Plex ASS subtitle support

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Dear developers, dear ninjas…

I read the following in Exoplayer v2.5.0 release notes:

Captions: Initial support for SSA/ASS subtitles

Here is my problem:
ASS subtitles are not playing

Here is my setting:

  • Latest Beta of Plex PMS () on QNAP server
  • Amazon FireTVv2 as a player device (latest firmware, latest FireTV Plex app)

Here are the technical details of what is actually not working:

Most of my videos are HEVC in MKV containers with embedded subtitle tracks (sometimes ASS, sometimes PGS).

Here is the XML code of one valid example:

<Media videoResolution="1080" id="60313" duration="5992736" bitrate="2106" width="1920" height="800" aspectRatio="2.35" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="ac3" videoCodec="hevc"container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="main">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="63768" key="/library/parts/63768/1534608716/file.mkv" duration="5992736" file="/bla/blub.mkv" size="1577419317"container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="2" requiredBandwidths="3240,2446,2446,2446,2446,2446,2446,2446" videoProfile="main">
<Stream id="152703" streamType="1" default="1" codec="hevc" index="0" bitrate="1082" bitDepth="8" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv"colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="23.976" height="800" level="120" profile="main" refFrames="1" requiredBandwidths="2216,1528,1528,1528,1528,1528,1528,1528"title="notitle" width="1920" displayTitle="notitle (HEVC Main)"/>
<Stream id="152704" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="ac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="384" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)"requiredBandwidths="384,384,384,384,384,384,384,384" samplingRate="48000" title="notitle Dolby" displayTitle="notitle Dolby (Deutsch AC3 5.1(side))"/>
<Stream id="152705" streamType="2" codec="eac3" index="2" channels="6" bitrate="640" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)"requiredBandwidths="640,640,640,640,640,640,640,640" samplingRate="48000" title="notitle Dolby" displayTitle="notitle Dolby (English EAC3 5.1(side))"/>
<Stream id="152706" streamType="3" selected="1" default="1" forced="1" codec="ass" index="3" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1"title="Forced" displayTitle="Forced (Deutsch ASS)"/><
Stream id="152707" streamType="3" codec="ass" index="4" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Full" displayTitle="Full (Deutsch ASS)"/><
Stream id="152708" streamType="3" codec="ass" index="5" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" title="Full" displayTitle="Full (English ASS)"/><
/Part><
/Media>

Without displaying any subtitles, the movie flawlessly direct plays. If choosing one of the three embedded ASS subtitles, PMS transcodes and since this is HEVC and the PMS is running on a NAS, this is unviewable (long pauses, then playing a second, then waiting for the transcoder again, etc).

If I extract any of the embedded ASS subtitle tracks and put it next to the movie file (as sidecar ASS), choosing the sidecar ASS file results in the video playing but no subtitles being displayed on the screen…

If I convert the sidecar ASS to SRT file (using ASS2SRT), the sidecar SRT subtitle plays flawlessly via FireTV Plex…

Since the latest Android / FireTV version should support ASS according to the Exoplayer v2 release notes… can somebody help me to pin down the problem? Is it a false report of the FireTV player? Is there no MKV container support of ASS? Is the ASS routine of Exoplayer buggy?

I really hope to have some Mr(s). Nice helping me… I could provide logs from the player as well as from the PMS or sample video files (as long as I do not have to “publish” this somewhere).

A plea for help…

Any automated way of exporting such embedded ASS tracks to SRT would be a good alternative, but would definitely be more than I could hope to produce :frowning:

2 Likes
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gm, yes i’ve noticed this difficulty too. The ASS (heh!) are smaller/dinky looking subs compared to embedded SRT. I use mkvmerge on linux for embedding SRT, its quick at about 30secs a movie or less. Lemme know, good luck.

-wbm

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Weil, it is not a matter of embedding an SRT, thank you.

An automated task should …
… scan through directory trees, find mkv files, check for subtitle tracks, and only extract those embedded ASS tracks, then convert any of these extracted ASS files to SRT and properly rename the SRT file(s) alongside the MKV. The tracks do not need to be ripped from the MKV (so it stays untouched). For me, it is not necessary to embed any created track.
Since I would run it as scheduled task, it is only appropriate to extract ASS tra is that have no SRT files with them.

