Error playing VobSub subtitles on Android TV and Web player

Plex Players
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1

Hi,
I’ve noticed, that VobSubs don’t play on plex player on Android TV and on web players. Although they work fine in HTPC PC app and also on my android phone.

My TV runs android 11. My phone runs android 13. Perhaps that’s the diference?

On the Web player, it outputs this massage when trying to play.
image

And on the app Android TV it just says it’s unable to play media.

Just to clarify, all of my problems with not playing go away if I disable VobSub subtitles or change to different ones.

Plex media server version: 1.30.1.6562
The android TV app is also updated.

2

You might have disabled the transcoder, because it is necessary to support that subtitle format on a web browser.

3

I have disabled it for other reasons. But also tried reenabling it exactly for this problem.
It doesn’t seem to help.

4

Stop and restart the server after re-enabling the transcoder. Don’t disable it – unless you are using “potato-grade” hardware, like a RasPi or similar.

5

Resetting the server did help.

I’ve done some testing.
On most my files, I have the video stream encoded in HEVC. So if I let it play without subtitles now, it plays it in original quality no problem. But if I now enable subs (talking about Vobsubs), it starts encoding it in AVC, though the subtitles now work properly.

This is the case on my Android TV and on the Web player. But if I try it on my android phone, it is able to run HEVC with the subtitles without it transcoding the video stream.

6

VOBSUB is the subtitle format on DVDs.
The HEVC codec doesn’t appear on DVDs.
So this is a combination which is not tested by many manufacturers and thus may not work on all devices.
On Web browsers VOBSUB doesn’t work at all, so transcoding to AVC is inevitable.

7

Ah, I see. So the OS has to support this, not Plex?

8

Plex simply uses the existing abilities of the platform.
Which is the web browser for the Plex Web app,
or the device’s version of Android for the Plex Android [TV] app.

In the case of Android, Plex partly relies on what it is told by the operating system about the particular device’s abilities. Not every device is telling the whole truth here.

In other cases there are tables of device names and their respective feature set stored in the client.
It is certainly possible that not all technical abilities of all devices are contained in these lists. Plex cannot test and debug every possible combination of hardware and Android. There are just too many of them.

9

I see. Thanks for the explanation!

10

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