Automatic subtitles for files with subtitle already embedded on them.

General Discussions
1

Moving this question to this forum after being days in the regular forums with no feedback:

Hello,
I couldn’t find anything on the forum to help clarify/resolve this:

Automatic subtitles download seems to be working fine on my setup with files that don’t have subtitles embedded. However I would like Plex to download subtitles (SRT) for files with already embedded subtitles. The reason is because those embedded subtitles are mostly in formats that cannot be direct played (PGS, VobSub, etc). They have to be transcoded and my server cannot transcode (not powerful enough).

Is there any way to force Plex to download subtitles even if it finds subtitles already embedded on the file for the same language?

Thanks

2

Any feedback/comment? Thx

3

Still waiting for some help here. Thx

4

You can run @cayars scripts to convert the media from the MKV file format you are using to an MP4 format which doesn’t allow internal subtitles. This would then force Plex to download the subtitles, as they are no longer in the media files themselves. Depending on what formats the subs are in, his scripts may also make srt sidecars of the subs for you.

Running these scripts does a couple of things for you. They ensure that the media is in the most Direct Playable format you could possibly have, and they eliminate a lot of the BS that gets packed into MKV’s. (Seriously, just how many audio tracks does someone need in a movie, anyway? And how often do most people need Swahili subtitles?)

Find more info on his scripts here: http://forums.plex.tv/discussion/131308/cayars-setup-walk-through-and-some-tips-and-tricks/p1 Just follow the links to the conversion scripts.

5

Thank you for the suggestion. I appreciate you took the time to read and answer my post.

I should have mentioned that I know I can remove the embedded subtitles using MKVToolNix, but I don’t want go through the hassle to remux the files.

So, the question still stands:

Is there any way to force Plex to download subtitles even if it finds subtitles already embedded on the file for the same language?

6

The default opensubtitles agent doesn’t provide you a preference for this, so I suggest you use SubZero for automatic subtitle downloading instead.

7

Install the Sub-Zero subtitles under Channel and configure for required language.
Loads up to 3 different languages.
Works great for me as i have had the same issue :slight_smile: