Subtitles on Fire TV Not Working with STRM Files

[sundevil67 21]

I'm trying to figure out if the trouble I'm having getting subtitles to work with STRM files is actually a known issue/bug with Mac OS server & Amazon Fire or Web/browser-based versions of Emby. If I can't get the subtitles to work on any given TV show or movie, I just can't watch it, so now that this is happening more often than not, it's becoming more of a problem for me. The behavior is very strange. Sometimes several options/languages just seem to appear automatically when Emby loads the new file(s), and I can just choose the right language. Much more often however, I can search for & download an SRT subtitle file and switch it on, but nothing shows up on screen. I didn't think my log file could provide any insight into something like this (and I'm remote at the moment, so retrieving it is kind of a PITA, but if it can really help diagnose this, I'll get my hands on it).

Thank you for any guidance you may be able to provide!

[Luke 37261]

Hi there, subtitles for strm files are fully supported. Let's look at an example:

Thanks !

[sundevil67 21]

I'm not sure how much trouble it's worth since even when they do work, they're rarely synced up & while I love that there's an offset feature now, it doesn't seem to work for me, but the original issue did show up again tonight, when I tried to watch a title, 2005 movie "Two for the Money", and the subtitles worked on my computer. When I get to the Amazon Fire, they just don't show up. You can select a language, but nothing makes it to the screen. I can't watch anything anymore without subtitles. It's really a shame, because of this, I don't use Emby much on the TV anymore.

embyserver.txt.zip

[Luke 37261]

2 minutes ago, sundevil67 said:

I'm not sure how much trouble it's worth since even when they do work, they're rarely synced up & while I love that there's an offset feature now, it doesn't seem to work for me, but the original issue did show up again tonight, when I tried to watch a title, 2005 movie "Two for the Money", and the subtitles worked on my computer. When I get to the Amazon Fire, they just don't show up. You can select a language, but nothing makes it to the screen. I can't watch anything anymore without subtitles. It's really a shame, because of this, I don't use Emby much on the TV anymore.

embyserver.txt.zip 957.98 kB · 0 downloads

Can you please zip up the strm and subtitle file and send it to @ebr  or attach it here? He will test it in the Fire TV app and work out the issue. Thanks !

[sundevil67 21]

We're already going to watch it on Netflix but it's not just this one movie or the subtitle file ... the .strm file is just a text file with a path in it so I'm not sure how that'd help. It's something that happens to 75% of the content I watch through STRM

movie.zip

[Luke 37261]

Great, thanks !

[ebr 14959]

Hi.  Just so I understand properly - you are saying if the subtitles exist before you start playback, they work okay but, if you use the during playback option to search for and download subs, then they don't show up?

And this is only on the Fire, the very same process in the web app works okay?

[sundevil67 21]

15 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  Just so I understand properly - you are saying if the subtitles exist before you start playback, they work okay but, if you use the during playback option to search for and download subs, then they don't show up?

And this is only on the Fire, the very same process in the web app works okay?

I can search for & add subtitles in a web browser on Mac OS. They are rarely in sync, but I can get them to show up. When I watch the same title on Amazon Fire, I can select the .srt file added from my computer, but the actual words just don't show up on screen. I've now experienced the issue on 3 different systems (2 Fire Sticks, 1 Amazon Fire TV). Unrelated but indicative of more subtitle problems: last night I tried to watch (different .strm title) from the Apple TV app for the first time on a new ATV device at a friend's house, and couldn't even bring up the option to add/show subtitles. I did not have a chance to try any titles that are stored locally on ATV, but I can usually get them to work on the Fire TV ... it's definitely just the STRM format that gums up the works.

[rbjtech 4336]

So the .SRT subtitle files need to be in the same location as the .STRM file - Emby does not automatically use the same .SRT files in the path the STRM points to.

This probably is where this is going wrong.

As an example -

If my real file is in d:\mymovies\mymovie.mkv and it has external subtitles - then they will also be in d:\mymovies\

If I create a STRM file to point to this movie - lets say we store it as d:\mystrm\mystrm.strm - then it will not use the SRT's in d:\mymovies - it will need the SRT's in d:\mystrm

edit - opensubtitles.org is currently down (for me anyway..)

edit - Hmm - so according to your log - the SRT is being saved to the correct location ..

