Forced Subtitles (if more than one subtitle is marked with the forced flag) //mod: change with audio

Feature Suggestions
1

Hi,

I have investigated this issue extensively, but I have not found a solution.

Let’s say I have a movie file with 2 languages (German and English)… It also contains a German Subtitle (with the forced flag) and an English Subtitle (with the forced flag)

The subtitle English “Forced” should be selected automatically if the English language is selected, and the subtitle German “Forced” should be selected automatically if the German language is chosen.

If the file does not have a subtitle with a force flag, then no subtitle should be autoselected.

BR,
Norli.

2

I‘m not sure I understand what you’re suggesting.

You can already configure your language preferences in your account settings… specifically:

  • tell Plex to automatically select audio/subtitles
  • tell Plex your preferred language for both is English
  • tell Plex to only automatically select forced subtitles (with foreign audio)

You cannot currently define a sequence of preferred languages, e.g. telling Plex you prefer English but you’d like it to use German audio/subtitles if no English ones can be found.
If that’s what you’re looking for… there’s already an existing suggestion discussing such an option.

3

Like @tom80H said your described behavior is exactly the way it works, if you set your language and subtitles settings correctly.

4

It had a slightly different meaning… The predetermined language settings are functioning correctly… I have preconfigured English, and the English forced subtitles are automatically selected.

However, let’s consider a scenario where my son or girlfriend is watching a movie using my account. English language and forced subtitles are preselected (which I do not want to change). Suppose one of them wants to switch to German… In this case, the forced subtitle selection remains the same. However, if I have selected the German language, it does not make sense to have the English forced subtitle selected.

Therefore, I would like an option that directs Plex to change the forced subtitle to the selected playing language, even if it is changed during playback.

I hope this clarifies my request.

BR,
Norli.

5

I see where you’re coming from. I suppose Plex design assumes you still might prefer the English subtitles even if you’re using a different language.

I consider in your use case it all comes down to the choice to manually override the automatic audio selection.

As a side note: have you considered creating a separate (managed or regular) user account for your son to set his own audio preferences?

6

I have different accounts for different devices… but anyway… Even if I switch from English to German (when we have company), I want to see German forced subs when I watch a movie in German.

So I would like to put this as a feature request to Plex and would be very happy to see this in the future.

BR,
Norbert.

7

You already have.

8

In support of this, I’d like to point out this isn’t an unusual request, after all, this is how all DVD & Blu-ray players work; when you play the audio as english, it will play the forced english subtitle track, and if you change the audio to any other language, it will play the forced subtitle track for this language. Adding this would be a good step forward to a complete and instinctive player.

That being said, I don’t know how Plex itself would implement this. This is more about file processing; multiple tracks would need a Forced tag with the correct Language tag. But I haven’t heard of files with multiple forced tracks. It can be done, but would it cause an issue in other players?