HOW-TO get Japanese characters to display in XBMC

note: the first part is so you can see run xbmc in english but see japanese files from your samba shares (assuming you are running windows 2000 or windows xp with japanese set to your "lanauge to use for non unicode programs"

see http://greggman.com/japan/xp-ime/xp-ime.htm

*) get ahold of xbmc 2004-10-06 or later
*) assuming you have a legitimate installation of windows xp,
copy the file c:\windows\fonts\arialuni.ttf to the media\fonts folder of the xbmc tree.
*) rename the file media\fonts\arial.ttf to arialorig.ttf (just to keep a backup)
*) rename the file media\fonts\arialuni.ttf to arial.ttf
*) ftp all of xbmc to your xbox to the normals places.
*) run xbmc
*) go to settings
*) go to user interface
*) set the skin fonts to "arial ttf"
*) set the character set to "japanese (shift-jis)"

you may have to then exit xbmc and re-run it for it to start working

at this point you can also change most of the interface as well to japanese if you want.  just go back to settings->user interface and set the language to "japanese".

I followed your guide and went into the folder but couldn't find the
"arialuni.ttf" font. I'm using vista, would that make a difference? Is this found only in XP? I have Japanese installed so I can read/write. I'd appreciate it if you can help me out.

gtogsx Wrote:I followed your guide and went into the folder but couldn't find the
"arialuni.ttf" font. I'm using vista, would that make a difference? Is this found only in XP? I have Japanese installed so I can read/write. I'd appreciate it if you can help me out.

Hi gtogsx,

arialuni.ttf is installed if you have Microsoft Office. If not, you can try to find this file to download or use a font you have installed already that supports Japanese text.

Cheers,

-Neo