feat(release): prepare v0.19.5 with subtitle pipeline improvements

- Rework ASS, YouTube, overlapping, and secondary subtitle handling
- Keep overlay, mining, sidebar, and stats aligned with visible cues
- Harden release-note validation and package Linux thumbnail support

docs/architecture/2026-03-15-renderer-performance-design.md

@@ -69,17 +69,26 @@ interface SubtitleCue {
   startTime: number; // seconds
   endTime: number; // seconds
   text: string; // plain text, decoded from the source format
+  source?: 'canonical-ass'; // recovered authored text for generated ASS animation
+  animationStartTime?: number; // full generated-frame envelope; entrance/exit frames
+  animationEndTime?: number; //   run past the authored timing, live matching uses this
 }
 ```
 
 **Supported formats:**
 - SRT/VTT: Regex-based parsing of timing lines + text content between timing blocks.
-- ASS: Parse `[Events]` section, extract `Dialogue:` lines, read the field order from the `Format:` row, and take everything after the Text field index as the text (Text can itself contain commas).
+- ASS: Parse the `[Events]` section, read the field order from the `Format:` row, and extract timed `Dialogue:` lines. Timed `Comment:` lines are normally ignored, but can supply canonical authored text when they match a nearby generated animation from the same style and actor. Text can itself contain commas.
 
 **ASS decoding.** The parser is where ASS text is decoded, once, via `assToPlainText()` in `src/core/services/ass-text.ts`. That decoder mirrors mpv's `ass_to_plaintext` so a cue read from a file reads identically to the same line arriving live on `sub-text`: `{...}` override blocks are markup, `\pN … \p0` vector drawing runs are dropped rather than shown as text, `\N`/`\n`/`\h` are the only escapes (`\{`, `\}` and `\\` are not), and an unclosed `{` is rendered verbatim. Every layer downstream — renderer, timing tracker, tokenizer, tokenization cache keys — receives plain text and uses `normalizePlainSubtitleText()` for whitespace only, so nothing decodes the same string twice and one authored line always maps to one cache key.
 
 **Duplicate collapsing.** Typeset scripts emit one `Dialogue:` event per animation frame, plus layered copies of the same line. The parser collapses identical text over an identical span unconditionally, and collapses contiguous same-text runs of at least three events when the run looks like an animation. For ASS that means shared style and actor plus authoring evidence: a temporal tag (`\t`, `\move`, `\k`/`\kf`/`\ko`/`\K`, or anything wrapped in `\t(...)`), an animated `Effect` column (`Karaoke`, `Banner`, `Scroll`), or override values that change across the run. Static tags shared by every event (`\pos`, an identical `\clip`) are not evidence. SRT/VTT carry no such metadata, so there collapsing needs at least five contiguous events all under 0.1s — the frame timing left behind by ASS-to-SRT conversion. The parser keeps this authoring metadata (style, actor, layer, `Effect`, parsed override commands, source order) private; `parseSubtitleCues()` returns only `SubtitleCue`.
 
+ASS scripts can also redraw one complete lyric for two or more long color/highlight phases. Those flush-timed phases collapse separately from short animation frames when they share text, style, actor, and layer and carry direct animation evidence, such as temporal tags or changing non-spatial overrides. Spatial command changes do not prove a phase, so separately positioned signs remain distinct.
+
+**Canonical animation recovery.** Some ASS producers keep the readable lyric or sign as a timed `Comment:` and generate hundreds of `Dialogue:` frames containing repeated glyphs or changing clip regions. Others retain the complete line as brief `Dialogue:` events around the generated fragments. A complete event is promoted only when nearby dialogue from the same style and actor forms a proven animation cluster and reconstructs its entire text in source order. The generated frames are then replaced by one cue marked `source: 'canonical-ass'`. This source marker lets the live primary-subtitle path prefer the clean authored text and timing for display, sidebar history, immersion recording, and mining, while unmatched editor notes and alternative translations remain ignored. Secondary selection advances to an entering canonical cue at its generated animation start when the preceding authored cue ends before the new authored span. Unrelated simultaneous cues that continue through the new span remain visible.
+
+**Font texture cleanup.** A clipped repeated-glyph run or frequent changes to secondary alpha marks a texture seed. Clipped runs do not need a font override because some signs build their masks from ordinary `l` glyphs. The parser removes short clipped pieces that share a no-font seed's style and timing, or pieces that share a font seed's style, timing, and font even when the actor changes. It also removes positioned text layers with at least `E0` global alpha when they overlap a seed in the same style. Opaque authored sign text stays publishable when the texture switches fonts or actors around it.
+
 #### Prefetch Service Lifecycle
 
 1. **Activation trigger:** When a subtitle track is activated (or changes), check if it's external via MPV's `track-list` property. If `external === true`, read the file via `external-filename` using the existing `loadSubtitleSourceText` infrastructure.