I have a DVD movie “Train To Busan” that has been ripped to MKV format with the English subtitles. The subtitles do not display when streaming to my nVidia Shield TV nor to my Sony TVs. However, the subtitles display fine when streaming to my Windows PC. I haven’t checked other movies, but I rarely enable subtitles. Is this a global problem with PLEX on android TV devices, or just a fluke with this one movie? Or is it just a problem with VOBSUB subtitle tracks on DVD sources. Thanks!
VOSUBS should work fine and should be able to play without transcoding into video. Have folks that use them all the time on Android.
Is there just the one sub track? What are your burn subs options set to in app settings?
I have since tried another DVD with VOBSUB subtitles and they displayed fine on my Android devices. So I guess it’s a problem with this one disc. I still think it’s weird that they display fine using the Windows PLEX app.
There is only one English subtitle track to rip. I have the burn substitles option in the Android TV PLEX app set to “automatic”.
So I just changed the burn subtitles option to “always”. Now I can see the subtitles on the Android devices. Is there some explanation why “automatic” might only work sometimes with some movies? Also, with “always” selected, does that mean I’ll see subtitles on every film, even if they’re not selected in the playback settings?
No.
It means when subtitles are selected, Plex Media Server will transcode the video to burn the subtitles into the video stream.
Then I guess there is no real downside to leaving the burn subtitles setting to “always”? Do I understand correctly that normally the subtitles should be viewable as an overlay, without adding them to the video stream? It’s weird that doesn’t work for Train To Busan.
Had you upgraded to the latest Plex Media Server prior to adding that mkv? If so, are subtitles still showing ok for films you added prior to updating PMS?
I ask because it sounds like you might be experiencing a potential bug I posted about here, where I’ve found that subtitles won’t display on AndroidTV for any new mkvs I’ve brought into Plex since updating PMS the other day. The subtitles for these films show ok for me on AppleTV and web player, just not AndroidTV.
Our problems seem similar, but perhaps not identical. I have a PLEX server installed on a Netgear ReadyNAS. It seems like there is a new server update every two weeks. I always update immediately. I also use MakeMKV to rip my discs. I don’t compress them using Handbrake. I’m sure that I was running the latest server when I couldn’t see the subtitles on Train To Busan. However, I ripped Train To Busan over a year ago. It wasn’t added since the latest server updates. I deleted the movie and ripped it again. The newest rip still did not show subtitles. I checked a few other old movies and the subtitles displayed fine. Train To Busan will only show the subtitles if I force the server to “burn” them.
It depends. Plex is transcoding the video, which does reduce the quality. For DVDs (480p), you probably won’t notice a difference. However, you might with 1080p. You’ll definitely notice it with HDR material, since Plex transcodes HDR to SDR.
I’ve a couple of ripped DVDs that have the same problem. I set the Shield to burn subtitles when watching them. I leave it on Auto otherwise, since there’s no problem with PGS or SRT subtitles.
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