Plex uses ISO-639-1 codes (2-letter) and ISO-639-2/B codes (3-letter) to identify the languages of subtitles (e.g.: "Avatar (2009).eng.srt" will be recognized as English). However, neither ISO-639-1 nor ISO-639-2/B distinguishes simplified Chinese (used in mainland) and traditional Chinese (used in Hong Kong/Taiwan), which results in:
1) If I have both versions of Chinese subtitles as separated external files, there is no perfect way to name the subtitle files.
2) If both versions are embedded in the media files, Plex will list both as "Chinese/中文". There is no way I can tell which is which unless loading both to check out.
Suggestions:
For external subtitle files, use "chs" as the identifier for simplified Chinese and "cht" as the identifier for transitional Chinese. This is also the most common way Chinese netizens use to name their subtitle files. Plex also needs to show them as what they are clearly. Use "Simplified Chinese/简体中文" and "Traditional Chinese/繁體中文" respectively.
Plex uses ISO-639-1 codes (2-letter) and ISO-639-2/B codes (3-letter) to identify the languages of subtitles (e.g.: "Avatar (2009).eng.srt" will be recognized as English). However, neither ISO-639-1 nor ISO-639-2/B distinguishes simplified Chinese (used in mainland) and traditional Chinese (used in Hong Kong/Taiwan), which results in:
1) If I have both versions of Chinese subtitles as separated external files, there is no perfect way to name the subtitle files.
2) If both versions are embedded in the media files, Plex will list both as "Chinese/中文". There is no way I can tell which is which unless loading both to check out.
Suggestions:
For external subtitle files, use "chs" as the identifier for simplified Chinese and "cht" as the identifier for transitional Chinese. This is also the most common way Chinese netizens use to name their subtitle files. Plex also needs to show them as what they are clearly. Use "Simplified Chinese/简体中文" and "Traditional Chinese/繁體中文" respectively.
I often try to include Chinese Traditional subtitles for my daughter-in-law whenever I can find them. As you have mentioned, it's easy to figure which subtitle to include, even though I only speak and read English because they are usually labelled cht or chs. I have also added some Chinese movies to the Plex Library that she gave to me (she says that Plex is just more convenient because it works on everything) that include both subtitles and it's always a guessing game which one she needs to choose.
Even if the "cht" and "chs" don't meet the standards, I'm sure that there are more than a few users that would appreciate a way to identify them rather than trial and error
I noticed that in the settings, there is “Prefer subtitles in” server -> languages section, and we can choose 臺語 (which I assumed to be Traditional Chinese, as it is what’s happening in the interface setting at Plex Web -> Settings -> Web -> General) However, I have no clue on what’s the naming rule for 臺語 to be shown in the subtitle options.
@Jim Lai said:
I noticed that in the settings, there is “Prefer subtitles in” server → languages section, and we can choose 臺語 (which I assumed to be Traditional Chinese, as it is what’s happening in the interface setting at Plex Web → Settings → Web → General) However, I have no clue on what’s the naming rule for 臺語 to be shown in the subtitle options.
This must be a new thing. Never noticed that before. Although calling Traditional Chinese as 臺語 is inaccurate.
@gabyu said:
I believe such change should use standards, and cht and chs is not standard.
ISO 15924 makes the distinction between the two Chinese languages:
501: Hans
502: Hant
That standard identifies scripts, not languages. IE, it can distinguish between Latin, Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional scripts, but can not be used to discriminate between French, German and English.
At the moment, ‘chs’ and ‘cht’ and the de-facto naming conventions for the Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional subtitle files.
I am from the language industry and we got some conventions referring to the Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. CHS and CHT are one of the common ways. But quite often we also use the “ZH” to refer to Chinese language in general, with different “suffix” specifying the locales, for example: ZHSI or ZHCN for the Simplified in Mainland China. ZHHK and ZHTW for Traditional used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. We even have ZHSG for the Simplified used in Singapore.
@florawang said:
I am from the language industry and we got some conventions referring to the Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. CHS and CHT are one of the common ways. But quite often we also use the “ZH” to refer to Chinese language in general, with different “suffix” specifying the locales, for example: ZHSI or ZHCN for the Simplified in Mainland China. ZHHK and ZHTW for Traditional used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. We even have ZHSG for the Simplified used in Singapore.
Just for reference.
Does Plex employ this convention?
i.e. can we use such naming rule for our libraries in Plex?
Is there any plan to add this?
The confusing nature of Chinese subtitle in Plex seems to need a complete overhaul. Is there any way I can help to get this issue sorted?
For start, the OpenSubtitle agent doesn’t differentiate between simplified and traditional Chinese, and as a result, finding the correct subtitle is a hit and miss (more miss though.)
Using Sub-Zero plugin doesn’t seem to resolve the issue either.
Most of the time, the Chinese subtitle pulled form OpenSubtitles, by either OpenSubtitle agent or Sub-Zero plugin, has an encoding that can’t even be read by TextEdit on Mac.
I was hoping by now this process should be fully automatic and working correctly most of the time, but unfortunately not much has progressed since 3 years ago in this area.
Like said earlier, I’d like to help to sort this out but unsure where to begin.
