[mythtv-users] Intl characters display intermittantly

[Jason Livingston]

I'm having a problem displaying international characters (specifically
Japanese) in MythTV frontend, both 0.14 and the latest CVS. I'm using
FC1 (English installer ver.) and installed via Jarod's HOWTO, except
for using the latest CVS of XMLTV (for tv_grab_jp support) and
mythtv-CVS. Here's what happens:

When I first start mythfrontend after a reboot, there is a 50% chance
that the following will occur:
a) The program listings in the guide WILL show characters correctly
b) The title of the currently selected program (shown at the top of the
guide screen) will NOT show correctly
c) The titles in the watch recordings menu will NOT show correctly
d) The OSD shows characters correctly

But, there is a 50% chance that I'll get this:
a) The program listings in the guide will NOT show characters correctly
b) The title of the currently selected program (shown at the top of the
guide screen) WILL show correctly
c) The titles in the watch recordings menu WILL show correctly
d) The OSD shows characters correctly

I've rarely seen a few other combinations. But basically, almost every
time, SOME of the menus will work, and some will not. Closing and
re-starting mythfrontend will SOMETIMES change the situation, but will
sometimes give the same as the previous run. Rebooting will usually
change the situation, but not fix everything. It seems to be pretty
random!

Here are the steps I've tried so far to fix it:
1) Installed a specific Japanese ttf font (kochi-mincho and
kochi-gothic) via RPM, added them to the font path and installed them
in X/KDE, and linked the ttf files in the /usr/local/share/mythtv
folder, and those fonts are chosen for the OSD menu in mythfrontend

2) Ran qtconfig and set either mincho or gothic as the default
substitution font for arial.

3) Set system default font to kochi-mincho or kochi-gothic

4) Edited ui.xml in my theme directory and replaced all instances of
"Arial" with "Mincho" or "Gothic"

5) Changed KDE default language settings to Japanese, and mythfrontend
menus lanaguage to Japanese

Despite all of these actions, the behavior I noted above has not
changed. The correct display of the Japanese characters is intermittant
and seemingly random, depending on which part of the menu I'm looking
at. The problem has persisted after several different install attempts,
each with varying versions of different packages, so I don't think its
a bug in any one specific package, I think it must be a problem in
something I'm doing. (I assume other Japanese users aren't having this
same problem; at least no one has complained about it yet)

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks!
Jason