I have several video files recorded with my HDHomeRun Prime. The video format is primarily ‘.mpg’ with a couple of '.ts’ thrown in. All of the videos have one or more subtitle streams. I can verify this using VLC Media Player (by looking at the ‘Media Information’ and selecting the subtitle track during playback).
Is there a way to get plex to recognize these subtitle tracks? I have followed the instructions that say to ensure ‘Local Media Assets’ is listed first. I have refreshed the metadata. I have played with auto select subtitles. No matter what I do, when I look at the details for any of these files, it shows no subtitles available, and consequently no subtitles available when I playback in any client plex app (web browser, android TV, and android).
What I ultimately want to happen is the CC1 stream (aka the first subtitle stream), to be displayed when I watch recorded videos, just like it does when I play back using other players, or as if I clicked the ‘closed caption’ button on my TV.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Is it a EIA_608? So far I know it does work in Plex on AppleTV. but not in iOS app or web player… I am struggling to find out why… I assumed I had Direct Play enabled which will block subtitles…
Have you gone through this section: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/sections/200077978-Using-Subtitles hmm?
I followed the instructions on that page. The only thing I was not sure of is when it says that the subtitle track has to be marked with the appropriate language. I am not sure if it is or how to check. It doesn’t seem to matter since the server is reporting subtitles as ‘None’ and not ‘unknown’.
I am not sure if they are EIA_608 or not. I would think that if other apps can see subtitle tracks, then Plex would too, and if I tell plex to always display subtitles, then I should always see subtitles as long as there is one or more subtitle tracks (even if it is the wrong one, I should see something).
Here is what VLC reports:
Stream 0
* Type: Video
* Original ID: 97
* Codec: MPEG-1/2 Video (mpgv)
* Resolution: 1920x1080
* Frame rate: 29.970029
* Decoded format: Planar 4:2:0 YUV
Stream 1
* Type: Audio
* Original ID: 98
* Codec: A52 Audio (aka AC3) (a52)
* Language: English
* Channels: 3F2R/LFE
* Sample rate: 48000 Hz
* Bitrate: 384 kb/s
Stream 2
* Type: Subtitle
* Codec: cc1
* Description: Closed captions 1
Stream 3
* Type: Subtitle
* Codec: cc2
* Description: Closed captions 2
Get the info from here.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201998867
What does Plex say about your file? Copy and paste the Media Info for us.
Plex Reports:
Media
Video Resolution 1080p
Duration 16:28
Bitrate 8373 kbps
Width 1920
Height 1080
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Container MPEGTS
Video Frame Rate NTSC
Video Profile main
Part
Duration 16:28
File Treehouse Masters S04E11 20160115 [20170704-2200].mpg
Size 986.47 MB
Container MPEGTS
Packet Length 188
Video Profile main
Codec MPEG2VIDEO
Bitrate 7989 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Color Range tv
Frame Rate 29.97 fps
Height 1080
Level 4
Profile main
Ref Frames 1
Scan Type interlaced
Stream Identifier 97
Width 1920
Codec AC3
Channels 5.1
Bitrate 384 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 98
MediaInfo Reports:
General
ID/String : 278 (0x116)
CompleteName : D:\Recorded TV\Treehouse Masters\Treehouse Masters S04E11 20160115 [20170704-2200].mpg
Format : MPEG-TS
FileSize/String : 986 MiB
Duration/String : 16mn 27s
OverallBitRate_Mode/String : VBR
OverallBitRate/String : 8380 Kbps
Movie : Treehouse Masters (Season 5): Ad
LawRating : TV-PG
FileExtension_Invalid : ts m2t m2s m4t m4s tmf ts tp trp ty
Video
ID/String : 97 (0x61)
MenuID/String : 826 (0x33A)
Format : MPEG Video
Format_Version : Version 2
Format_Profile : Main@High
Format_Settings_BVOP/String : Yes
Format_Settings_Matrix/String : Custom
Format_Settings_GOP : Variable
Format_Settings_PictureStructure : Frame
CodecID : 2
