For those with .idx/.sub problems, here is a solution.

General Discussions
1

Hi,

Never posted here before but here goes anyways…!

So I’ve had my fair share of problems with .idx/.sub, and a search here on the forum shows that many ppl seem to have some kind of problem as well. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, am I right?

The common issue is:

“it doesn’t work at all”

or:

“it works but fails during playback, help…!” (usually towards the end).

or

“my subs works just fine” (great for you bud… there is an explanation at the end…)

Annoying, right? And searching for .srt’s all day/night long can be… well, boring… especially if you need to re-sync them or god forbid extract stuff with subtitle edit… ZzZZzzzz…

So I got pissed off and decided to take a closer look myself as some movies worked just fine while some just failed. Turns out the solution is… well… easy. And probably easy for PLEX to fix.

Here is the big problem, you just downloaded (sorry, made a backup) of Star Wars Episode IV 1080p (bluray/mkv), you got yourself a big fat juicy .sub… only to discover it wont play… or just fail during playback.

So what do you do…? Download a ■■■■■■ .srt with lots of errors…? Extract with subtitle edit? What? I rather keep the .sub, but that’s just me…, instead of messing around with subtitle edit and get lot’s of OCR errors… :confused:

The bottom line is that PLEX can’t handle .idx/.sub files that are OVER 19mb, they will just FAIL. My example above with Star Wars Episode IV 1080p (bluray, mkv) has a .sub that was 46mb big. For some odd reason it will not work with PLEX.

Here is the solution, just strip it. As in: remove all the subs you don’t need. I am from Sweden, I don’t need any spanish, finnish, french, dutch, whatever subs!

Download VobSubStrip (very outdated btw…) or use BDSup2Sub (you might need to play around with the .idx file if using BDSup2Sub, as in: change default language). I wont post any instructions for VobSubStrip as it’s so easy to use… :stuck_out_tongue:

Now that I removed all the subs I don’t need (I kept Swedish and English) I end up with a .idx/.sub that is around 11mb.

Voila… plays just fine.

So the reason why some movies play just fine is that the actual .sub file is bellow 19mb (probably around 2-12mb… or so), that is WHY they work… it only becomes a problem when they are above 19mb. At least it becomes a problem for PLEX.

Oh yeh… sorry if someone else posted something similar… or whatever… I didn’t feel to go thru 395825 pages of whine. :wink:

But yeh, this worked for me… latest build (1.3.3.3148), try it yourself… or don’t…!

PEACE!

6 Likes
2

Could you provide me with a sample that triggers the error?
I’d like to relay it to the developers so this can be looked at.

3

Yup, samples sent…! :wink:

4

Samples relayed, issue filed. :slight_smile:

5

Anything new on this matter? any where to follow up when this gets resolved?
I just found out and started edit files but went trough like 5 movies and then I came to a movie that didnt go under 19mb with 2 subs.
Ill still continue to remove langs that I dont want so its get a bit cleaner :slight_smile:

6

I also still see this issue with PMS 1.12.3.4973.
Any updates/progress?

7

Wow, I wrote about this issue over a year ago and still NO fix. I’ve given up all hope on PLEX, they don’t care.

I also keep removing langs I don’t need (only thing that works for now).

1 Like
8

Really sad to see that no fix has been implemented so far. As I cannot find a suitable tool for my macOS, I have to use an online tool that converts sub/Idx to srt…

1 Like
9

Why does plex ignore this problem? is it so hard to fix?

1 Like
10

Any idx/sub subtitles encountered I open with BDSup2Sub and simply export to an sup format. They work just fine for me after that.

11

yes sure there are workarounds. but why not just fix the main issue? every other media player can read idx/sub perfectly why not plex? hope plex dev’s can take 30 min to fix this

1 Like
12

Has anyone heard if there is a fix for this yet?

13

I would also like to see this. Any update from Plex?

14

ironically enough - I figured i ought to start building my own library with subs as opposed to reliance on plex to fetch them. (never mind the fact plex cant fetch forced anyhow afaik)

I have 0 experience with the different formats so began my research and it looks like idx/sub is common, its no bueno here eh?

What would the practice be assuming it was fixed? Keep the idx and sub in the same folder as the mkv and named the same? And plex would automatically pick em up?

15

afaik, yes. From what I have said in the past, yes.

I don’t quite understand why some of the pictures are not coming in…

More on subs and local media assets
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200471133-adding-local-subtitles-to-your-media/

Sadly, I can’t do any testing on my end(NAS RAID failure, rebuilding)

But nevertheless, I would mux .idx/.sub in the mkv… Again, if it was me…

16

hmm, perhaps thats the route ill take in the future then. muxing them in. Ironically up until now, ive muxed all the subs out and let plex handle it.

Course forced subs, rare as they can be - have bit me in the ■■■■, not to mention the over reliance on plex.

Funny you mention the nas/rebuild. Sorry to hear that. Im actually considering finally making the jump from local disks to a NAS and apart from the nightmare of recreating paths for everything under the sun - I always wondered if its going to be worth it.

Not just from a monetary perspective (i have 50tb spread across 9 local disks atm so would have to go larger) but from the time invested converting everything.

The main motivator is protection against failure which from the sounds of it, your a perfect example of it doing its job.

17

Yeah, but nothing beats a backup. Except 2 backups.

18

I agree. I image daily, and float super important stuff off to a few areas courtesy of a robocopy script.

Still, unless your rich - no such thing as backups of 50TB worth of data im afraid :frowning:

I guess backblaze does unlimited for 5/mo :stuck_out_tongue:

19

Wow, haven’t hear that in years.

Not sure rich would be the word… but an extra thousand for 5-10TB drives is a bit pricey.

That’s fantastic!! Some day I’ll start believing everyone when they say “unlimited for $$/mo”.
It might actually save me from this 70 hour RAID rebuild!!

20

touche’

I guess not rich, but with more disposable income than I have lol. As it is I find myself out of storage at a ridiculous rate, and each time i’d have to add a drive, id essentially have to add 2.

yuck.

70 hours? ouweeee. Is that the entire thing? If you have 1 drive fail you should still be operable right?

backblaze “IS” unlimited, but they make it such a pain in the ■■■■ to get your data back, its more of an archival service i guess. Wasnt for me. I think you have to download it as 300mb zips one at a time or some crazy stuff. That or purchase a pre-loaded-with-your-data hard drive from them. Was several years since I gave it a try.

Had a fraction of the data I do now and it still was on course to take like 6 months to upload it all behind the scenes lol.