I have the same problem. Another associated problem is subtitle labels and timings being shown on screen, when the subtitle author set them to be shown at specific screen positions with special styles (the problem thus mostly appear for lyrics, credits, and translation notes, in the videos I watch, and is not too problematic for now, but still annoying). Both problems happened when I updated from mplayer_p20100213 to mplayer_p20100612 and ffmpeg-0.5_p21602 to ffmpeg-0.5_p22846 (and still a problem in ffmpeg-0.6) I tried to update libass-0.9.8 to libass-0.9.9 without change (well, it happens with various videos, they may not even always use it anyway, I'm not sure). I have no such problems in VLC 1.0.6, for comparison (although I don't know precisely what they may or may not have in common). My USE flags: media-libs/libass-0.9.9 USE="enca fontconfig png" media-video/ffmpeg-0.6 USE="-3dnow -3dnowext X alsa (-altivec) amr -bindist -cpudetection -custom-cflags -debug dirac doc encode faac faad gsm hardcoded-tables -ieee1394 -jack jpeg2k mmx mmxext mp3 network -oss -pic rtmp schroedinger sdl speex ssse3 -test theora threads v4l v4l2 vaapi -vdpau vorbis vpx x264 xvid zlib" VIDEO_CARDS="-nvidia" media-video/mplayer-1.0_rc4_p20100612 USE="-3dnow -3dnowext X a52 aalib alsa (-altivec) amr ass bidi -bindist -bl bs2b cddb cdio cdparanoia -cpudetection -custom-cpuopts -debug -dga dirac directfb doc dts dv dvb dvd dvdnav -dxr3 enca encode -esd faac faad fbcon ftp ggi gif -gmplayer iconv ipv6 -jack joystick jpeg jpeg2k ladspa libcaca -lirc live lzo mad md5sum mmx mmxext mng mp3 nas network nut openal opengl osdmenu -oss png pnm -pulseaudio pvr quicktime radio rar real rtc -samba schroedinger sdl shm speex sse sse2 ssse3 -svga tga theora -toolame tremor truetype twolame unicode v4l v4l2 -vdpau -vidix vorbis vpx win32codecs x264 xanim -xinerama xscreensaver xv xvid xvmc -zoran" VIDEO_CARDS="-mga -s3virge -tdfx vesa" media-video/vlc-1.0.6 USE="X a52 aac aalib alsa (-altivec) -atmo -avahi bidi cdda cddax cddb cdio dbus -dc1394 -debug dirac directfb dts dvb dvd fbcon ffmpeg flac fluidsynth fontconfig gcrypt ggi gnome gnutls hal -httpd id3tag -ieee1394 -jack kate libass libcaca -libnotify libproxy -libsysfs libtiger libv4l2 -lirc live lua matroska mmx modplug mp3 mpeg -mtp musepack ncurses -nsplugin ogg opengl -optimisememory -oss (-pda) png -pulseaudio pvr qt4 -remoteosd rtsp -run-as-root -samba schroedinger sdl sdl-image -shine shout skins speex sse stream svg -svga taglib theora truetype twolame udev -upnp v4l v4l2 vcdinfo vcdx vlm vorbis win32codecs -wma-fixed x264 -xcb -xinerama xml xosd xv zvbi" # emerge --info Portage 2.1.8.3 (default/linux/x86/10.0, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.10.1-r1, 2.6.34-gentoo-r1 i686) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.34-gentoo-r1-i686-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_E6750_@_2.66GHz-with-gentoo-2.0.1 Timestamp of tree: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:30:01 +0000 ccache version 2.4 [disabled] app-shells/bash: 4.0_p37 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.10 dev-lang/python: 2.6.5-r2, 3.1.2-r3 dev-util/ccache: 2.4-r7 dev-util/cmake: 2.6.4-r3 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.1 sys-apps/openrc: 0.6.1-r1 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.6-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.65 sys-devel/automake: 1.7.9-r2, 1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.20.1-r1 sys-devel/gcc: 4.3.4, 4.4.3-r2 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.6b virtual/os-headers: 2.6.34 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA AdobeFlash-10.1 dlj-1.1 googleearth sun-bcla-java-vm" ACCEPT_PROPERTIES="*" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel hpet pcsp rtctimer" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" ANT_HOME="/usr/share/ant" APACHE2_MODULES="alias auth_basic auth_digest authn_default authn_file authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_user autoindex cache deflate dir disk_cache env expires file_cache filter headers info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status" APACHE2_MPMS="prefork" ARCH="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CAMERAS="panasonic" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=core2 -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CLEAN_DELAY="5" COLLISION_IGNORE="/lib/modules" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /etc/env.d/02locale /etc/env.d/99editor /etc/env.d/99pager /etc/udev/rules.d/00-local.rules /home /media /mnt /srv /usr/local/portage /usr/share/X11/xkb /var/bind /var/ftp /var/lib/hsqldb /var/www" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/init.d /etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c" CVS_RSH="ssh" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=core2 -pipe" DISPLAY=":0.0" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" EBEEP_IGNORE="yes" EDITOR="vim" ELIBC="glibc" EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--alphabetical --with-bdeps=y" EMERGE_WARNING_DELAY="10" EPAUSE_IGNORE="yes" EPREFIX="" EROOT="/" FEATURES="assume-digests collision-protect distlocks fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms splitdebug strict suidctl unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync" FETCHCOMMAND="/usr/bin/wget -t 5 -T 60 --passive-ftp -O "${DISTDIR}/${FILE}" "${URI}"" FLTK_DOCDIR="/usr/share/doc/fltk-1.1.9-r1/html" GCC_SPECS="" GDK_USE_XFT="1" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.free.fr/mirrors/ftp.gentoo.org ftp://mirror.ovh.net/gentoo-distfiles ftp://mirror.switch.ch/mirror/gentoo" GUILE_LOAD_PATH="/usr/share/guile/1.8" HISTCONTROL="ignoredups" HISTFILE="/root/.bash_history" HISTFILESIZE="5000" HISTSIZE="500" HISTTIMEFORMAT="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z " HOME="/root" INFOPATH="/usr/share/info:/usr/share/binutils-data/i686-pc-linux-gnu/2.20.1/info:/usr/share/gcc-data/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/info" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev joystick keyboard mouse wacom" JAVAC="/etc/java-config-2/current-system-vm/bin/javac" JAVACC_HOME="/usr/share/javacc/" JAVA_HOME="/etc/java-config-2/current-system-vm" JDK_HOME="/etc/java-config-2/current-system-vm" KERNEL="linux" LADSPA_PATH="/usr/lib/ladspa" LANG="en_US.UTF-8" LANGUAGE="en_US" LCD_DEVICES="g15" LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8" LC_ALL="" LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8" LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8" LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8" LC_MEASUREMENT="en_GB.UTF-8" LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8" LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8" LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8" LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8" LC_PAPER="en_GB.UTF-8" LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8" LC_TIME="en_GB.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1" LESS="-R -M --shift 5" LESSCOLOR="yes" LESSOPEN="|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s" LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH="/usr/lib/dri" LINGUAS="en_US en" LOGNAME="root" LS_COLORS="rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=01;05;37;41:mi=01;05;37;41:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.lz=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.cgm=01;35:*.emf=01;35:*.axv=01;35:*.anx=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.pdf=00;32:*.ps=00;32:*.txt=00;32:*.patch=00;32:*.diff=00;32:*.log=00;32:*.tex=00;32:*.doc=00;32:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.mid=00;36:*.midi=00;36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36:*.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:*.axa=00;36:*.oga=00;36:*.spx=00;36:*.xspf=00;36:" MAIL="/var/mail/root" MAILCHECK="-1" MAILDIR="/root/.mail/" MAILPATH="/var/mail/root" MAKEOPTS="-j3" MANPAGER="vimmanpager" MANPATH="/etc/java-config-2/current-system-vm/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/share/binutils-data/i686-pc-linux-gnu/2.20.1/man:/usr/share/gcc-data/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.3.4/man:/etc/java-config/system-vm/man/:/usr/lib/php5/man/:/opt/opera/share/man" NETBEANS="apisupport cnd groovy gsf harness ide identity j2ee java mobility nb php profiler soa visualweb webcommon websvccommon xml" OLDPWD="/root" OPENGL_PROFILE="ati" PAGER="less" PAPERSIZE="a4" PATH="/root/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/lib/ccache/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.4.3:/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.3.4:/usr/lib/subversion/bin:/opt/sbin:/opt/bin:/usr/games/sbin:/usr/games/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_ARCHLIST="ppc x86-openbsd ppc-openbsd ppc64 x86-winnt x86-fbsd ppc-aix alpha arm x86-freebsd s390 amd64 arm-linux x86-macos x64-openbsd ia64-hpux hppa x86-netbsd amd64-linux ia64-linux x86 sparc-solaris x64-freebsd sparc64-solaris x86-linux x64-macos sparc m68k-mint ia64 mips ppc-macos x86-interix hppa-hpux amd64-fbsd x64-solaris mips-irix m68k sh x86-solaris sparc-fbsd" PORTAGE_BINHOST_CHUNKSIZE="3000" PORTAGE_BIN_PATH="/usr/lib/portage/bin" PORTAGE_COMPRESS_EXCLUDE_SUFFIXES="css gif htm[l]? jp[e]?g js