I have noticed that my Roku Premiere+ devices have recently updated themselves.
It seems now that whenever I start a new video file subtitles are always on and I have to turn them off manually. Everytime.
When I turn them off and then rewind the video it shows the subtitles again. It seems that when I turn the subs off it doesn’t remember to stay off and the Plex settings on the Roku automatically reverts back to Subtitles On on replay.
It didn’t do this before. And it is on both devices, I am running the latest version of the Plex Server ( 1.22.3.4392). I have not changed any settings on either the server or the Roku.
Is anybody else having this issue?
I have had to turn off the subtitles on the server which is a pain as I require them sometimes especially if the dialogue is low.
Subtitle functionality has been changed. If you have subtitles selected in Plex, then we will display them. This way you don’t have to jump through two hoops to enable subtitles (e.g. selecting a subtitle track, and making sure captions mode is on). It does sound like there is a bug though, as it should not re-enable them during playback when you seek if you disabled captions mode during playback. We will file that and investigate.
In the mean time, you have a few options:
Set the captions mode to instant replay. You can turn on when you need subtitles. [OR]
Select Off for the subtitles selection of that media. You will need to select the subtitle stream when you want to view them again. This can be changed in the OSD with the button on the far left (quick subtitle selection), or the plex settings before and during playback, as well as in the accessibility setting during playback using the * button.
update: confirmed I can reproduce captions being turned on while seeking, which should not be happening. We’ll make sure to get this fixed in a future update.
If the subtitles are selected as on in the server settings does that mean from now on I will have to turn them off in the Roku sidebar settings with every file I play? Surely (don’t call me Shirley) they should be an option not forced upon us. For instance I don’t need subtitles on all the time. Just sometimes. And pressing the star button on my remote and activating subtitles just for a little while so I can see what people are saying when the dialogue is low is fine I would of thought for most people. And what about families that let’s say only one person needs subtitles on their one streaming devices but not on others?
If this is the case then this in my opinion this is a mistake on Plex’s part. On the Roku choosing to have subtitles on or off worked fine previously even if they are switched on in the server settings. Also by turning off subtitles on the server to remove this problem would affect non hearing members of a household as the subtitles label on the select movie/show episode list would not be shown.
I’ve always enjoyed the instant replay feature for subtitles that roku provides but now it doesn’t work the way it always has. I have subtitles set to Always Enabled in Plex and captions are set to On Replay in Roku settings.
This configuration has always been the only way I could find to make the instant replay subtitles work (though it unfortunately meant that I always see subtitles whenever I’m on any other client).
With the latest update I now always see subtitles on roku despite no changes to my roku or plex settings. Is there any way that I can regain the ability to see subtitles ONLY on instant replay?
Showing captions has been an issue over the years due to having to deal with two different settings in the channel to enable them (e.g. selecting subtitles as well as making sure captions mode is on). We’ve made a change to unify our ecosystem, which does interfere with the way you have utilized the fact Roku has multiple methods to show subtitles. Below are the current methods going forward. (I would stick with (1) as you mention you normally don’t want subtitles, and turn them on when needed).
Change the account setting to manually selected or show with foreign audio. When you want to see them, you can quickly choose a subtitle from the OSD, or turn it off.
(new: on the left of the OSD is a subtitle selection menu - screenshot included at the end of this post).
These are a few options if you want to keep the account level setting to always select subtitles.
Leave the Account setting as-is (always selecting subtitles), and change the captions mode to Instant Replay. This will not show subtitles always, only briefly (~30 seconds) when you rewind. You can toggle On if you want them always on, and set back to Instant Replay when you don’t.
Leave the Account setting as-is (always selecting subtitles), and turn captions mode Off during playback when you don’t want them. They will however show subtitles when you start or restart a video (seeking is a bug and will be fixed).
Leave the Account setting as-is (always selecting subtitles), disable the subtitle for the media being shown by selecting Off in our subtitle selection menu. When you want to see them, you can select the subtitle again.
This is a good reason to have another user profile. The automatic subtitle selection is per account, not a server level option. If they had a separate user profile, then they can choose to always have subtitles selected. Alternatively, if you don’t want multiple user profiles, then it’s still fairly similar to toggling the captions mode On/Off. Instead of flipping the captions mode On/Off, you simply select a subtitle or not (off) in our subtitle selection option in the OSD.
While I can see this hasn’t been broken for you, it has been for many users due to flipping two separate options just to see subtitles. We’ve tried to simplify the option now, and stay more consistent between our various clients. As stated earlier, subtitles on the Roku required two pieces: make sure captions mode is On and make sure a subtitle is selected. The new method makes it so you don’t have to flip two options. Instead of changing the captions mode On/Off, you’d go into the subtitle selection and choose a subtitle or not.
This is the OSD and subtitle option I am referring to.
This should not be happening, nor can I reproduce this right now. Two questions:
Is the captions mode still set to instant replay? maybe that was changed somehow. Can you please press the asterisk during playback and verify the captions mode is set to Instant Replay.
Is it possible the subtitles are being burned in? The instant replay option will not work in that case, nor has it. Depending on the media, maybe the subtitle format is PGS or VobSub requiring a burn-in.
Subtitle format was the problem. I just had bad luck when testing and kept selecting movies that happened to have PGS subs.
Thanks for the response! Btw I think it would be awesome for plex to have instant replay subs as an alternative to always on/off. Like I said it’s one of my favorite things about the Roku.
I have changed my server settings to what you have suggested. It now shows subtitles as off on the media selection screen. I can now see what you mean regarding subtitle selection. It is mimicking an Amazon Prime/Netflix model style of OSD subtitle selection.
The only drawback with this is that when you press down on the remote you now have ** seven** presses on the remote to navigate and switch on subtitles as opposed to three to switch the subtitles on with the Roku by pressing the star button. Also the video stream needs to be reloaded where it didn’t before.
How is this better?
I can appreciate that Plex wants to standardise the screen layouts and media selection across all devices but in practice this doesn’t always work. Especially in the Roku example… By making it easier on one device and the end result is making it harder on another is not good practice. It looks like you are favouring one streaming device over another and Plex shouldn’t have influence over which devices we as users decide to use.
If this is how it is going to be from now on then so be it. I will see how long it takes before it becomes annoying!
I will say that these changes are not very welcome. I still say that Plex is trying to fix something that isn’t broke.
