Android TV PGSSUB Subtitle Support

[Transparent 2]

I am considering buying a Nvidia Shield Pro 2019, one of the main advantages being that it reads PGS subtitles however, Emby says that all my media files contain PGSSUB and not PGS which from the knowledge base are not supported on Android TV but are on the Fire TV furthermore, MPC lists the same subtitles (detected by Emby as being PGSSUB) as simply being PGS so I am a bit confused. Are PGSSUBs supported on Android TV? what is the difference between PGS and PGSSUBs? and if the latter is not supported on Android TV what are my options, Fire TV only?

 

 Thank you very much for your help!

[FrostByte 5061]

They are the same, it's just that some apps like Mediainfo identify them as PGS and others like ffmpeg identify them as PGSSUB.  ATV supports PGS/PGSSUB as I prefer them over SRT and use them all the time with my 4K remuxes on my Shield Pro. 

According to this page in the KB PGS is supported with ATV

Emby Android TV : Emby

However, if you found another link which is wrong/outdated then maybe @cayars can fix it

[Transparent 2]

@FrostByte Thanks for the clarification, I asked becouse the KB for Fire TV explicitly mentions PGS and PGSSUB whilst the Android TV only mentions PGS leading me to think that the two extensions are different from one another. Last question, which I assume is rather useless but just to be sure, PGS subs are supported as internal and external right? 

In any case yeah I do prefer them to SRT since passing OCR to all my movies would be suicide and languages other than english are sometimes tricky to handle to various degrees. Are there any limits to the support for PGS subs? By this I mean if I am transcoding audio (this happens often since I don't have a DTS capable set up at the moment although this will change eventually) will this cause the video to also transcode if PGS subs are selected (similarly to how transcoding audio causes VC-1 codecs to be transcoded to h.264 on Samsung TV).

 

Thankl you once again for your time!

[Transparent 2]

@FrostByte Last question, since I have very large 4K files do you know which is the maximum bitrate limit on the shield? Can it reproduce 100 Mbps 4K 10bit HEVC content?

[FrostByte 5061]

The network port on the Shield pro is 1000 Mbps and I haven't had any issues playing 4K remuxes of movies.  We watched Gemini Man the other day and it's 84 Mbps / 60 fps with no issues at all Direct Playing. 

Edited June 21, 2021 by FrostByte

[ebr 14959]

13 hours ago, Transparent said:

PGS subs are supported as internal and external right? 

Hi.  External PGS subs are not supported at this time.  Under what circumstance do you have these?

13 hours ago, Transparent said:

Are there any limits to the support for PGS subs? By this I mean if I am transcoding audio (this happens often since I don't have a DTS capable set up at the moment although this will change eventually) will this cause the video to also transcode if PGS subs are selected (similarly to how transcoding audio causes VC-1 codecs to be transcoded to h.264 on Samsung TV).

Yes, this can be a limitation with graphical sub formats - they will need to be burned in when ffmpeg has to enter the picture.  However, you can set the app to locally decode the audio so that this won't happen.  With a Shield and a receiver that can accept MCPCM, you should get full sound.

[Transparent 2]

26 minutes ago, ebr said:

Hi.  External PGS subs are not supported at this time.  Under what circumstance do you have these?

Hi @ebr No I don't have these my question arose due to the fact that some old thread seemed to imply that only external PGS subs are supported it seemed strange to me so that is why I asked.

Quote

Yes, this can be a limitation with graphical sub formats - they will need to be burned in when ffmpeg has to enter the picture.  However, you can set the app to locally decode the audio so that this won't happen.  With a Shield and a receiver that can accept MCPCM, you should get full sound.

I am running a Samsung TV QE55Q95 which from the manual supports the following audio formats: 

• Dolby Digital
• LPCM ADPCM(IMA,MS)
• AAC
• HE-AAC
• WMA
• Dolby Digital+
• MPEG(MP3)
• AC-4
• G.711(A-Law, μ- Law)
• OPUS

Will the decoded audio from the shield be reproduceable from by the TV? This is in any case a temporary issue since I am planning on buying a sound system capable of decoding everything from DTS to DTS:X and DD to Atmos in the coming months. Set up will be Router -> Nvidia Shield Pro (2019) -> Soundbar with 4K 60Hz 10 bit Passthrough (w/ full HDMI In and Out capabilities) -> Samsung QE55Q95. If you have any thoughts on this set up let me know I've done my reasearch and it seems a good viable option but I might have missed something.

[FrostByte 5061]

The Shield will use the audio capabilities of what it's directly hooked up to

My setup uses the following and thus I get the benefits of what the soundbar supports.  Soundbar plays the audio and only passes video to TV.

      Gigabyte Switch -->  Shield (HDMI in 1) / Xbox (HDMI in 2) -->  Samsung Soundbar --> Samsung TV

 

However, if I set it up like below then the Shield detects the TV's audio capabilities and I lose DTS:X and Dolby TrueHD Atmos which will need to be converted unless I chose an alternate audio track before clicking play. 

     Shield  --> TV --> Soundbar 

[Transparent 2]

On 6/21/2021 at 6:04 PM, FrostByte said:

The Shield will use the audio capabilities of what it's directly hooked up to

My setup uses the following and thus I get the benefits of what the soundbar supports.  Soundbar plays the audio and only passes video to TV.

      Gigabyte Switch -->  Shield (HDMI in 1) / Xbox (HDMI in 2) -->  Samsung Soundbar --> Samsung TV

 

However, if I set it up like below then the Shield detects the TV's audio capabilities and I lose DTS:X and Dolby TrueHD Atmos which will need to be converted unless I chose an alternate audio track before clicking play. 

     Shield  --> TV --> Soundbar 

Hi @FrostByte pardon my late reply but work hase been intense recently. Yeah essentially my same set-up bar the additional HDMI in for a console. Do you mind me asking what sound bar you are using and if you like it? I was think on settling on the HW-700A or 800 model which seem fair value for the performance and features.

[FrostByte 5061]

Mine is the Samsung HW-Q90R which was the top line model in 2019, but I got it refurbished from an authorized Samsung dealer on e-Bay and paid half the original price with a slight scratch.  It has 2 HDMI inputs so I can get Atmos on the Shield and Xbox plus up firing speakers in the back which none of the other models had at the time.  To me the little scratch was worth it for the extra features for the same price as the other models.

[Transparent 2]

Yeah I had a feeling you were gonna say the Q90R, very nice setup mate! Anyway thanks for all the info and do please mark my question as answered! Thank you once again.