Any volunteer? :wink:

But I would be more happy to have those ASS embedded tracks play in an MKV container on FireTV flawlessly.

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Plex Media Server can already transcode ASS to SRT. In your client, check your subtitle settings and make sure it is set to “image only”. Since ASS can contain fancy formatting info, leaving that setting to “auto” will result in PMS burning in the subtitles to keep that formatting.

Also, Plex’s implementation of exoplayer is not a direct copy of what Google releases, so not all features mentioned in Google’s release notes apply to Plex.

5 Likes
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Thank you for pointing this out and it works - as a work-around to the actual problem.

II easily found MKVs with other subtitles (VOBSUB or PGS, for example). These subtitles can be direct played on the Fire TV with the app subtitle setting set to “auto”. If I switch the setting to images only, the Fire TV starts to transcode these HEVC movies (and thus makes them unplayable - same reason as before with ASS).

Erm… how do I explain this to my wife?
“Please go to the Fire TV movie preplay screen and switch on the forced subtitle, try to play that video… if it hangs, abort this and go to the app setting screen (no not for the FireTV, but the app setting ON the FireTV), scroll down to find that subtitle setting and switch either “auto” or “images only”, whatever is not set ATM. But never set it to “always”. Oh, yes, find the movie again, make sure, the subtitle is still selected and play it again, be happy…No, I don’'t know the reason why they did it this way… Yes, I know the technical reason, but do you want to learn about ASS, PGS and VOBSUB, about SRT and SSA? Yes, I know you do not care, but do you want to see these or not? Okay… I will write them… they are nice guys. Perhaps they do something about it. The app probably knows that it runs on a FireTV and which types of subtitle can usually be direct play… I will ask them, but it could take a while… erm… no, not tonight… but I will ask. Yes, I know that this is too much computer-nerdy for your taste. Oh yes, I know this Plex stuff is supposed to make that digital home theatre thing family-friendly… that is the main idea behind it… what do you mean the kids? Ah, come on, the kids know that app setting thing better than I do… I will explain it to them. Not sure about the small one though… but her brother can help her… yes, my sweet princess… I will write them and ask… for sure.
No, I don’t find it complicated… these things are kind of complex… Now, let’s watch a movie - one without subtitles…”

I really hope that the subtitle “auto” setting of the Plex app on FireTV gets smarter soon or that such a setting can be set for each type of subtitle individually…

Thank you for listening…

4 Likes
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Yeah, the subtitle settings were created before the Android app could direct play VOBSUB and PGS, so there is a disconnect now when it comes to ASS. I would recommend not using ASS subs for now. Hopefully the team can address this in the near future.

2 Likes
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@anon18523487 Thank you very much. I really hope that the team sees my difficulties to make my wife happy as top priority as I do. :slight_smile:
Since ASS is one of the standards, I will not starting to hunt them down and convert them… but wait for your team’s solution.

Thank you very much again.

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I would really want to see this feature as well.
Thank you. :slight_smile:

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This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

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Thank you for re-opening that thread - since the problem has not been taken care of:

I had the same problem just the other with a movie… had to stop it in the middle of the movie (after I noticed that it had subtitles needed, switched the on only to learn that transcoding of HEVC started (making the movie unviewable). So, I stopped the movie, configured the settings, switched it on again… Later, I switched devices (we changed the room… voila, same movie unviewable again, had to change configuration on that device also).
Next day… SRT subtitles on different movie not viewable… Arghhhh… changed settings again.

Darn… can’t somebody once and for ever fix that bug in the “automatic” subtitle setting. This cannot be that hard.

1 Like
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Update to this thread… I just started a feature suggestion to help you to let it happen.

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Nothing has been said or done on this issue.
Any news here?

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You have had extensive dialogue and response on your linked topic Feature wanted: update to subtitle management on Fire TV

Suggest leaving it to that.

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I facing the same issue!
Any updates on this matter?
This is the main problem that makes me not subscribe to Plex Premium!