Saving subtitles to /Volumes/My Passport/Movies/Dad/Movies/Two for the Monday (2005)/Two for the Money (2005).en.srt

.. so this should then be picked up by the Client to play.

Are you allowing time for it to become available - maybe force a metadata refresh ?

edit - I did notice the folder name does not match the movie name (Monday vs Money) - so the this is why it did not return any subs .. 

GET https://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/movie?api_key=************&query=Two+for+the+Monday&language=en

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by rbjtech

[ebr 14959]

I couldn't use your actual strm file because it appears to be pointing to a online VOD provider but I took your exact sub file and left the names of both it and the strm file the same and added them to my system.  I modified the strm file to point to one of the movies on my network and played it from the Android TV app.  It automatically selected and displayed the subtitles.

Can you please play this item for a few seconds on your system and then send a log from the app?

I'm wondering if this may be some sort of file access issue and maybe even related to MacOS.

[Luke 37261]

8 hours ago, rbjtech said:

So the .SRT subtitle files need to be in the same location as the .STRM file - Emby does not automatically use the same .SRT files in the path the STRM points to.

This probably is where this is going wrong.

As an example -

If my real file is in d:\mymovies\mymovie.mkv and it has external subtitles - then they will also be in d:\mymovies\

If I create a STRM file to point to this movie - lets say we store it as d:\mystrm\mystrm.strm - then it will not use the SRT's in d:\mymovies - it will need the SRT's in d:\mystrm

edit - opensubtitles.org is currently down (for me anyway..)

edit - Hmm - so according to your log - the SRT is being saved to the correct location ..

Saving subtitles to /Volumes/My Passport/Movies/Dad/Movies/Two for the Monday (2005)/Two for the Money (2005).en.srt

.. so this should then be picked up by the Client to play.

Are you allowing time for it to become available - maybe force a metadata refresh ?

edit - I did notice the folder name does not match the movie name (Monday vs Money) - so the this is why it did not return any subs .. 

GET https://api.themoviedb.org/3/search/movie?api_key=************&query=Two+for+the+Monday&language=en

 

That's correct. The subtitle file needs to be next to the stem file.

[sundevil67 21]

just tried to add a new title and have the same result - works fine on computer but don’t see the subtitles on fire tv … i watched a tv show last night that is also strm and that worked fine.. that’s why this makes no sense. the subtitle file is even being automatically created and found on the computer but just not in fire. it can’t be a refresh thing because it’s been a few days for some i’ve tested, can’t be a folder name issue … i’ll try to test that file but so far the only pattern i’ve noticed is tv show has a better shot than a movie .. probably not helpful 

[rbjtech 4336]

Can you give an example of the file naming for the STRM and the associated SRT ?

I also take it you have checked the sub/audio settings on the FireTV stick - are they set for 'Any' language etc ?

[ebr 14959]

On 8/19/2021 at 1:45 PM, ebr said:

Can you please play this item for a few seconds on your system and then send a log from the app?

 

[sundevil67 21]

On 8/19/2021 at 1:45 PM, ebr said:

I couldn't use your actual strm file because it appears to be pointing to a online VOD provider but I took your exact sub file and left the names of both it and the strm file the same and added them to my system.  I modified the strm file to point to one of the movies on my network and played it from the Android TV app.  It automatically selected and displayed the subtitles.

Can you please play this item for a few seconds on your system and then send a log from the app?

I'm wondering if this may be some sort of file access issue and maybe even related to MacOS.

When you instructed me to "play this item for a few seconds on your system..." I was looking for an attachment. Which item did you want me to try?

I did some more testing to try and rule out some stuff .. see if I could isolate it to one library/folder or media type, but the only pattern I could see doesn't make sense...at least not to me! So I can see/download/control subtitles with .strm files when they are for an episode of a TV series. I tested multiple movies, downloading multiple .srt files, and nada. I also tried a couple of titles from different folders/libraries, and got the same result (no subtitles appearing despite downloading & selecting the English tracks). The other interesting part is that for the TV episodes, no .srt file is visible in the directory, nor was I required to download one in order for the subtitles to appear!

