multiple embedded ASS subtitles = only first sub will display

[bardmaster 17]

Hi gang! It's been a while since I've posted, but my last couple come from similar frustrations others have posted with Roku and SSA/ASS subtitles.

MY SCENARIO: I've been watching MKV videos with embedded SSA (or "ASS") subtitles, both Forced English (for foreign parts) and English (full subs), where the Forced ASS is defined as the first, Default Track and Enabled while the English ASS is the second Enabled track. Forced subs display properly, but the other full-sub ASS does not.

MY STUDY: So I played around a bit, watching other MKVs with only 1 ASS sub and even remuxing one of the MKVs (a different instance of the same one used in this example) so that the forced subs are pre burned-in (using Handbrake), resulting in only 1 embedded ASS sub. In both cases the single ASS sub displayed normally!

MY CONCLUSION: Emby+Roku will only playback the first embedded ASS sub and ignore any others.

MY REQUEST: Can this be remedied so any ASS sub will display? Or at least two for my (likely common) use-case where foreign parts always display subs but a second full sub can be switched to when one didn't understand what the actors are saying in English.

ALTERNATE (less desirable) SOLUTION: Have Emby force transcoding to transform ASS to SRT as per issue #1579 (which I cannot find on its own) and discussed in this post: 

 

Attached are logfiles and details on the MKV. Roku debug as ON for these logs.

 

MY SPECS:

Emby Server for Windows 4.8.9.0

  -subtitle mode = Only forced subtitles

TCL RokuTV 55P607 s/w version 13.1.4 build 1510-30 (same results on a 65" RokuTV and a Roku Ultra)

Roku Emby app: 4.1.26 

  -burn in SSA subtitles = No (and all other playback settings also defaulted)

  -DEBUG = ON (associated with the attached log files)

 

Please let me know what else might be needed, and THANK YOU!!

Bardmaster

embyserver-63863194341.txt hardware_detection-63863194345.txt embyserver.txt The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power S01E08 Alloyed.mkv.MediaInfo.txt

Edited September 29, 2024 by bardmaster

[speechles 2055]

During playback if you use the "Attempt Playback Correction" button found under the cog/gear it should allow you to change streams. It will remux and copy all the streams, but change the container from MKV. The problem you have is the Roku does not like how that MKV was packaged. It has things in the streams that it cannot understand like those chapters at the end which cause it to make selection of audio streams and subtitles difficult during direct play. If using playback correction solves the problem you can probably fix this by using MKVToolNix Gui and copying all the streams into a new MKV container

Also, keep in mind that ASS/SSA subs on Roku are "technically" not supported. They will be stripped of all markup and reduced down to just text and fed to the SRT renderer. Sometimes this stripping removes everything and breaks the subtitle from showing at all. The best way to display ASS/SSA subs on Roku is by burning them in.

You can also download an external SRT for this file and solve the problem immediately. External SRT are not part of the problem MKV container and will always work.

Edited September 29, 2024 by speechles

[bardmaster 17]

18 hours ago, speechles said:

During playback if you use the "Attempt Playback Correction" button found under the cog/gear it should allow you to change streams. It will remux and copy all the streams, but change the container from MKV. The problem you have is the Roku does not like how that MKV was packaged. It has things in the streams that it cannot understand like those chapters at the end which cause it to make selection of audio streams and subtitles difficult during direct play. If using playback correction solves the problem you can probably fix this by using MKVToolNix Gui and copying all the streams into a new MKV container

Also, keep in mind that ASS/SSA subs on Roku are "technically" not supported. They will be stripped of all markup and reduced down to just text and fed to the SRT renderer. Sometimes this stripping removes everything and breaks the subtitle from showing at all. The best way to display ASS/SSA subs on Roku is by burning them in.

You can also download an external SRT for this file and solve the problem immediately. External SRT are not part of the problem MKV container and will always work.

Thanks for the quick response @speechles

During playback if you use the "Attempt Playback Correction" button found under the cog/gear it should allow you to change streams: tried that, works sometimes but not consistently for me. In fact, since the last server update this doesn't seem to work at all.

If using playback correction solves the problem you can probably fix this by using MKVToolNix Gui and copying all the streams into a new MKV container: curious idea, tried it just for kicks and made no difference.

The best way to display ASS/SSA subs on Roku is by burning them in: Yes this works fine if I burn in the Forced (foreign) subs using Handbrake; essentially this text ends up being hidden behind the full sub when I manually switch to it (if the full sub also has foreign parts; if not then the burned-in text still shows). The "Burn in SSA Subtitles" in Emby-for-Roku settings causes horrible playback stuttering so I don't use it.

You can also download an external SRT for this file and solve the problem immediately: yes, I had done that and confirmed it works great, but I have not gotten the auto-download from Open Subtitles to work consistently and doing this manually adds a lot more time and effort.

My final approach: Burn in the foreign subs during encoding, and keep the full embedded SSA/ASS subs for manual use when needed. This will at least be my approach until somebody volunteers to write Handbrake code that would add subtitle encoding options besides SSA/ASS.

Thank you!

Brad