Duration/String : 16mn 26s
BitRate_Mode/String : VBR
BitRate/String : 7578 Kbps
BitRate_Maximum/String : 20.0 Mbps
Width/String : 1920 pixel3
Height/String : 1080 pixel3
DisplayAspectRatio/String : 16:9
FrameRate/String : 29.970 (30000/1001) fps3
ColorSpace : YUV
ChromaSubsampling/String : 4:2:0
BitDepth/String : 8 bit3
ScanType/String : Interlaced
ScanOrder/String : TFF
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Bits-(Pixel*Frame) : 0.122
StreamSize/String : 891 MiB (90%)
Encryption : PowerVu
Audio
ID/String : 98 (0x62)
MenuID/String : 826 (0x33A)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format_Settings_Endianness : Big
CodecID : 129
Duration/String : 16mn 27s
BitRate_Mode/String : CBR
BitRate/String : 384 Kbps
Channel(s)/String : 6 channel3
ChannelPositions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
SamplingRate/String : 48.0 KHz
FrameRate/String : 31.250 fps3 (1536 SPF)
BitDepth/String : 16 bit3
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Video_Delay/String : -811ms
StreamSize/String : 45.2 MiB (5%)
Language/String : en
ServiceKind/String : Complete Main
Encryption : PowerVu
Text #1
ID/String : 97 (0x61)-CC1
MenuID/String : 826 (0x33A)
Format : EIA-608
MuxingMode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
MuxingMode_MoreInfo : Muxed in Video #1
Duration/String : 16mn 26s
BitRate_Mode/String : CBR
StreamSize/String : 0.00 Byte1 (0%)
CaptionServiceName : CC1
Text #2
ID/String : 97 (0x61)-1
MenuID/String : 826 (0x33A)
Format : EIA-708
MuxingMode : A/53 / DTVCC Transport
MuxingMode_MoreInfo : Muxed in Video #1
Duration/String : 16mn 26s
BitRate_Mode/String : CBR
StreamSize/String : 0.00 Byte1 (0%)
Menu
ID/String : 96 (0x60)
MenuID/String : 826 (0x33A)
Duration/String : 16mn 27s
List/String : 97 (0x61) (MPEG Video) / 98 (0x62) (AC-3, en)
Title : Treehouse Masters (Season 5): Ad
Language/String : / en
LawRating : TV-PG
AFAIK, Plex does not recognise ‘Closed Captions’ (from American DTV).
It does recognise ‘DVB subtitles’ (used in Europe) and the ‘traditional’ subtitles like from DVD, BluRay or all the text-based formats like ASS or SRT.
So, you’ll have to extract your CC’s in a separate step with a suitable tool.
(you can integrate this step into the ‘postprocessing script’ if you use Plex DVR)
Plex did support EIA_608 (aka CEA_608). even though Plex fixed CEA_708 issues in iOS recently… Although I was able to watch some videos with EIA_608 on AppleTV but I have to pull down to turn it on by selecting “unknown cc” and it works since AppleTV can read it. it’s odd that it’s off when in setting, it is set to on. I believe there’s bug.
I am not interested in extracting EIA_608. since I recorded them with EyeTV and exported to M4V in first place ages ago…
So Plex should fix this.
@OttoKerner said:
@ecantrell said:
OttoKerner, see this: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/comment/1493992/#Comment_1493992
OP doesn’t use iOS.
Doesn’t matter, I am AppleTV, iOS and PlexWeb user… but this info tells me Plex do support those two. just that there is a bug or two somewhere that is preventing me from seeing the cc. On AppleTv I have to do the extra step to enable it, that is, pul down the menu and select “unknown cc” to be able to see CC on AppleTV.
Thanks for the replies. This seems like a bug in Plex to me, but since I need a more immediate solution, I wrote an Agent plug-in that when placed before the ‘Local Media Assets’ agent, will automatically extract the first subtitle stream using ‘ccextract’ whenever the metadata is refreshed (like when a new recording is discovered).
It is fairly straight forward and easily tweaked. It should work on any platform (just edit the Agent setting to update the location of ‘ccextract’ on your system). It may not be completely Plex kosher, but given the lack of API documentation, this is as good as it gets. 
I have attached the plug-in here in case anybody else might have a similar problem.
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