Subtitles always playing

[KidNamedCudi 5]

Every time I watch anything on the Roku that has subtitles with it, it always plays the subs even though they aren't forced and I have to manually go and turn it off. I don't think this is the expected behavior. Is there any way to disable subs unless they are forced?

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  What is your subtitle behavior set to?  Perhaps it is set to "default" and these sub tracks are marked as such?

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

I have noticed that same behavior. The subs even show when I have subs set to "off" on the Roku.

 

I thought that if your Roku subs are set to off then the internal settings of any app should never override that setting and subs should never show unless you go into Roku's settings and turn the subs back on. That is an apps settings should NEVER override the settings in Rokus menus.

 

I do not mind the override too much but it is a wee bit irritating and quite unexpected.

[NanitesGather 0]

I have been having this issue as well. I keep turning off closed captions and it keeps choosing to display them.

[ebr 16169]

I have been having this issue as well. I keep turning off closed captions and it keeps choosing to display them.

 

Hi.  Same question:

 

 

Hi.  What is your subtitle behavior set to?  Perhaps it is set to "default" and these sub tracks are marked as such?

[ebr 16169]

I thought that if your Roku subs are set to off then the internal settings of any app should never override that setting and subs should never show unless you go into Roku's settings and turn the subs back on. That is an apps settings should NEVER override the settings in Rokus menus.

 

I do not mind the override too much but it is a wee bit irritating and quite unexpected.

 

Our system is designed to intelligently select subtitles for you when they are needed according to setting you set in the app or on the server.  Based on your desire above, you should set this Emby setting to "Never show subtitles" and then only turn them on when you want them.  However, that is going to cause you to lose the intelligent handling of subtitles like showing them to you when a character is speaking Klingon or Elvish...

[KidNamedCudi 5]

Where exactly is the "Never Show Subtitles"? I can't seem to find it in the server config.

 

Edit: Nevermind I found it its in the user profile settings under "Edit this Users Profile, image, and personal preference" then under the subtitles menu for anyone else looking

Edited November 15, 2017 by KidNamedCudi

[Knuckles 0]

Ok, now it's March of 2019 and I can't find where to turn the subtitles off the server. I followed the steps above, however those locations no longer exist. I thought I found them in the library settings, but it still shows subtitles and overrides my Roku so every other Roku app shows subtitles. The settings on the Roku app says to check the user settings on the server, but there's nothing there.  I missing something?

Edited March 21, 2019 by Knuckles

[Knuckles 0]

Sorry, March of 2019.

[speechles 2055]

 

You click your user (red circle above) choose subtitles and exactly what you see above appears. Here is where you tailor to fit. Changes are saved as they are made.

 

There is work on the Roku app already completed for the audio/subtitle changes. There is a brand new mechanism for selecting audio and subtitles while video plays. This same mechanism also allows for cleaned up smarter selectors that adjust their size on the detail screen. All of this is now seamless, simple and elegant. Also corrected some of the logic issues where subtitles could not be turned off. Also big changes to other selection menus to bring this inline with a consistent look. All of this should eventually make the next beta. Stay tuned...

Edited March 21, 2019 by speechles

[Knuckles 0]

Thank you, speechless. I was going into Users on the side. Completely different screen. 

[ebr 16169]

Thank you, speechless. I was going into Users on the side. Completely different screen. 

 

Right.  This is a user preference so it is accessible to all users from the user settings menu.

 

Where you were looking was user configuration which would only be accessible to admin users.

 

Does that make sense?

[storelogan 3]

On 3/22/2019 at 9:59 AM, ebr said:

 

Right.  This is a user preference so it is accessible to all users from the user settings menu.

 

Where you were looking was user configuration which would only be accessible to admin users.

 

Does that make sense?

I'm having this issue. My user subtitle preferences are set to off, but there are subtitles on every episode of specific show I watch. It doesn't seem to be an issue with other series.

I have to manually disable each episode. It's driving me crazy. 

[ebr 16169]

6 hours ago, storelogan said:

My user subtitle preferences are set to off, but there are subtitles on every episode of specific show I watch

 

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

 

[visproduction 315]

SL,

I believe your media embedded subtitles are tagged as 'forced' to play inside each media file.  Separated subtitles in their own files can be flipped easily, from appearing automatically (forced) or not, by just adding .default before the extension to the file name. Without the default the sub would need to be selected by the user for each media.

• Some_foreign_media (2022) - 1080P.mp4
• Some_foreign_media (2022) - 1080P.en.default.srt
• Some_foreign_media (2022) - 1080P.fr.srt
   

When this forced flag is embedded inside the media file, it often takes precendent and forces a subtitle to appear.  Getting rid of this behavior can be tricky.  I think that different players handle these forced commands differently.  Cancelling subs for every possible player may require multiple code to check every possible player settings and turn each one off, depending on which player the user is using.  I suspect this is true, but I haven't tested it.

