Support full regional language tags like es-419 in media stream information

[AngelSing 76]

Hi, I would like to make a suggestion regarding regional language tags in Emby’s media stream information.

Currently, when an internal MKV audio or subtitle track is tagged as es-419 in MKVToolNix, Emby shows the language only as “Spanish” in the media information.

The problem is that es-419 specifically represents Latin American Spanish, not just generic Spanish. Because Emby only exposes the base language as “Spanish”, plugins such as EmbyIcons cannot correctly detect whether the track is Spanish from Spain or Latin American Spanish.

My suggestion is that Emby should recognize and expose the full regional language tag, for example es-419, when it exists in the MKV track metadata.

This would allow Emby’s media information to show something like “Spanish (Latin America)” instead of only “Spanish”, and it would also allow plugins to use the correct regional language value for icons, filtering, sorting, or other features.

In short, it would be very useful if Emby could preserve and expose BCP 47 / IETF regional language tags such as es-419 for internal MKV audio and subtitle tracks.

[Luke 42710]

Hi, yes this has been added on the beta channel. Thanks.

[AngelSing 76]

7 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, yes this has been added on the beta channel. Thanks.

Hello,

Do you mean that Emby already recognizes the es-419 language code in the current Beta version, or that support for it has been added to the Beta roadmap and is still pending implementation?

I'm asking because I currently use the Beta version, and the developer of EmbyIcons @yocker told me that the reason Latin American Spanish is not displayed correctly is that Emby is not providing the regional language information to plugins.

In my MKV files, the audio and subtitle tracks are correctly tagged as es-419, which is the official language code for Latin American Spanish. However, Emby appears to treat it the same as standard Spanish (es-ES) and only exposes it as "Spanish" in the media information.

As a result, EmbyIcons cannot distinguish between Latin American Spanish and Spanish (Spain), so it always uses the generic Spanish icon instead of a dedicated es-419 icon.

I would like to know whether this is already fixed in the current Beta version or if support for es-419 is still planned for a future update.

Thank you.

[Luke 42710]

Quote

Do you mean that Emby already recognizes the es-419 language code in the current Beta version

Yes.

[AngelSing 76]

4 minutes ago, Luke said:

Yes.

Oh, then there must be some kind of issue between Emby and EmbyIcons, because for some reason it doesn't seem to differentiate between es-ES and es-419.

What do you think, @yocker ?

If Emby is already reading the MKV tracks and detecting them as Spanish, what could be preventing EmbyIcons from receiving the correct language information? Could Emby be normalizing both language codes to a generic "Spanish" value before exposing the metadata to plugins?

I'm just trying to understand where in the chain the regional information is being lost.

[Luke 42710]

Quote

Oh, then there must be some kind of issue between Emby and EmbyIcons, because for some reason it doesn't seem to differentiate between es-ES and es-419.

Try refreshing the metadata on existing content. 

[yocker 1721]

20 minutes ago, Luke said:

Try refreshing the metadata on existing content. 

es-419 does indeed seem to get normalized as Spanish not as Latin American Spanish in Emby.



Ignore the "embedded title" as it's a file i modified to test with.
Edit: It's with Emby version 4.10.14.

Edited June 16 by yocker

[AngelSing 76]

@LukeYes, I already did that. I updated the plugin, cleared all EmbyIcons caches, and rescanned the library, but it is still showing the same icon for Spanish (Spain). I even added new content to the library after the update, and it was still detected as es-ES instead of es-419.

In the MKV file, the track is correctly tagged with the es-419 language code:

However, in Emby's Media Info, it is displayed simply as "Spanish", with no reference to Latin America:

In my custom icons folder, I already have the Latin American Spanish icon named exactly as: lang.spanish (latin america).png

And in the EmbyIcons options, I can see that although the icon is present, it is still not being used:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I noticed that @yocker updated the plugin, but at least in my case the issue with detecting Latin American Spanish still persists.

Edited June 16 by AngelSing
changes

[Luke 42710]

In the file, the language code is probably just es and not es-419

[yocker 1721]

19 minutes ago, AngelSing said:

I noticed that @yocker updated the plugin, but at least in my case the issue with detecting Latin American Spanish still persists.

Just improvements to the troubleshooter and some unrelated fallbacks to language that was in the beta now made stable.

[yocker 1721]

15 minutes ago, Luke said:

In the file, the language code is probably just es and not es-419

The file should be correct, at least every thing is pointing to es-419 as language yet Emby still normalizes it as Spanish.