I'm not sure I completely understand the differences between closed captioning you can switch on with the TV options like when watching a live broadcast vs. subtitles that come from opensubtitles.org, but when it works for TV episodes, it includes stuff like a musical note & song lyrics sometimes when there's just a song playing without dialog. I feel like that could be related to this somehow...those episodes shown in the screenshot all have working subtitles, but no .srt or even .nfo files are appearing in the same directory.

embyserver.txt

[ebr 14959]

2 minutes ago, sundevil67 said:

Which item did you want me to try?

The one you sent me that you said did not work.  Thanks.

[ebr 14959]

3 minutes ago, sundevil67 said:

I'm not sure I completely understand the differences between closed captioning you can switch on with the TV options like when watching a live broadcast vs. subtitles that come from opensubtitles.org, but when it works for TV episodes, it includes stuff like a musical note & song lyrics sometimes when there's just a song playing without dialog

Technically, they are completely different things.  Are you saying that the ones that work you are turning on with an option on the TV itself for closed-captions?

[sundevil67 21]

1 minute ago, ebr said:

Technically, they are completely different things.  Are you saying that the ones that work you are turning on with an option on the TV itself for closed-captions?

No; I haven't been mucking around with any TV settings at all during the testing... just grasping at straws to understand why this would work for a television show and not a movie. The only visible differences are the lack of .srt files and the differing directory structure - multiple episodes in a single folder vs. a movie that has a unique folder for each. 

[ebr 14959]

Just now, sundevil67 said:

The only visible differences are the lack of .srt files

That's a huge difference as I wouldn't expect those items to show subtitles if they don't have them internally since they also don't have them externally.  If there is no SRT file, then there are no external subs.

You are now saying all the ones that don't work, don't have the subtitle files?  That would explain why they don't show.  We need to find out why they aren't saving.  Again, I suspect maybe a permissions issue.  Can you please do a search and download from the app and then post the server log from that time?

[sundevil67 21]

22 minutes ago, ebr said:

That's a huge difference as I wouldn't expect those items to show subtitles if they don't have them internally since they also don't have them externally.  If there is no SRT file, then there are no external subs.

You are now saying all the ones that don't work, don't have the subtitle files?  That would explain why they don't show.  We need to find out why they aren't saving.  Again, I suspect maybe a permissions issue.  Can you please do a search and download from the app and then post the server log from that time?

Nothing has changed - to sum up, I've just confirmed that subtitles work for .strm titles on the Amazon Fire for TV shows and not for movies. I also noticed the TV shows I tested successfully did not have an external .srt file. The subtitles still work fine in all scenarios when watching on the Macbook.

[sundevil67 21]

As a potential workaround, I tried to use Airplay and a wired connection, first between my iPad/iOS & then directly from my Macbook Pro, since the subtitles work on both of those platforms. It was a total fail though....I could get the movie to play through my Macbook with the HDMI connection, but the picture quality was degraded so badly that it wasn't worth watching that way. The wired connection from my ipad just led to a black screen with a QR code/numerical ID that i had no idea what to do with. More frustrating was the inability to get Airplay working. I suspect that if it was an Apple TV I was trying to connect to, it would have been no problem.

I'm posting this here to see if anyone had any ideas for how to send a video stream from my iOS device to this new Samsung Smart TV. I've never had much success with the apps I've tried that are supposed to make Airplay work cross-platform. One thing I haven't tried yet is installing Emby on the smart TV itself.

[rbjtech 4336]

If I get time tomorrow I'm going to test this.  The only way media to play a subtitle stream if it doesn't have it externally as a SRT (same filename, same directory) is for it to be internal (ie embedded in the MKV/MP4) - and you have told emby to extract it on the fly OR of course the subtitle is burnt in (ie you can't turn it off).

I've got a FireTV, so I can test all scenarios (the only diff is I'll be using the Windows Server version) - and I'll report back.

Edited August 21, 2021 by rbjtech

[ebr 14959]

On 8/21/2021 at 9:17 AM, ebr said:

Can you please do a search and download from the app and then post the server log from that time?

 

[sundevil67 21]

I couldn't get the app to download last night; kept getting held up by an error, but tried again this afternoon & managed to install Emby on the Samsung TV. The subtitle problem was no longer a problem - every movie I tried worked.

embyserver.txt.zip

[ebr 14959]

41 minutes ago, sundevil67 said:

kept getting held up by an error

What error was that?

41 minutes ago, sundevil67 said:

The subtitle problem was no longer a problem - every movie I tried worked.

So all is working as expected now?