Yes, Emby doing this automatically for every player and connectio would be nice.  In my opinion you are asking Emby code to jump through hoops to fix a setting in a media file, from outside the file and turning subtitles off.  Any code fix from Emby can quite likely fail, every time some new TV app is released or even a mobile / web browser is updated.  Emby would be watching and trying to change it from the outside, instead changing the setting inside the media file.  This is not an optimized fix, it's more like a patch that will probably fail with new player software is updated from TV, mobile or web.  I am not sure that this is true and I have not seen the code.  I just suspect this is a problem.

The better fix: The media file can be edited to turn off this forced subtitle behavior and with a 3rd party app / software. You could do it for 1000 media files in any subdirectory, all at once, with a click of 'Enter' or a 'Start' button.  When you fix the media files, the subtitles will not appear, ever again, until the user turns them on per media. 

Ffmpeg or MKVtoolsnix can both make these adjustments to media files in bulk.  You just have to set it up with the correct 'for' and 'if' ffmpeg function or mkvtools job queue.  Yes, it's more complex and uses outside software.  Once you have a script ready to go, it should work in any folder and subfolder easily.  Here are some links discussing these options.  It would be a good idea to include, check all subdirectories, if you want to change all media files embedded subtitle flags to off at the same time.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65672037/disable-default-subtitle-track-with-ffmpeg
 This is a start.  You still need a for all files in all subdirectories part to the script to handle multiple changes.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio_es.mp4 -i audio_en.mp4 -i subtitles.ass \
-map 0:v -map 1:a -map 2:a -map 3:s \
-metadata:s:a:0 language=spa \
-metadata:s:a:1 language=eng \
-metadata:s:s:0 language=spa \
-default_mode infer_no_subs \
-c copy result.mkv

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffmpeg/comments/1fc0z53/just_change_the_subtitles_forced_flag/?rdt=48030
https://www.reddit.com/r/mkvtoolnix/comments/u79nx3/command_line_to_make_eng_subtitle_default_and/
 

 

Edited December 6, 2025 by visproduction

[storelogan 3]

7 hours ago, visproduction said:

SL,

I believe your media embedded subtitles are tagged as 'forced' to play inside each media file.  Separated subtitles in their own files can be flipped easily, from appearing automatically (forced) or not, by just adding .default before the extension to the file name. Without the default the sub would need to be selected by the user for each media.

• Some_foreign_media (2022) - 1080P.mp4
• Some_foreign_media (2022) - 1080P.en.default.srt
• Some_foreign_media (2022) - 1080P.fr.srt
   

When this forced flag is embedded inside the media file, it often takes precendent and forces a subtitle to appear.  Getting rid of this behavior can be tricky.  I think that different players handle these forced commands differently.  Cancelling subs for every possible player may require multiple code to check every possible player settings and turn each one off, depending on which player the user is using.  I suspect this is true, but I haven't tested it.

Yes, Emby doing this automatically for every player and connectio would be nice.  In my opinion you are asking Emby code to jump through hoops to fix a setting in a media file, from outside the file and turning subtitles off.  Any code fix from Emby can quite likely fail, every time some new TV app is released or even a mobile / web browser is updated.  Emby would be watching and trying to change it from the outside, instead changing the setting inside the media file.  This is not an optimized fix, it's more like a patch that will probably fail with new player software is updated from TV, mobile or web.  I am not sure that this is true and I have not seen the code.  I just suspect this is a problem.

The better fix: The media file can be edited to turn off this forced subtitle behavior and with a 3rd party app / software. You could do it for 1000 media files in any subdirectory, all at once, with a click of 'Enter' or a 'Start' button.  When you fix the media files, the subtitles will not appear, ever again, until the user turns them on per media. 

Ffmpeg or MKVtoolsnix can both make these adjustments to media files in bulk.  You just have to set it up with the correct 'for' and 'if' ffmpeg function or mkvtools job queue.  Yes, it's more complex and uses outside software.  Once you have a script ready to go, it should work in any folder and subfolder easily.  Here are some links discussing these options.  It would be a good idea to include, check all subdirectories, if you want to change all media files embedded subtitle flags to off at the same time.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65672037/disable-default-subtitle-track-with-ffmpeg
 This is a start.  You still need a for all files in all subdirectories part to the script to handle multiple changes.

ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio_es.mp4 -i audio_en.mp4 -i subtitles.ass \
-map 0:v -map 1:a -map 2:a -map 3:s \
-metadata:s:a:0 language=spa \
-metadata:s:a:1 language=eng \
-metadata:s:s:0 language=spa \
-default_mode infer_no_subs \
-c copy result.mkv

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffmpeg/comments/1fc0z53/just_change_the_subtitles_forced_flag/?rdt=48030
https://www.reddit.com/r/mkvtoolnix/comments/u79nx3/command_line_to_make_eng_subtitle_default_and/
 

 

Thanks Vis! I used MKV w/the Muxing Batch GUI to edit the subtitles settings of the files.