[AngelSing 76]

24 minutes ago, Luke said:

In the file, the language code is probably just es and not es-419

I've already changed the code to (es), but it's still the same; it seems Emby is having trouble distinguishing between Spanish from Spain and Latin American Spanish.

[Luke 42710]

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

[AngelSing 76]

43 minutes ago, Luke said:

HI there, can you please provide a specific example?

How to Report a Problem

Thanks !

 

Okay, I've already posted a message with the problem report in the Emby Beta thread.

 

[crusher11 1231]

On 6/16/2026 at 12:38 PM, Luke said:

Hi, yes this has been added on the beta channel. Thanks.

Does this mean there has been a recent change to language handling? I reported Mayan not being supported a while back, has that changed?

[yocker 1721]

1 hour ago, crusher11 said:

Does this mean there has been a recent change to language handling? I reported Mayan not being supported a while back, has that changed?

Doesn't seem to be working atm. if it is indeed what is wanted and not a communication misunderstanding.

[Luke 42710]

es-419 was added to our list of language codes to map to Spanish (Latin America).

[yocker 1721]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

es-419 was added to our list of language codes to map to Spanish (Latin America).

In the released beta or an internal version?
I get the same results as @AngelSingwhere it just shows Spanish.

[AngelSing 76]

5 hours ago, yocker said:

In the released beta or an internal version?
I get the same results as @AngelSingwhere it just shows Spanish.

Yes, I think Luke is probably referring to an internal build or a change that has been added but not released yet.

I am also still getting the same result in the current Beta: Emby only shows “Spanish” and does not show “Spanish (Latin America)” yet.

So I understand Luke’s message as confirmation that es-419 has now been added to Emby’s language mapping, and hopefully it should start working in the next Beta release or once that internal change becomes available.

At least that sounds like good news, because it means Emby should eventually be able to recognize es-419 correctly as Spanish (Latin America).

[crusher11 1231]

8 hours ago, yocker said:

In the released beta or an internal version?
I get the same results as @AngelSingwhere it just shows Spanish.

It's an ffprobe problem:

 

2 hours ago, AngelSing said:

Yes, I think Luke is probably referring to an internal build or a change that has been added but not released yet.

I'm confused as to why you think this given you've already established, in the other thread, what the issue is.

[AngelSing 76]

1 hour ago, crusher11 said:

I'm confused as to why you think this given you've already established, in the other thread, what the issue is.

Oh, I see. Thanks for clarifying that.

I think I misunderstood Luke’s message. When he said that es-419 was added to the language code list, I thought he meant that a new fix had been added recently, possibly in an internal build or upcoming beta version.

That is why I assumed it might start working in the next beta release. I think @yocker understood it in a similar way too, since he also asked whether it was already in the released beta or only in an internal version.

But now I understand the issue better: Emby may already have es-419 in its language mapping list, but if FFprobe does not expose the regional tag from the MKV file, then Emby never receives that information in the first place.

So even if Emby knows how to map es-419 to Spanish (Latin America), it cannot apply that mapping if FFprobe only reports the track as spa / Spanish.

That was my confusion. Thanks for pointing it out.

[yocker 1721]

4 minutes ago, AngelSing said:

Oh, I see. Thanks for clarifying that.

I think I misunderstood Luke’s message. When he said that es-419 was added to the language code list, I thought he meant that a new fix had been added recently, possibly in an internal build or upcoming beta version.

That is why I assumed it might start working in the next beta release. I think @yocker understood it in a similar way too, since he also asked whether it was already in the released beta or only in an internal version.

But now I understand the issue better: Emby may already have es-419 in its language mapping list, but if FFprobe does not expose the regional tag from the MKV file, then Emby never receives that information in the first place.

So even if Emby knows how to map es-419 to Spanish (Latin America), it cannot apply that mapping if FFprobe only reports the track as spa / Spanish.

That was my confusion. Thanks for pointing it out.

I did indeed understand it the same as you.  

[FrostByte 5513]

This looks similar to the request I made for region codes.

 

@Lukewere the English gb-826 and us-840 added to the beta also?

[AngelSing 76]

2 hours ago, FrostByte said:

This looks similar to the request I made for region codes.

 

@Lukewere the English gb-826 and us-840 added to the beta also?

It is possible that Emby does have those codes included, but that does not help much if the tool Emby uses to collect media information, FFprobe, cannot currently obtain the regional language code from the file.

Because of that, it is impossible to properly distinguish between regional variants of the same language.

[Luke 42710]

4 hours ago, FrostByte said:

This looks similar to the request I made for region codes.

 

@Lukewere the English gb-826 and us-840 added to the beta also?

No, not yet.