I discovered today that PMS does not respect the info in the MKV header. I have several files where I have disabled the subtitles through the header editor without remuxing the file to remove the track. Plex still shows all of the tracks as being available. I am not sure what the underlying reason would be for this, but I certainly think it should be addressed.
Are you sure it’s looking at the embedded subtitles? Plex can/will search online for subtitles.
Are you sure that the editor has actually disabled the track? Does any media player(VLC or such) respect the changes?
I don’t use external subs so it is definitely looking at the internal ones. I use MKVToolnix to edit the headers and MPC-HC respects the disabled subs and does not list them in the selection menu.
I am simply trying to avoid remuxing terabytes of data. It is a lot of wear and tear on drives and a time consuming process.
What I find confusing is I also edit the headers and do not have this issue. In fact, EVERY mkv file goes through a series of little batch files to remove all description for tracks, disable subtitles(except non-english dialogue), check video and audio tack is set, check for any other tracks. It really only takes 1 second to complete each file even on large 30GB-40GB files.
To be honest, you may need to tell Plex to re-analyze the file or a Plex Dance altogether… Plex may not ever know the file has changed because of how small the header edit is.
@NewPlaza said:
What I find confusing is I also edit the headers and do not have this issue. In fact, EVERY mkv file goes through a series of little batch files to remove all description for tracks, disable subtitles(except non-english dialogue), check video and audio tack is set, check for any other tracks. It really only takes 1 second to complete each file even on large 30GB-40GB files.To be honest, you may need to tell Plex to re-analyze the file or a Plex Dance altogether… Plex may not ever know the file has changed because of how small the header edit is.
Care to share the batch files and the method to implement?
Can you show a MediaInfo from the file in question? When I rip my media I only keep the non-English dialogue but when I set the tracks up after ripping it I set the subtitle track to default and forced. I’ve found just having default some players will ignore it.
@timstephens24 said:
Can you show a MediaInfo from the file in question? When I rip my media I only keep the non-English dialogue but when I set the tracks up after ripping it I set the subtitle track to default and forced. I’ve found just having default some players will ignore it.
Your absolutely correct. Default = maybe. All the tracks I set are always yes/no.
@NewPlaza said:
What I find confusing is I also edit the headers and do not have this issue. In fact, EVERY mkv file goes through a series of little batch files to remove all description for tracks, disable subtitles(except non-english dialogue), check video and audio tack is set, check for any other tracks. It really only takes 1 second to complete each file even on large 30GB-40GB files.To be honest, you may need to tell Plex to re-analyze the file or a Plex Dance altogether… Plex may not ever know the file has changed because of how small the header edit is.
Interesting. I know that Plex respects the forced subs flag without issue. Just not sure why disabling subs isn’t working for me. I have tried re-analyzing the files, but I still get the same result. You are doing exactly what I want to do, but Plex isn’t cooperating fully. Guess I need to dig deeper into the problem.
You may need to PlexDance the files. Do one or two and see if it fixes the problem.
Also check on what @timstephens24 stated.
Default = maybe
The default track flag and force track flag should always be set to yes or no. Do not use default for any of them.
I never use the default flag and always set it to ‘no’. I do use the force flag where needed, but always set to ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Let me look into PlexDance. Never heard of it before today.
Thanks guys for all of the help…
Edit: LOL. Now I understand what Plex Dance is. Gotcha. Let me try it.
Edit #2: The dance didn’t fix it. What do you see in MediaInfo on a disabled track?
I assume you know commandline or batch file processing.
IF EXIST "%ProgramFiles%\MKVToolNix\mkvpropedit.exe" SET MKVEdit=C:\PROGRA~1\MKVToolNix\mkvpropedit.exe
IF EXIST "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\MKVToolNix\mkvpropedit.exe" SET MKVEdit=C:\PROGRA~2\MKVToolNix\mkvpropedit.exe
IF EXIST mkvpropedit.exe SET MKVEdit=mkvpropedit.exe
%MKVEdit% %FullPathNameIncludeQuotes% -e track:v1 -d name -s flag-default=1 -s language=und -e track:a1 -d name -s flag-default=1 -s language=eng -e track:s1 -d name -s flag-default=0 -s language=eng -e info -s title=%NameOfEpisodeIncludeQuotes% --tags all:
Replace %FullPathNameIncludeQuotes% with the full pathname. Don’t forget to use quotes
Replace %NameOfEpisodeIncludeQuotes% with the title of the episode. Don’t forget to use quotes.
Now…Plex Dance the file.
Oh yeah, what will do is delete the name,set track YES, language to undetermined for video / delete the name,set track YES, language to English for audio / delete the name,set track NO, language to English for subtitle / and clear out all tags.
Most people might want to keep the tags just so the chapters(if any) can have snazzy names. Your choice in the end…
@Balthazar2k4 said:
I never use the default flag and always set it to ‘no’. I do use the force flag where needed, but always set to ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Let me look into PlexDance. Never heard of it before today.
Don’t set it no, set it to yes. It’s better not to try and confuse programs, so always set default to yes and force to yes.
FYI - header changes in a file will typically just require a re-analyze, no need to “Plex dance” the files in most cases like these.
Only set the ‘forced’ flag if the subtitle is indeed a ‘forced’ one, i.e. not a ‘complete’ dialog but only the parts spoken in a different language.
Otherwise make do with reordering the subtitle streams. Put the one you are considering the ‘default’ one into the first position.
The ‘default’ flag in a MKV file is not considered by Plex.
If there are several subtitle tracks in there with the same ‘language’, it simply picks the first one that fits your preferred language.
Ok, so what I have gathered is that there is no way to truly disable any subs without remuxing. By disable I mean not even show in the subtitles list in Plex. I don’t have any issues with forced subs so that isn’t an issue for me. Thanks everyone for the help. Guess I’ll just try my best to ignore the issue.
@Balthazar2k4 said:
Ok, so what I have gathered is that there is no way to truly disable any subs without remuxing. By disable I mean not even show in the subtitles list in Plex.
Well this might sound dumb/stupid/rude but of course Plex will list it. Plex wants to show all available options for any given file.
Heck, if I only paid more attention to your original question. My bad.
I’m not sure I would say “of course”. Fact is, if I turn on the disable flag for a particular subtitle in the MKV header, some players respect the flag. MPC-HC for instance does not list any subtitle in the selection box I have the disable flag set for. Plex does not observe that behavior. It would just be nice if PMS paid more attention to the header info.
You do have a point but I don’t see why anyone would want to keep embedded data if you will never use it.
Anyhow i +1 your post. We like options, right
The reason I end up with metadata that I don’t use is that it is often difficult to identify what is contained in the various subs via MakeMKV. So, I rip all of the English subs and try to identify what they contain. If they are forced, I mark them forced. Often the subs may be for a commentary track or an English descriptive track. What I don’t want to do is remux all of the files just to eliminate the tracks I will never use. Being able to disable them is a much better alternative as the subs take negligible space in the grand scheme. My father who streams from my server needs to use the subs as he is hearing impaired and I simply want to streamline/simplify his subtitle choices.
