Have a question on subtitles since I’m new to Plex. I’m using MakeMKV and have some movies such as Return of the Jedi or Unbroken that has “foreign language” parts (alien language in the case of Jedi). I know MakeMKV has the option to select the forced subtitles but have been reading that its hit or miss and I’m not sure if I have to select the parent subtitle track in order to get Plex to read the forced track that is underneath it.
So my question is, if I dont select any subtitle track when using MakeMKV, can I use the Language and Agent thing in Plex to automatically do the subtitles for anything like this? Have never used it or know how it works so just wanted to get some insight. Dont really want to get down into the weeds using the Handbrake thing since I want this to be as simple as possible and don’t want any loss of video/audio quality at all.
As far as I know, there are no download sources for ‘forced’ subtitles.
I can only recommend you to make yourself familiar with the “peculiarities” of makemkv to extract them from the disc.
Makemkv will extract the forced subtitles and write them into a separate subtitle stream in the produced MKV file.
Stupidly though, it doesn’t set the ‘forced’ flag on this subtitle stream.
So it is up to you to identify which subtitle stream contains the ‘forced’ subtitles and then to set the forced flag accordingly.
and very importantly: mediainfo
(pay attention during installation, it comes with a ‘piggybacked’ installer which asks to install additional crapware. Make sure to set/clear the right checkboxes!)
mkvtoolnix is for setting the ‘forced’ flag in general for all things manipulating or making MKV files
Subtitle Edit helps you extracting subtitles from mkv files. It will display them, and you can perform OCR on them to convert them to the more Plex-friendly SRT format.
mediainfo is a fundamental tool for anyone who wants to know what’s inside of video files
When you open an MKV file with Subtitle edit, it lets you choose which subtitle stream to look at.
In the worst case (if there are several subtitle streams in the file) you have to try all and then pick the one with the least number of lines.
(Since the number ‘forced’ subtitle lines is usually much lower that those of ‘full’ or even ‘hearing impaired’ or ‘commentary’ subs.)
Ok so I downloaded Subtitle Edit and added Return of the Jedi and found that the 2nd subtitle track has the forced subtitles. In MKVtoolnixGUI I opened up the Return of the Jedi MKV and selected the 2nd subtitle track and “forced track flag” was set to NO, so changed that to YES. After I do that, what do I need to do?..click “Start Multiplexing”?? Will this change anything as far as the video/audio quality? I want to make sure my MKV files remain exactly like the bluray.
Thanks
@jsc1205 said:
After I do that, what do I need to do?..click “Start Multiplexing”??
You can do it that way. This will create a new MKV file.
There is a faster way: If you switch to the ‘header editor’, you can set the forced flag directly in the original file. This is much faster.
Will this change anything as far as the video/audio quality? I want to make sure my MKV files remain exactly like the bluray.
Since you are only changing one single flag in the header of your file, the quality within won’t change in the slightest.
However, you need to keep in mind that only the “biggest” Plex clients can display these bitmap-based subtitles from DVD and BluRay: (PMP, OpenPHT and with some restrictions the nVidia Shield )
All other Plex clients need help from the Plex transcoder, which “burns” these subtitles into the video during playback. This is the same as a full transcoding and theoretically reduces the quality.
To avoid transcoding due to subtitles, you should perform the OCR with Subtitle Edit. The result will be a SRT file, which is compatible with many more Plex clients.
I’m using the Nvidia Shield TV Pro as my Plex client.
So now my question is, when I rip the bluray, I still select the parent english subtitle track and also the english forced one so they are both included in the file correct? Also, when using MKVtoolnixGUI do I uncheck the parent subtitle track and only leave the forced one?
So far when trying this I’m not seeing the forced subtitles show up when I just open the file (not using Plex) to see if it worked. Might have to get some step by step instructions if you have the time. Thanks again
@jsc1205 said:
I’m using the Nvidia Shield TV Pro as my Plex client.
No other clients?
Speaking from experience, I can tell you that sooner or later you will have other clients
Plex is a media server. Using it only with one client runs a bit contrary to the concept. You might as well run Kodi in this case.
So now my question is, when I rip the bluray, I still select the parent english subtitle track and also the english forced one so they are both included in the file correct?
You can try what happens if you only select the ‘forced’ one. I usually include all available subtitles, so I haven’t tested this.
Also, when using MKVtoolnixGUI do I uncheck the parent subtitle track and only leave the forced one?
Of course. Once the MKV file comes out of makemkv, there is strictly speaking no longer a parent/child relationship between the subtitle tracks. You can easily leave out those which you don’t need.
So far when trying this I’m not seeing the forced subtitles show up when I just open the file (not using Plex) to see if it worked.
You might have to configure your player software to automatically activate the forced subs.
Plex needs configuration as well.
Each user account can select individual preferences.
Yours will probably need to look like this:
Did the OCR in SubtitleEdit and created the SRT file for Return of the Jedi and its now working. Wish MakeMKV would make this easier instead of all this file manipulation to get things to work the way it should.
