when mpv starts, and
mpv-animejanai.conf sets it in that one line, as it comes, and nowhere else in the file (no alang-append and the like), and
neither your mpv.conf nor the command line sets it.

Change the line to anything else (say alang = 'jpn,eng') and it is yours again: hikari leaves it alone. hikari never writes to mpv-animejanai.conf.

By hand¶

~~/hikari-language.conf (in the mpv config folder, portable_config/ in a portable install) holds two lines, which you can also write yourself:

script-opts-append=hikari-language=es-ES
script-opts-append=uosc-languages=es,en

The codes are those of the menu: en, es-ES, es-419, de, fr, it, pl, pt-BR, pt-PT, ro, ru, tr, uk, zh-HK and zh-hans. uosc has no regional variants, so it gets es or pt. A plain es or pt, as hikari 0.5 saved them, still works: it means Español (España) or Português (Brasil); pick your variant once with Alt+l if that is not yours. Uninstalling asks whether to delete this file together with your other choices.

uosc's own language setting¶

The second line sets uosc's languages option, and a script option set in mpv.conf wins over the same option in script-opts/uosc.conf. So once the installer or Alt+l has written this file, hikari's language also decides uosc's: a languages= line of yours in uosc.conf is ignored, and uosc no longer follows slang (its default, slang,en, picks the language of your preferred subtitles).

To give that back to uosc and keep hikari's language for hikari only, add a file of your own after hikari's, for example ~~/my-uosc-language.conf with this line:

script-opts-remove=uosc-languages

and include it at the end of your mpv.conf, after the hikari block:

include="~~/my-uosc-language.conf"

It has to be an include: mpv reads the included files after the rest of mpv.conf, in order, so a script-opts-remove line written straight into mpv.conf would run before hikari's file and change nothing. Alt+l rewrites hikari-language.conf, but not your file, so this keeps working after every switch; uosc then reads languages from uosc.conf again (or uses slang,en). The only side effect is that the reminder to restart mpv shows after every switch, since hikari no longer knows uosc's language. To undo it, delete the include line.

How the button tooltips are translated¶

uosc translates the tooltips of its own buttons, but the tooltip of a custom button is the text after ? in the controls line of script-opts/uosc.conf, shown as it is. hikari's uosc.conf writes them in English; hikari-language.lua gives hikari's buttons (subtitle style, upscaling, speed, palettes, update) the tooltip in your language when mpv starts and after every switch. Your own buttons and the rest of the controls line are left exactly as you wrote them.

Better translations¶

The translations are in portable_config/script-modules/hikari-i18n.lua, one entry per text with every language side by side. If a text reads wrong in your language, open an issue or a pull request with a better one.