AlphaSub 1.5.1

AlphaSub 1.5.1 — Multi-reel DCP playback & reel authoring

A focused follow-up to 1.5.0: multi-reel DCPs now play their picture in real time, you can assemble or repair a composition's reel structure from loose MXF files, and the bundled ffmpeg is rebuilt without the X11/xcb/SDL autodetection that broke DCP extraction on 1.5.0.

Multi-reel DCP playback (Apple Silicon). The real-time Grok picture engine previously required a single reel — multi-reel DCPs loaded audio but no picture. DCPFrameSource now concatenates every reel's picture MXF into one timeline (per-reel content keys for encrypted packages), so multi-reel features play end to end without a transcode. Single-reel is the one-segment case of the same path.

DCP reel & asset editor (Pro). File ▸ Export ▸ DCP Authoring… ▸ Reels & Assets… (or Assemble Reels from MXFs… when no DCP is imported) opens a new sheet that builds or repairs a composition's reel graph without a source DCP folder:

• Add reels from loose MXF track files — the bundled asdcp-info probes each file (essence kind, edit rate, duration, AssetUUID, encryption, language) and places the asset in its slot.
• Edit an imported DCP's reel structure: swap an asset's file, split a reel at its midpoint, merge adjacent reels, reorder or remove reels. The source files on disk are never modified — the composition only records references.
• Edits persist into the project, so a VF can be authored against an OV in a later session.

Bundled ffmpeg fix. The LGPL ffmpeg shipped in 1.5.0 pulled in libX11/libxcb/SDL2 via autodetection, which broke DCP audio extraction (and any ffmpeg invocation) on machines without X11. Rebuilt with --disable-xlib --disable-libxcb --disable-sdl2. MKV, MP4, MXF/DCP, WAV, HLS and all the encoders (ProRes, DNxHD, VideoToolbox H.264/HEVC, AAC, PCM) work without a Homebrew ffmpeg.

Also in 1.5.1

• 41 new localized strings across fr/de/nl/es/pt/it for the reel editor.
• New tests: MXFProbe (9, incl. end-to-end against the sample encrypted MXF), ReelEditor (18), ReelSegmentMap (5).

Requires macOS 14 or later. Apple Silicon recommended for real-time DCP playback; Intel Macs use the background viewing proxy (single-reel only).

AlphaSub 1.5.0

AlphaSub 1.5.0 — Video Export & Digital Cinema

The biggest release yet: AlphaSub now renders finished video deliverables and authors, plays and quality-checks DCPs — end to end, on your Mac.

★ Video Export (Pro). File ▸ Export ▸ Export Video… opens the new export window: ProRes masters (422 family + 4444), DNxHD/DNxHR, H.264/HEVC in MOV/MP4/MKV, with platform presets (broadcast, web, socials) and your own saved presets. Subtitles burn in exactly as styled, or travel as sidecar files / embedded tracks (SRT, ASS, mov_text, CEA-608). Burned timecode window (BITC), watermarking and vertical reframing (9:16, 1:1, 4:5) included. Jobs land in a Resolve-style render queue — batch several exports, reorder, pause and resume. MKV can stream-copy the source bit-exact or re-encode with a manual bitrate.

★ DCP Authoring (Pro) — now in its own window. File ▸ Export ▸ DCP Authoring… imports the distribution DCP (audio loads onto the timeline in seconds, a viewing proxy builds in the background), then exports subtitle Version Files (VF) or self-contained Original Versions (OV) — InterOp or SMPTE, one CPL per subtitle language, ISDCF naming helper that inherits fields from the source package, XML signing, AES-128 encryption with per-CPL KDM issuing, and automatic post-export QC with a deep-analysis HTML report.

★ Real-time DCP playback (Apple Silicon). Open a DCP and play the actual JPEG 2000 picture in real time — no transcode wait. Intel Macs use the background viewing proxy.

★ Encrypted DCP import. SMPTE 429-6 packages import end-to-end — picture, sound and subtitles — once the matching content keys are loaded (sibling .keys.json, EasyDCP .dcpdig digest, or picked manually). Keys are remembered in the app keystore; decrypted essence never persists on disk.

Also in 1.5.0

• Custom-position subtitle lines stack correctly in DCP subtitle rendering.
• DCP subtitle settings sheet (font, size, position defaults) from the authoring window.
• Open Recent works reliably again.

Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel; real-time DCP playback requires Apple Silicon). Signed with Developer ID, notarized + stapled by Apple. Requires macOS 14+.

AlphaSub 1.5.0b3

Beta 1.5.0b3 — Encrypted DCP import (SMPTE 429-6 unlock via .keys.json or .dcpdig; subtitle/picture/sound decrypt). See appcast-beta.json for full notes.

AlphaSub 1.5.0b2

AlphaSub 1.5.0b2 — Real-time DCP playback + Video Export + DCP Authoring (beta)

Pro/cinema features need a Beta tester license (free during the test phase); everything else is unrestricted. Signed with Developer ID, notarized + stapled by Apple.

★ New: real-time DCP playback. Open a DCP folder (or drop it) and AlphaSub decodes the JPEG2000 picture in real time — no proxy, no waiting — with correct colour (X'Y'Z' → Rec.709, calibrated), audio, subtitles, scrubbing/JKL, and fullscreen/detached surfaces. Powered by a bundled Grok decoder (GPU colour conversion). Falls back to a viewing proxy if unavailable.

★ Deep DCP quality control. The built-in ClairMeta QC now does full subtitle-content inspection (bundled asdcp tools) and exports a self-contained HTML report.

