I remerge all of my movies to include subtitles. Lots of the TV shows I have also have embedded subtitles. Is there a way to enable embedded subtitles in the specified Plex server’s language by default? Currently, Plex uses the last subtitle “file” it finds for a “show”. IMHO, if a subtitle is embedded, it should be the default.
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I would think if subtitles are enabled by default, the default subtitle to be used should be the embedded subtitle for the default language, not the last subtitle obtained by the server. It’s a pain to hit the options button, go down to Stream, move over and down to Subtitles, select, move up to the top subtitle (embedded), select, back, back, for almost all my videos. I would surmise that anyone who uses subtitles on a regular basis has to do this.
If you embed subtitles in all your files, what is the point in keeping the ‘sidecar’ subtitles?
The logic behind the current behaviour is this:
Since putting a sidecar subtitle is way easier than ‘muxing’ subtitles in, Plex prefers the external subtitle file, because these are more likely to contain what the user wants.
@OttoKerner said:
If you embed subtitles in all your files, what is the point in keeping the ‘sidecar’ subtitles?
The logic behind the current behaviour is this:
Since putting a sidecar subtitle is way easier than ‘muxing’ subtitles in, Plex prefers the external subtitle file, because these are more likely to contain what the user wants.
Not everything has embedded subtitles, so in those cases sure, let the server/user pick whichever one it wants. However, to me, the current logic is flawed. An external subtitle cannot be more accurate than an embedded one. At best case, it would be the same. Someone took the time to embed the subtitle in the first place, for some reason. It’s preferred. Embedded subtitles are never wrong, external ones can be.
@majczyks said:
Embedded subtitles are never wrong, external ones can be.
Why not erasing them then, if they’re wrong anyway and you even took the effort to embed correct ones?
@OttoKerner said:
Why not erasing them then, if they’re wrong anyway and you even took the effort to embed correct ones?
Plex doesn’t put a subtitles (SRT or similar) file directly on the file system to delete. It just exists, where? I don’t know. Somewhere in the metadata? The fact I’ve chosen an opensubtitles.org agent to get subtitles (for the times my file doesn’t have a subtitle) doesn’t mean it’s correct. It’s like saying “I can add subtitles programmatically 100% of the time.” Currently, Plex can’t. An embedded subtitle is the only way to ensure a correct subtitle. Therefore, playing of an embedded subtitle should be the default action of the server, not the last subtitle obtained by any agent.
@majczyks said:
Plex doesn’t put a subtitles (SRT or similar) file directly on the file system to delete. It just exists, where? I don’t know. Somewhere in the metadata?
Exactly there. subtitles acquired by agents are put into the ‘metadata bundles’, besides all the automatically downloaded posters and cover pictures.
And I agree with you here, if there were a way to differentiate between automatically acquired subtitles and those which were put by the user beside the video files, it would be better.
That way the best of both approaches could be combined:
- if there are no subtitles except those from an agent use these
- if a file has an embedded subtitle in the desired language, use this
- if a subtitle in the desired language is lying directly beside the video file (and therefore cannot be from an automated agent), prefer this
What do you think?
@OttoKerner said:
- if there are no subtitles except those from an agent use these
- if a file has an embedded subtitle in the desired language, use this
- if a subtitle in the desired language is lying directly beside the video file (and therefore cannot be from an automated agent), prefer this
What do you think?
Exactly, user aided subtitles have precedence over agents. I think your language is correct, but I would have ordered it like this:
- if a file has an embedded subtitle in the desired language, use this. but, make sure you check the subtitle to see if it’s the default for the language. you can have multiple subtitles in the same language (regular subtitles vs SDH subtitles)
- if a subtitle in the desired language is lying directly beside the video file (and therefore cannot be from an automated agent), prefer this
- if there are no subtitles except those from an agent use these
Can I make this an official feature request? 
And embedded subtitles should only take precedence if the user has subtitles turned off. Those would be used to translate from a foreign language to the users language. Otherwise, if the user has subtitles turned on, the above rules should apply.
Thanks.
I agree with the others. I enable opensubtitles agent because sometimes I tend to like watching movies with subtitles on, but it doesn’t mean I want to have the agent subtitles take precedence if I already have subtitles embedded in the video file.
I submitted a feature request: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/269637/default-to-using-embedded-subtitles-over-agent-downloaded-subtitles/
@krunk4ever: I’m trying very hard to get this resolved. I currently have an active discussion via email with someone from Plex. I’m currently trying to compose an “elegant response” in hopes to get this resolved. It’s literally the only thing I dislike
about Plex. So much so that I cancelled my Plex Pass, which, in my opinion, started the dialog via email. Please chime in on an changes/improvements you see as necessary. Thanks very much. 
@majczyks and anyone else who would like to see this feature implemented, I recommend that you go over to https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/269637/default-to-using-embedded-subtitles-over-agent-downloaded-subtitles/ and “Like” the first post as Plex uses user votes to determine what features to implement.
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