mencoder doesn't display some UTF-8 chars, while mplayer does

[Gleb Smirnoff]

Summary of the bug:

A subtitle file contains some UTF-8 figures like "❤". Mplayer successfully displays the subtitles. An attempt to hardcode the subtitles with mencoder yields in a failure. With -utf8 mencoder substitutes "❤" to "_". If used with -ass, then a blank square is put instead of "❤".

How to reproduce: try attached subtitles file.

% mplayer -v input
MPlayer SVN-r37862-snapshot-3.8.0 (C) 2000-2016 MPlayer Team
CPU vendor name: GenuineIntel  max cpuid level: 13
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz (Family: 6, Model: 60, Stepping: 3)
extended cpuid-level: 8
extended cache-info: 16801856
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNowExt: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1 SSE3: 1 SSSE3: 1 SSE4: 1 SSE4.2: 1 AVX: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
get_path('codecs.conf') -> '/home/glebius/.mplayer/codecs.conf'
Reading optional codecs config file /home/glebius/.mplayer/codecs.conf: No such file or directory
Reading optional codecs config file /usr/local/etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: No such file or directory
Using built-in default codecs.conf.
init_freetype
Using MMX (with tiny bit MMX2) Optimized OnScreenDisplay
get_path('fonts') -> '/home/glebius/.mplayer/fonts'
Configuration: --cc=cc --host-cc=cc --as=as --extra-cflags=-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include --extra-libs=-L/usr/local/lib --disable-alsa --disable-bitmap-font --disable-crystalhd --disable-esd --disable-faad --disable-ggi --disable-ggiwmh --disable-liba52 --disable-libbs2b --disable-libdirac-lavc --disable-libilbc --disable-libnut --disable-libvorbis --disable-live --disable-joystick --disable-mad --disable-libmpeg2 --disable-nemesi --enable-ass-internal --disable-aa --disable-libopencore_amrnb --disable-libopencore_amrwb --disable-bluray --disable-caca --disable-libcdio --disable-libdv --disable-enca --disable-gif --disable-libgsm --disable-jack --disable-ladspa --disable-mng --disable-lirc --disable-liblzo --disable-nas --disable-openal --disable-libopenjpeg --disable-libopus --disable-pulse --disable-real --disable-rtc --enable-runtime-cpudetection --disable-librtmp --disable-libschroedinger-lavc --disable-sdl --disable-smb --disable-speex --disable-svga --disable-tv-v4l1 --disable-tv-v4l2 --disable-libvpx-lavc --disable-arts --disable-directfb --disable-faac --disable-libdca --disable-toolame --disable-twolame --disable-x264 --disable-xvid --disable-libdirac-lavc --disable-mencoder --disable-mpg123 --disable-musepack --disable-theora --disable-win32dll --disable-qtx --x-libraries=/usr/local/lib --x-includes=/usr/local/include --prefix=/usr/local --mandir=/usr/local/man --build=amd64-portbld-freebsd12.0
CommandLine: '-v' 'input'
Using nanosleep() timing
get_path('input.conf') -> '/home/glebius/.mplayer/input.conf'
Reading optional input config file /home/glebius/.mplayer/input.conf: No such file or directory
Reading optional input config file /usr/local/etc/mplayer/input.conf: No such file or directory
Falling back on default (hardcoded) input config
get_path('input.conf') -> '/home/glebius/.mplayer/input.conf'

Playing input.
get_path('sub/') -> '/home/glebius/.mplayer/sub/'
File not found: 'input'
Failed to open input.

vo: x11 uninit called but X11 not initialized..

Exiting... (End of file)

[Gleb Smirnoff]

example subtitles file

[Gleb Smirnoff]

I found that on my system mplayer and mencoder were compiled differently. The latter compilation options didn't include freetype.