Subtitles - how does it work?

[sh0rty 717]

Well that explains why it wasn't working. I used an extractor program to pull the VobSub file out of the .mkv and make an external .sub file. Then I used a conversion program to turn that into an .srt file. Now the subtitles are working just fine. I tried to use the standard files that Emby downloads automatically (from opensubtitles.org) but they were all wrong. Missing things and/or out of sync. So I had to create my own in the end. A bit tedious with the number of OCR errors, but it did work in the end. Thanks for explaining why the .sub files weren't working.

 

For batch extracting tracks from mkv you can use MKVCleaver http://www.videohelp.com/software/MKVcleaver

 

A very good choice with a learning dictionary for converting the subs is SubtitleEdit http://www.videohelp.com/software/Subtitle-Edit 

[SamES 1057]

I believe that is the problem then.  It has to do with the way the app sends a second stream at the bottom of your screen.  Graphical subtitles don't work at this time.  I know srt subtitles work, not sure which others.

 

You could try adding a srt to one movie to see if it works.  It should work internal or external

Sorry to jump on this one so late.

 

Last year I had a whole series on DVD which I ripped with MakeMKV, including subs, etc.

 

They had VOBSUB based subs, and at the time they worked fine with the app.  I will have a play tonight (if I remember) to confirm whether this is an app or server issue.  I recall there have been changes with sub handling on the server over the last 12 months so maybe this has had an impact?

[jeflatt 6]

Sorry to jump on this one so late.

 

Last year I had a whole series on DVD which I ripped with MakeMKV, including subs, etc.

 

They had VOBSUB based subs, and at the time they worked fine with the app.  I will have a play tonight (if I remember) to confirm whether this is an app or server issue.  I recall there have been changes with sub handling on the server over the last 12 months so maybe this has had an impact

I am far from being an expert, but I believe it is an app issue. When I was trying to get this to work, I got the VobSub subtitles to work on the server, watching it directly on my computer that is acting as the server. But I did not get subtitles through the Samsung app. 

[SamES 1057]

I am far from being an expert, but I believe it is an app issue. When I was trying to get this to work, I got the VobSub subtitles to work on the server, watching it directly on my computer that is acting as the server. But I did not get subtitles through the Samsung app. 

 

Thanks, I'll start by loading an old version of the app and see what I get.  It may also be that the server is reporting it differently and the client needs updating

[FrostByte 5392]

The way I understand it VobSub may have worked at one time before chessdragon rewrote the way the app handled subtitles.  The app used to always transcode the movie to burn in all subtitles before streaming.  Now  the app sends 2 streams, one for the movie and one for the subtitle in the box at the bottom and does not have transcode just because there are subtitles. 

 

This was a long time ago and my memory may not be totally correct

Edited April 7, 2016 by FrostByte

[SamES 1057]

I think you may be right, but I was pretty sure I wasn't transcoding when I watch these, although I could be wrong.  At the time my transcoding experience was poor  (old hardware) so I used to avoid it

[SamES 1057]

The way I understand it VobSub may have worked at one time before chessdragon rewrote the way the app handled subtitles.  The app used to always transcode the movie to burn in all subtitles before streaming.  Now  the app sends 2 streams, one for the movie and one for the subtitle in the box at the bottom and does not have transcode just because there are subtitles. 

 

This was a long time ago and my memory may not be totally correct

 

Actually I think this is probably right.  I do recall having issues with subs and transcoding.  I think I may have reverted to the DLNA client on episodes that required subs.

 

I think at this stage the only option is to manually export them as you have done above.

[FrostByte 5392]

Maybe the app can be changed to deal with subtitles based on your subtitle preferences and which is the forced subtitle. 

 

If you have subtitles set to auto play and the forced subtitle is srt then no transcoding is necessary, but if it's something like VobSub then burn-in the subtitles before streaming.  If your options are set to not automatically play subtitles then you can choose.

[jeflatt 6]

I'm not sure how relevant this is anymore, or if anyone is still having issues. I've just spent the day futzing with movies and subtitles. I also went through this exercise a while ago and got some great support from the developers. Now that it's fresh in my, I'll let you know what I found out before and what works for me. My default language is English, so I'm going to use that in my explanations. If yours is different, adjust accordingly.

 

Default language: English

Subtitles: default (this can be set from the Samsung app, but it's the server setting so changing it one place changes the other)

Foreign language films with English subtitles, external subtitle file: XXXX.eng.srt (XXXX can be anything, doesn't even need to match the movie file)

English films with forced subtitles, external subtitle file: XXXX.eng.forced.srt

 

The "default" subtitle setting on the EMBY server will play subtitle files flagged as "forced", and will also play the English subtitles if the default language of the movie file is not English.

 

I was also told that VobSub files will not work with the Samsung app, even if they work on the server. Only external .srt files will be recognized and used by the Samsung app.

 

There are several adhoc lists on the internet of which movies have forced subtitles to look through. Some movies have them hardcoded (i.e. the forced subtitle image is painted on the video itself and is part of the movie, not truly a subtitle). These movies do not need an external subtitle file as you can't actually turn them off if you wanted to. To extract embedded/separate subtitles from an .mkv file, I use the software "Subtitle Edit" (it works with most video file types as well). Most movies have VobSub subtitles which are image based. That software has a decent OCR to convert the images to text, with a simple and intuitive means for correcting/editing images it can't quite work out.

Edited October 23, 2016 by jeflatt