I hope someone can help me. I have a Synology DS213j running with PMS and PlexConnect. I can watch movies via AppleTV (Trailers app) without any problems, except I turn on subtitels, then it stuck at loading screen. The "little loading wheel" is showing endless.
If I try to start a movie with subtitles on PlexWeb I get the error: "This server is not powerful enough to convert video."
For testing I installed PHT (Plex Home Theater) on my Macbook and with that it is working fine, also with subtitels.
I also tried to change some options on ATV, like options for "Transcoder Action" and "Subtitle renderer" but still not working.
Do anybody know how this can be fixed? Or isn't it working at all?
Many thanks in advance!
Tom
PS: I already posted this in "Synology" forum but someone suggested to ask here.
You NAS seems to be unable to transcode video - but this would be needed if PMS is asked to "burn in" the subs.
aTV native can basically replay m4v/h264 with embedded subs - in PlexConnect, this can't be activated from the PrePlayScreen, but per Select&Hold while viewing the movie.
PlexConnect can overlay subtitles while aTV/iOS does the video decoding - but only external SRTs.
As I told plexotom in the Synology forum, PMS is installed in a Syno that can DirectPlay, should be able to DirectStream, but cannot transcode.
Therefore, in order to have subtitles in the ATV, he needs to use the subtitle renderer feature of PlexConnect. In order to do so, he needs to post here what is the mediainfo of the failing file.
My personal guess, but I had no access to the mediainfo yet, is that it is a mkv file that requires DirectStream, and my doubt is if PlexConnect can render subtitles in this situation.
Unfortunately it is not working to enable subtitles during I watch the movie. If I interrupt and go into the subtitle menu I can choose between "Off", "Auto" and "Optional". Nothing of them brings up the subtitles.
If I set "Direct Play" at "Transcoder Action" I can't start the movie (.mkv) at all because of the error message "File can not be loaded". At the moment I have set to "Auto" and for "Subtitle renderer" I have set "iOS, PMS".
Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)
Decoded Format: Planar 4:2:0 YUV
If any further/other information is needed, please let me know!
>>Unfortunately it is not working to enable subtitles during I watch the movie.
See above - with transcoded media or non-embedded subtitles, iOS won't know about them and therefore the iOS subtitle menu (select&hold during playback) is non-functional. I've written that already, didn't I? Those have to be enabled within the PrePlayScreen subtitle submenu.
>>If I set "Direct Play" at "Transcoder Action" I can't start the movie (.mkv)
Yeah, aTV has never been able to decode MKV. PMS needs to do a container swap... "Direct Stream".
PlexConnect (currently) only supports SRT subs. Other parsers could be added, I guess - see subtitle.py/parseSRT() as an example. You are totally invited to take your shot. :-)
>>confusion around selecting subtitles...
It really depends on the files (container/codecs/subs), but the github WIKI should describe it correctly... Apple isn't really helping to figure out how to nicely hook into the iOS player. :-D
