Fire TV Stick Lite - subtitles problem

[emg456 3]

Hi. 

I'm in the process of ripping a box set tv series - The West Wing - and Emby will not display the subtitle tracks.

My process is rip using MakeMKV. These files stream fine to the Firestick and subtitles can be displayed but they are large files.

Compress to MP4 using Handbrake. Subtitles cannot be seen on Firestick. They can be seen on our LG TVs and on ios devices/ Emby Theatre on pc.

The Subtitle tracks are the DVD style image based type - VOBSUB? 

If on firestick client I go to playback correction and say there is a problem, Emby switches from direct play to transcoded and I can then see the subtitles.

So it seems to be a problem with the Firestick client and these subtitles. Have tried saving the files as .m4v as well - no difference.

Any ideas?

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  What exactly do you mean by "the subtitles cannot be seen"?  You cannot select them or when you select them, they do not show?

But I found this in the Handbrake docs:

Quote

DVD Bitmap Subtitles (VOBSUB)

• With MP4, you can burn ONLY 1 subtitle track into the video.

Doesn't mention the ability to have soft embedded VOBSUB.

[emg456 3]

They don't show - I've taken some pics - sorry= they're a bit shaky.

Here is the file streaming - direct play

So, you can see that the subtitle track is chosen.

But none are displayed.

I pick "Playback Correction" in the settings menu and answer "Yes"

Emby resumes playback but this time transcoded and voila...there are the subtitles. I can turn them off or on.

As I said, they work straight off the bat on the LG TV client, ios devices and Emby Theatre.

I think what the Handbrake doc may be referring to are subtitles permanently burnt onto the actual video file- ie rendered as part of the image itself so can't be turned off.

[ebr 16184]

That Handbrake doc I found was talking about exactly how each type of sub could be produced in each container.  In other containers such as MKV it talked about burning them in or "passing them through" as "soft" subs - which would be media streams in our world.  With MP4 and VOBSUB the only option it talked about was burning in which implies they cannot be in a media stream.

Can you play that item and select those subs and then send a log from the app right from the OSD.  Do not do the playback correction just produce the subs not showing and send the log.

Thanks.

[emg456 3]

Will do this tomorrow thanks. 

[emg456 3]

Ok have just sent the log.

Logged in as Eddie McGlone and was playing The West Wing - The West Wing_Series2_Episode_5_And It’s Surely to Their Credit 

Subtitle track selected was English (Default DVDSUB)

These subtitles were not showing on screen.

log sent about 09:50 utc 

This image is the same file playing on iPhone a few minutes later- subtitles showing. 

[ebr 16184]

Yeah, I don't think VOBSUB is strictly supported in the MP4 container and previous versions of HB would not allow you to do that.  More info I found:

Quote

From the Handbrake Wiki:

DVD Bitmap Subtitles (VOBSUB)
With MP4, you can burn ONLY 1 subtitle track into the video.
With MP4, you can not pass-through VOBSUB tracks.
With MKV, you can pass-through multiple VOBSUB tracks. 

Perhaps newer versions of HB allow this now but I don't think all players support it.  Specifically, the player we use on Android (from Google) does not.  It cannot see these subs in the file:

02-09 09:47:42.151 16335 16335 I System.out: Setting subtitle index to: 2
02-09 09:47:42.155 16335 16335 I System.out: *** Sub format: dvdsub
02-09 09:47:42.155 16335 16335 I System.out: enableEmbeddedSubtitleTrack. newIndex: 2, ExoPlayer track number: 0
02-09 09:47:42.157 16335 16335 I System.out: Cannot set subtitle stream index because the track doesn't exist in the track list

Its possible we could make it support them via our mods to the player but we'd have to look into it.

[emg456 3]

Interesting - as I say, other clients show them without issue. What do you think is happening when I switch to transcoded? Is the server burning the subtitles into the stream? 

Remember, when playing them this way, I can still turn them off or on at will.

When the log states that the track doesn't exist in the track list is it Emby which is providing the list to the client?

I'd like to get to the bottom of this because I need these subtitles for this particular show.

 

[ebr 16184]

1 hour ago, emg456 said:

Is the server burning the subtitles into the stream?

Yes.  You can see this indicated in the stats picture you posted when you used Playback correction.

1 hour ago, emg456 said:

When the log states that the track doesn't exist in the track list is it Emby which is providing the list to the client?

Emby (the server) can see the subtitle stream - which means ffprobe recognizes it.  It is the player in Android that does not "see" it.

[emg456 3]

39 minutes ago, ebr said:

Yes.  You can see this indicated in the stats picture you posted when you used Playback correction.

Ah yes - it's amazing what you can see when someone points it out to you!

[emg456 3]

Thanks for your help on this @ebr

I can get round it by using an external player. I’ve just installed mx player onto the Fire stick and it seems to be working fine so that’s what I’ll do in the meantime.