The show The Americans has Russian subtitles in almost every episode.
I’m trying to figure out a way to set Forced Subtitles for every episode in the series (or even a default for all shows would be fine.)
I’m using the LG TV player.
Is this possible? Searching for answers on this wasn’t yielding any results for me.
Not sure if or how to do this in Plex, but you can use Mkvtoolnix (via mkvtoolnix-gui) and set Forced to what ever subtilte the file(s) contains and save.
If you have “forced” subtitles already included internally, make sure (using MKVTools) they are marked as forced.
I don’t see any server-side setting to run forced subs. I thought there was… Well, the ONLY place I can find a setting for “Forced Subtitles” is in my account page, under the Audio & Subtitle Settings. While this area allows you to enable subtitles depending on the video language, the setting for “Forced Subtitles” is only when using a subtitle “search” tool (I think?)? Either way, I have it set to “Prefer forced subtitles”.
When I have no other subs selected on an english audio track, english “Forced” subs are automatically selected for me.
I think that brings me pretty close. Thanks. I didn’t think to look under the account settings.
I’m wondering now if i should have it automatically select it? It would be nice if i could have it act like when i’m watching netflix or amazon prime where it just plays forced subtitles automatically.
The “Learn More” link didn’t really cover that scenario.
Will that work?
Plex will auto-pick forced subtitles if things are configured correctly. However, Plex remembers subtitle settings. So, if you ever select a different subtitle track, Plex will remember the choice the next time you play the movie. It will not automatically go back to the forced subtitle track.
Regarding configuring things, there are two parts: a) marking subtitles and b) system settings.
If using embedded subtitles, tag the subtitle track as forced. Also, make sure the language is set correctly. Set it to the language of the subtitle, not what is spoken onscreen. Use MKVToolNix or similar tools to set the tags.
If using external/sidecar subtitles, add “forced” to the subtitle name: movie_name (year).lang.forced.srt (ex: Avatar (2009).eng.forced.srt). The movie name and subtitle name must match, so if you’ve extra info in the movie name (resolution, codec, etc), include it in the subtitle name as well.
Next, configure your Plex account appropriately. I speak English, so I want the English translation for subtitles. Here’s my account settings (check “auto select” to make additional options appear):
This is really great info. I made my settings like yours.
I see now what happens when you pick auto.
I haven’t done any special work with subtitles. Basically I will search for them if forced is not in the list.
Do i need to use the MKVToolNix for each of the 75 files in the series I’m grooming? Or is there a way to use it in batch? I’ll be downloading it shortly.
Where would I get the subtitles if I wanted to load them ahead of time? Would MKVToolNix do that for me?
Plex Documentation → Your Media → Using Subtitles
→ Fetching Internet Sourced & Using Your Own Subtitle Files
→ Adding Local Subtitles to Your Media
MKVToolNix is a muxing/metadata editing tool. It does not download subtitles, metadata, etc from online sources.
Forced subtitles will be on the movie DVD/Blu-ray disc. I rip discs with MakeMKV and make sure to select the subtitle tracks before ripping.
Movies from “other sources” may or may not include forced subtitles, depending on the source (Translation: There’s a lot of junk on the Internet).
There are online sources for subtitles. See the “Fetching” article linked above. Most of the online sources are user contributed and their quality varies widely. Also, timing may be off, as movies released in different regions have different introduction lengths (the list of studios, producers, etc at the beginning of the movie).
If the existing audio & subtitle tracks are not tagged correctly, you will need to use MKVToolNix to correct the tags. MKVToolNix has a CLI version. If you’re handy with scripting you could probably script things to process all your media instead of one at a time via the GUI.
Subtitle Edit is a good tool for working with subtitles. You can adjust spelling, timing, convert between formats, etc.
MediaInfo is another helpful tool for analyzing movies. It provides detailed information for each track in the file. For subtitles, it includes a count of the number of lines. Forced subtitles are usually easy to spot, as they have very few lines compared to the other subtitle tracks.
Something that I’ve noticed on a lot of my items before I fix them is that there is a subtitle track named Forced, but it doesn’t have the flag actually set. So it’ll look like Plex is messing that up, but in reality it’s not. (Although it might be a nice feature edition to treat a subtitle as Forced if that is its name).
Yeah, enable that setting, and it ought to work. Be aware that any video you have already started playing (or previously played) MIGHT NOT honor this setting, since it respects the last subtitle you selected for each video (none). But all future videos ought to be ok once you change the file and re-analyze them.
I’ve noticed that some release groups for anime title forced tracks as “Forced” but do not turn on the flag for it. If your content is from… other locations… then it’s up to them. I generally look at a file or two and see if they are at least consistent. Look for a sub track that is english, but doesn’t appear to have any text display during normal dialog. That is gonna be the forced track.
For movies, I generally browse subscene. if you look for “non-english” or “forced” you can find a subtitle that should work for you, but be wary of the version. Always attempt to synchronize the subtitle file and the video using VLC (you can drag and drop a subtitle file into an actively-playing video to integrate and enable it immediately). If you do not have to use the “Track Synchronization” tool in VLC to line them up, then the file is ok to integrate using MKVtools or to include externally as Fordguy explained.
A good library with proper tags and language labels on the audio/subtitle tracks will work like MAGIC! in Plex automatically. It may be a pain to back-work your entire catalog, but once done it will be worth it (Your opinion may vary 
)
Edit: I kinda like the idea of having Plex try to parse the subtitle tracks for “forced” and have Plex set the flag for us (in my server database, that is. I DO NOT WANT Plex to manipulate the file itself). To be honest, aside from anime, I don’t see forced tracks have a title that is literally “forced”, but it’s probably a good idea to implement.
As a tiny sidenote: If you got movies, Tv-show etc. with “embedded” subtitles and dont want Plex to transcode the media, you can easily rip and convert the subs with Subtitle edit / Subrip. (You can also use mkvtoolnix / mkvextract to rip out the subs, but unless they are in “text” format you have to convert them. Subtilte Edit is good for that.
If the files for all episodes are always built in the same way (number of streams and order of streams), you can indeed use a batch file: How to remove tag spam and set language in several MKV files at once
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