pdf png" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_DEBUG="0" PORTAGE_DEPCACHEDIR="/var/cache/edb/dep" PORTAGE_ELOG_CLASSES="error warn log info" PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILFROM="portage@localhost" PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILSUBJECT="[portage] Elog for ${PACKAGE} (${HOST})" PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILURI="root@localhost localhost" PORTAGE_ELOG_SYSTEM="save mail" PORTAGE_FETCH_CHECKSUM_TRY_MIRRORS="5" PORTAGE_FETCH_RESUME_MIN_SIZE="350K" PORTAGE_GID="250" PORTAGE_INST_GID="0" PORTAGE_INST_UID="0" PORTAGE_PYM_PATH="/usr/lib/portage/pym" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_RETRIES="3" PORTAGE_SYNC_STALE="30" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp/portage" PORTAGE_TMPFS="/dev/shm" PORTAGE_VERBOSE="1" PORTAGE_WORKDIR_MODE="0750" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" PORT_LOGDIR="/var/log/portage" PROFILE_ONLY_VARIABLES="ARCH ELIBC KERNEL USERLAND" PS1="\[\e[31;1m\]\!\[\e[0m\]) \[\e[31m\]\u\[\e[0m\]@\[\e[31m\]\h\[\e[0m\]:\[\e[31m\]\w\[\e[0m\] \[\e[31;1m\]\$\[\e[0m\] " PS2="\[\e[31;1m\]<<<\[\e[0m\] " PS3="#? " PS4="+ " PWD="/root" PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE="1" QEMU_SOFTMMU_TARGETS="i386 x86_64" QEMU_USER_TARGETS="i386 x86_64" RESUMECOMMAND="/usr/bin/wget -c -t 5 -T 60 --passive-ftp -O "${DISTDIR}/${FILE}" "${URI}"" ROOT="/" ROOTPATH="/opt/bin:/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.3.4:/usr/lib/subversion/bin" RPMDIR="/usr/portage/rpm" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" SANE_BACKENDS="hp" SANE_CONFIG_DIR="/etc/sane.d" SCHEME_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/share/slib/" SGML_CATALOG_FILES="/etc/sgml/sgml-docbook-3.0.cat:/etc/sgml/sgml-ent.cat:/etc/sgml/sgml-lite.cat:/etc/sgml/dsssl-docbook-stylesheets.cat:/etc/sgml/sgml-docbook-3.1.cat:/etc/sgml/xml-docbook-4.1.2.cat:/etc/sgml/sgml-docbook.cat:/etc/sgml/xml-docbook-4.3.cat:/etc/sgml/xml-docbook-4.2.cat:/etc/sgml/xml-docbook-4.5.cat:/etc/sgml/openjade-1.3.2.cat:/etc/sgml/xml-docbook-4.4.cat" SHELL="/bin/bash" SHLVL="1" SSH_AGENT_PID="6195" SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/tmp/ssh-LLsBEl6193/agent.6193" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" TERM="xterm" TMP="/tmp/.private/root" TMPDIR="/tmp/.private/root" USB_DEVFS_PATH="/dev/bus/usb" USE="X acl bash-completion berkdb bzip2 cdb cjk cli consolekit cracklib crypt cups cxx dri fortran gdbm gnome gpm hal iconv icu idn ipv6 mmx mmxext modules mudflap mysql nano-syntax ncurses networkmanager nls nptl nptlonly odbc openmp pam pcre perl policykit pppd python qdbm readline reflection session spl sqlite sse sse2 sse3 ssl ssse3 sysfs tcpd truetype udev unicode vim-syntax x86 xattr xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel hpet pcsp rtctimer" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="alias auth_basic auth_digest authn_default authn_file authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_user autoindex cache deflate dir disk_cache env expires file_cache filter headers info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status" APACHE2_MPMS="prefork" CAMERAS="panasonic" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev joystick keyboard mouse wacom" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="g15" LINGUAS="en_US en" QEMU_SOFTMMU_TARGETS="i386 x86_64" QEMU_USER_TARGETS="i386 x86_64" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" SANE_BACKENDS="hp" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx v4l vesa" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" USER="root" USERLAND="GNU" USE_EXPAND="ALSA_CARDS ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS APACHE2_MODULES APACHE2_MPMS CAMERAS CROSSCOMPILE_OPTS DVB_CARDS ELIBC FCDSL_CARDS FOO2ZJS_DEVICES FRITZCAPI_CARDS INPUT_DEVICES KERNEL LCD_DEVICES LINGUAS LIRC_DEVICES MISDN_CARDS NETBEANS_MODULES NGINX_MODULES_HTTP NGINX_MODULES_MAIL QEMU_SOFTMMU_TARGETS QEMU_USER_TARGETS RUBY_TARGETS SANE_BACKENDS USERLAND VIDEO_CARDS XTABLES_ADDONS" USE_EXPAND_HIDDEN="CROSSCOMPILE_OPTS ELIBC KERNEL USERLAND" USE_ORDER="env:pkg:conf:defaults:pkginternal:env.d" VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx v4l vesa" VISUAL="vim" XAUTHORITY="/root/.xauthrs3gvQ" XDG_CONFIG_DIRS="/etc/xdg" XDG_DATA_DIRS="/usr/local/share:/usr/share" XERCESC_NLS_HOME="/usr/share/xerces-c/msg" XSESSION="Xsession" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" XZ_OPT="--memory=max" _="/usr/bin/emerge" bash4="4.0.37(2)-release" I didn't check upstream bugs, and do not have much time to test other things. Thanks in advance to everyone who will work on this.