Fixes this build:

• DCP subtitle timing is now respected on export (subtitles no longer shifted to 00:00:00:00).
• DCP export now passes easyDCP validation (PKL OriginalFileName + trailing-newline conformance).
• Smooth timecode during playback (waveform no longer stalls the readout) — plus much lighter CPU while playing.
• Import a DCP by folder auto-detection; export the signer certificate (.pem/.crt) for external KDM generation.

Video export (File ▸ Export ▸ Export Video…, ⇧⌘E): ProRes (Proxy→4444 XQ), DNxHD/HR, H.264, HEVC; MOV/MP4/MKV (multi-track soft subs) + QuickTime CEA-608 captions; burnt-in timecode + watermark; ~35 platform presets; render queue.

DCP authoring (Cinema ▸ DCP Authoring): import an OV and author InterOp or SMPTE; Copy or Rewrap media; per-language subtitle CPLs; ISDCF naming; AES-128 encryption + per-CPL KDM; Manage Signer (import/regenerate); EasyDCP .dcpdig import.

Apple Silicon native (real-time DCP playback requires Apple Silicon; Intel uses the proxy).

AlphaSub 1.4.3

AlphaSub 1.4.3

Bilingual + DCP

• DCP export of a bilingual track now writes the correct RFC 5646 language tag: mul (Multiple languages) by default, with an option in the DCP export dialog to use the primary language instead.
• Arabic dialects now export the proper ISDCF/DCP codes — ARQ (Algeria), ARY (Morocco), ARZ (Egypt), AEB (Tunisia), plus Levantine (APC) and Iraqi (ACM).

Interface

• The track's right-click language list now matches the language badge exactly.
• Title-bar buttons split into two clean groups instead of one capsule with a divider.
• The Release Notes window no longer repeats the version header per entry.

Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel). Signed with Developer ID, notarized + stapled by Apple. Requires macOS 14+.

AlphaSub 1.4.2

AlphaSub 1.4.2

New — Bilingual subtitles (free)
Author Belgian-style bilingual subtitles: one language on top, the other below, on one shared timing — exactly two lines, one language per line. Combine two tracks into a bilingual track, set a track's second language (split editor spell-checks each language on its own), swap the two languages top ↔ bottom, or translate a track to bilingual directly.

New — Lock tracks
Lock a track to protect it from accidental edits — text, timing, timeline drag/resize, merge/split and delete are disabled until you unlock it.

Fixes
More robust cloud / local-server translation (MTPLX, Ollama, LM Studio, …): reasoning-model "thinking" and server stats footers are stripped so translations parse cleanly.

Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel). Signed with Developer ID, notarized + stapled by Apple. Requires macOS 14+.

AlphaSub 1.4.1

AlphaSub 1.4.1

New

• All-versions Release Notes viewer — Help ▸ Release Notes… (and a button in the update window) so you can catch up on everything since your build.
• Rubber-band (marquee) track selection, like Finder, in addition to ⌘/⇧-click.
• Fix Gaps & Timing is now a dialog with per-correction checkboxes (minimum duration, gaps/overlaps, maximum duration) — and it tells you which cues it couldn't fully fix and why, instead of failing silently.

Multi-track

• Offset, Track Frame Rate and Switch Timebase now apply to every selected track, not just the one you clicked.

DCP / cinema

• Conformity now checks the cinema norms — max 52 characters per line and a 15-frame minimum duration (with a reliable one-click Fix) — for both SMPTE and InterOp.
• Export panel clarified (no more duplicate Font Size / Size; Border width vs Effect size explained). EffectSize now always exports as 1.50 regardless of your Mac's locale.

Fixes

• Subtitles no longer disappear in the preview with certain fonts/sizes (e.g. Verdana).
• Clicking a cue in the timeline no longer jerks the view; timeline scroll-zoom is gentler.
• Track language badges show the ISO language code instead of a misleading flag; en-GB and en-US are now distinct.
• Hardened the Spelling & Grammar / SDH check against a rare crash.

Signed with Developer ID, notarized + stapled by Apple. Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel).

AlphaSub 1.4.0

Free download of the AlphaSub app (universal, Developer-ID signed, notarized).

The source in this repository is the Apache-2.0 open core; the app below is the complete product — free to use, Pro features unlocked by a (currently free) Beta license. See alpha-sub.com.

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AlphaSub 1.4.0

Timeline markers. Drop commentable markers on the waveform (press M), drag to move, double-click to edit. Export to DaVinci Resolve (EDL), Premiere Pro (CSV) and Final Cut Pro X (FCPXML).

Counting-leader detection. A master starting just before a round hour (e.g. 00:59:50:00) is recognised as an hour-01 programme — the leader is shaded on the timeline and the programme start reads 01:00:00:00, while subtitles stay aligned to the audio.

AI is now free and built in. On-device transcription, translation, diarization, Reformat and Improve-by-Context ship in the stable app. Connect external models with your own account: cloud subscriptions (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Mistral, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, Groq, Together, Ollama Cloud) or local/LAN runtimes (Ollama, LM Studio, MTPLX on another Mac, LocalAI, vLLM) — with live model lists and one-click OpenRouter sign-in. Local runtimes are free; cloud subscriptions are Pro.

Translation. "Translate entire track into a new track" plus an automatic post-translation line-layout pass.

Editing & interface. Single-frame stepping with ←/→; compact bottom settings bar (type or scroll to adjust); better editor fit on short windows; tidier titlebar.

Pro features (broadcast & cinema export, DeckLink, cloud AI, Season Bible) need a Beta license — free during the test phase. Everything else is free.

Signed with Developer ID, notarized + stapled by Apple. Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel).