Subtitles are all over the place when pausing/resuming and skipping forwards/backwards

[bjerne 20]

As the title says, I often have problems with subtitles getting out of sync when pausing a movie and resuming it, or even when when stopping playback and resuming from the movie details page.

Subtitles sometimes also gets out of sync when simply skipping/seeking forwards and backwards.

Additionally, I often see playback taking several seconds to resume when skipping or seeking forwards more than once or twice.

What can I do to improve this?

My Linux based emby server is fully up to date and on the client side, my main setup is my LG TV, but I see these subtitle sync issues when playing back on my chrome browser as well.

Subtitles are mostly srt/subrip and I think that the problem does not show with dvdsub type subtitles, but I can't be quite sure.

 

Edited May 25, 2025 by bjerne

[bjerne 20]

Strangely it seems that if I play another movie, then come back and resume the problematic movie, then subtitles are in sync...

I'll also mention that sometimes, when skipping around a lot in a movie, it can cause playback to hang and unable to continue. This must be a bug of some kind?

[Luke 42077]

 

Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!

 

[bjerne 20]

Sure, so I think I've provided everything except server log which I'll attach here.

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-remux-e7e5b363-572c-433c-b6c3-967002890c9a_1.txt

I have also made some notes on what I was doing on my Emby for WebOS client:

 

21:02 

Resuming a movie "Talk to her" takes several seconds to start playback. 

Subtitles 1-2 seconds off 

21:04 

Skipping forward, then backwards, subtitles several seconds off. 

 

21:47-22:04 

Resuming same movie. Subtitles 1-2 seconds off. 

Skip forward once: subtitles 3-4 seconds off. 

Skipping forward once more: subtitles are in sync 

Skipping forward again: subtitles 2 seconds off. 

Skipping forward several times: subtitles in sync 

Skipping backwards once: subtitles still in sync 

Skipping backwards several times: subtitles 3-4 seconds off (opposite direction)  

Skipping backwards, several times over: playback hangs/freezes until I press. The remote again and then playback skips once more and starts again with subtitles being off about 2 seconds.  

Edited May 28, 2025 by bjerne

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we're looking into it. Thanks for reporting.

[bjerne 20]

Any news, @Luke ?

This issue is sort of ruining my movie watching experience, so I'm really looking forward to a solution

Edited June 14, 2025 by bjerne

[Luke 42077]

Hi, we are looking into it. Thanks.

[bjerne 20]

Hi, any chance you are getting close to a solution yet? 

To note, I have found that when selecting dvdsub type subtitles, the subs do not seem to get out of sync. 

[Luke 42077]

On 7/12/2025 at 2:35 PM, bjerne said:

Hi, any chance you are getting close to a solution yet? 

To note, I have found that when selecting dvdsub type subtitles, the subs do not seem to get out of sync. 

Hi, that is helpful, thanks. We are looking at it.

[guunter 49]

On 5/25/2025 at 8:15 AM, bjerne said:

As the title says, I often have problems with subtitles getting out of sync when pausing a movie and resuming it, or even when when stopping playback and resuming from the movie details page.

Subtitles sometimes also gets out of sync when simply skipping/seeking forwards and backwards.

Additionally, I often see playback taking several seconds to resume when skipping or seeking forwards more than once or twice.

What can I do to improve this?

My Linux based emby server is fully up to date and on the client side, my main setup is my LG TV, but I see these subtitle sync issues when playing back on my chrome browser as well.

Subtitles are mostly srt/subrip and I think that the problem does not show with dvdsub type subtitles, but I can't be quite sure.

 

That issue sounds like you have subtitle extraction on the fly turned on? If you turn that setting off then Emby should burn in the subtitle to the video and it should properly be in sync.

[Lessaj 467]

I think dvbsub require transcoding so they get burned in regardless, I encountered a few of them when I was combing through my media and converting everything to SRT and I was not able to use SubtitleEdit from the command line to convert them like you can with vobsub/pgs/aas/ssa because all the timings were getting lost. I had to load the video in SubtitleEdit GUI and run the OCR on them in order to convert them. Check if the server is transcoding videos with those subtitles, it probably is, so they're being burned into the video.

[brothom 177]

On 12/07/2025 at 20:35, bjerne said:

Hi, any chance you are getting close to a solution yet? 

To note, I have found that when selecting dvdsub type subtitles, the subs do not seem to get out of sync. 

I usually just only skip intros and haven't seen this issue yet, with one exception; PGSsub on Chromecast. 

@bjerneI'm really curious as to which device (Chromecast, Google Chrome, TV (which brand etc)) exactly which subtitle (format, external/internal) you're using that causes this issue.

When I started working with media server I found a bunch of issues with any type of subtitle except for srt so I ALWAYS extract srts and since I've been doing that I haven't had any issues with subs anymore.

Maybe it's a stretch but I also noticed that Emby skips seconds when seeking. For example skipping from 00:23 -> 00:33 -> 00:40 -> 00:50, like some rounding is happening when seeking (at least on my Samsung TV).

[bjerne 20]

On 15/07/2025 at 23:06, guunter said:

That issue sounds like you have subtitle extraction on the fly turned on? If you turn that setting off then Emby should burn in the subtitle to the video and it should properly be in sync.

I don't recall having ever seen any such setting - where would I find it, exactly?

[bjerne 20]

On 16/07/2025 at 11:37, brothom said:

I usually just only skip intros and haven't seen this issue yet, with one exception; PGSsub on Chromecast. 

@bjerneI'm really curious as to which device (Chromecast, Google Chrome, TV (which brand etc)) exactly which subtitle (format, external/internal) you're using that causes this issue.

When I started working with media server I found a bunch of issues with any type of subtitle except for srt so I ALWAYS extract srts and since I've been doing that I haven't had any issues with subs anymore.

Maybe it's a stretch but I also noticed that Emby skips seconds when seeking. For example skipping from 00:23 -> 00:33 -> 00:40 -> 00:50, like some rounding is happening when seeking (at least on my Samsung TV).

I have seen subtitle sync issues when playing content in Emby web (on Chrome browser) and on Emby for WebOS (LG TV). Not sure I've ever seen it in Emby on my Android devices...

To be honest, I haven't paid much attention to subtitle formats and whether they have shown  sync issues or not, other than what I already mentioned about DVDSUBs seemingly not having sync problems, but I can try to pay more attention going forward, and record my observations which I'll then post on this thread.

Still, I would really like to hear from the devs, even if a solution is not yet identified, just to know that it is at least being worked on.

[guunter 49]

15 minutes ago, bjerne said:

I don't recall having ever seen any such setting - where would I find it, exactly?

It's a checkbox in your transcoding settings. It's enabled by default i think.

[Luke 42077]

On 7/24/2025 at 3:47 PM, bjerne said:

I have seen subtitle sync issues when playing content in Emby web (on Chrome browser) and on Emby for WebOS (LG TV). Not sure I've ever seen it in Emby on my Android devices...

To be honest, I haven't paid much attention to subtitle formats and whether they have shown  sync issues or not, other than what I already mentioned about DVDSUBs seemingly not having sync problems, but I can try to pay more attention going forward, and record my observations which I'll then post on this thread.

Still, I would really like to hear from the devs, even if a solution is not yet identified, just to know that it is at least being worked on.

Hi, we are looking into it. Thanks.

[bjerne 20]

On 24/07/2025 at 21:56, guunter said:

It's a checkbox in your transcoding settings. It's enabled by default i think.

You're quite right.

I just turned it off, and with the immediate test I carried out, it seems indeed to keep subtitles in sync, so I I'm quite pleased if this is all it took for subs to always be in sync, across all of my media
I will report back in a while, when I've watched a few films and as such, tested more thoroughly, across a couple of other client devices as well.

Edited August 3, 2025 by bjerne

[guunter 49]

On 8/3/2025 at 12:38 PM, bjerne said:

You're quite right.

I just turned it off, and with the immediate test I carried out, it seems indeed to keep subtitles in sync, so I I'm quite pleased if this is all it took for subs to always be in sync, across all of my media
I will report back in a while, when I've watched a few films and as such, tested more thoroughly, across a couple of other client devices as well.

Glad that did the trick