Adding subtitles makes video transcode?

[woznicbh 11]

I noticed this when I was trying to get my subtitles to only show the non-english speaking parts of the new thor movie that when I add in subtitles (whether I am using my roku to stream or the android app) it gets laggy and stutters because it is now transcoding the video and audio which I noticed on the android app. Why does it need to transcode when simply adding subtitles? It is causing my video to load incredibly slowly and sometimes it need to reload.

 

Thanks,

 

[Tikuf 663]

Currently we burn in the subs as not all clients support subtitles. There are some changes on the way with this but they are a little way off.

[woznicbh 11]

One more follow up question. 

 

How should I be naming my subtitle.srt files? Currently they seem to show up "blank" under subtitles on the Roku and they don't seem to be recognized at all unless they are named exactly what the movie is named. However, for a number of movies I have subtitles for just the non-english speaking parts of the movie and I also have the full subtitles available in the folder but can't seem to get them to display differently.

 

Thanks,

[pagali 62]

The normal standard is to name the subtitles for Movie Name (2000).mkv as follows: 

 

Movie Name (2000).eng.srt and Movie Name (2000).eng.forced.srt

 

This works for me, they show up as English and English Forced in most clients. My Roku isn't connected right now, so can't check that.

[woznicbh 11]

Does adding the "forced" bit make it automatically use these subs whenever the movie is played or what is its purpose and are their other variations?

 

Thanks,

[Koleckai Silvestri 1151]

Forced subtitles are for when they are speaking foreign languages in your film. So if you are watching a film with English audio and the characters start speaking Japanese, Elvish, Orcish, Dwarvish or Dark Elvish, the forced subtitles will cover that.

[Redshirt 1487]

Android doesn't currently, but I should look at enabling forced sub's by default if they are present.

[woznicbh 11]

Awesome thanks for the information. I have some renaming to do! Also, I definitely agree with making forced subtitles default and I am anxiously awaiting the ability to cast :-).

 

Keep up the great work

[FrostByte 5229]

Is there any advantages of internal or external subtitles and how media browser and Roku handles them?  Fairly easy for me to remux my mkv files if so.

[Tikuf 663]

No it makes no big difference although external are often quicker for us on the very first playback but we are talking about a second or two. It is best if you have the language specified either internally or externally.

[Redshirt 1487]

In the near future external will be better as some clients will be able to handle srt without transcoding.

[Danee 57]

In the near future external will be better as some clients will be able to handle srt without transcoding.

Can you tell us which clients?

[FrostByte 5229]

Thanks Tikuf and Redshirt

[Tikuf 663]

Can you tell us which clients?

Android at this stage. Possibly roku soon. Others not sure about yet

[Redshirt 1487]

Android 4.1 and newer. There is one other client but I'm not going to commit that Dev until he's ready.

[pagali 62]

That's good news, because I like to keep my subtitle files external anyway. That way if (when!) I see a spelling or grammar error, I can easily open the srt file with a simple text editor and fix it.

[deepgreen 0]

Hello, is there any updates on this topic? I really liked the software, and just need subs working on fireTV without transcoding. I couldn’t find any relevant configuration, also if the player use VLC, external subtitles should be supported right?. If you need help integrating this feature just point me in the right direction and I should be able to help (I am a dev). Thanks!

[Luke 39835]

we are working on improving it.

[deepgreen 0]

we are working on improving it.

 

Awesome!! any release date?

Edited September 3, 2015 by deepgreen