Handbrake and Closed Captions

[southerndoc]

I’m trying to figure out options for Handbrake. When I use MakeMKV, it puts the closed captions in the file and I can use without a problem.

I can’t figure out the options to use on Handbrake to retain the closed captions. Can someone help me out here? I want the option to turn them on/off through an AppleTV. I’m currently using H.265 VideoToolbox to compress using a Mac Studio M1 Max.

Also, is it better to save these in mp4 format or mkv? I’m currently saving in mkv. I will 99% exclusively use an AppleTV and occasional iPad to stream Plex content.

Thanks in advance!

[JaysPlex]

Subtitles –> Tracks –> Add All Remaining Closed Captions

Sometimes it will select “burn in” so make sure you uncheck that box after you add the tracks

I’ve never used any Apple devices but I know, at least at one time they didn’t play well with MKV’s. I’m not sure if Plex can direct play them or not. Hopefully someone with an Apple TV or Ipad can help with some specific into on that

If you do chose mp4’s I suggest you untick this box under the summary page in Handbrake

If you have “prefer local metadata” selected in your advanced library settings, that metadata can cause some naming/matching problems

[southerndoc]

Interesting. I don’t have that option on macOS (add all remaining closed captions). I’ll have to look around again when I get home.

Alternatively, I could use Handbrake on my Dell Inspiron that has an Intel Xeon processor and 128GB of memory. It may outperform my Mac Studio.

[southerndoc]

I found it. Thank you. Testing it now.

Why does it default to burn-in for the subtitles? I’m just getting started importing DVDs into Plex. I have 19 movies in my library. When I went through all of them to add to my queue, I had to unselect the burn-in option on all.

[JaysPlex]

It may have to do with the subtitle format. Mp4’s don’t support image based subs like PGS so it automatically tries to burn them

I have had it burn them in even after unticking the box so check your output files before you discard the originals

Also under the subtitles window –> “sectional behavior” you might want to select “none”

[southerndoc]

Guess I’ll stick with MKV. I tried using EaseFab Lossless Copy to burn to MKV since it can compress with H.264. I was examining a movie I ripped with it and it would skip. It was weird – it would show the top half of the screen scrambled sometimes, sometimes skip forward, sometimes skip backward.

Guess I’m sticking with MakeMKV and then just queueing up to encode during the night with Handbrake. I’ve found that H.265 VideoToolbox on my Mac Studio does pretty well. I had to set the CQ to 75 to get it to look pretty decent. Still cuts the file sizes in half almost. Not worried about storage as much as I am about bandwidth if family members start accessing my library (their bandwidth; I have unlimited).