I wonder if there will ever be a way for PLEX to be able NOT to force-transcode when it comes to subtitles. I rely on subtitles 100% of the time for just about everything I watch, except maybe rips of sporting events that I upload to my Library.
For both movies and TV shows, the advance in audio technology has had a double-edged-sword outcome. In an effort to wow viewers with great sound, audio engineering has fallen in love with itself to the overall detriment of the end user, IMO.
Today’s audio design pays so much attention to foley effects, musical score, explosions and other effects that the audio quality of the spoken word seems to be irrelevant. But for me, it should be the most important element. It is, after all, the basis of the narrative.
Because today’s audio is usually way overblown with sound effects, I have to turn the volume way down. But when I do that, the spoken words are often inaudible. That’s why I rely on subtitles.
But since PLEX seemingly has no alternative at this point other than force-transcoding, i.e., choking on, anything with subtitles, I think it’s an area that’s crying for a solution. Is there a way for PLEX to come up with a way to deliver subtitles without having to transcode? Meaning Direct-Play?
Generally I use external .SRT subtitles (always with “.EN.srt” filename endings) but also have ripped & converted many BluRays that use an image subtitle format. But in many of those cases I end up disabling those subtitles and using an external .SRT instead, since the image subs don’t display like I want (in terms of font size, color & position).
Plex can do nothing when you use embedded systems like Roku or FireTV devices. It is at the mercy of their original manufacturers, whether they seem supporting and testing a subtitle format which isn’t used on video streaming services is a worthwhile effort.
So far, these manufacturers have opted not to care about supporting these kinds of subtitles.
You will have to use a different client/device which does have native support for vobsub/PGS subtitles.
Apple TV
nVidia Shield
PC with “Plex for Windows” or “Plex HTPC” installed
I understand where you’re coming from.
Some tips which might be worthwhile for you to explore:
find a TV or AVR which has a “night mode” for audio. Which is usually just a fancy name for a dynamic compressor.
if you have a surround sound setup, dial up the individual volume of the Center channel
when ripping DVD and BluRay discs, produce a stereo mixdown of the audio stream, that has been volume-normalized to 89dB. ffmpeg can do this (use a graphical user interface for ffmpeg if you are not into typing commands and parameters into a command line. XMedia Recode is such a software.)
The FireTV should direct play PGS, VOBSUB, & SRT subtitles even if the audio or video is transcoding.
ASS subtitles force a video transcode due to limitations of ExoPlayer, the underlying video player used by Plex. If you set Burn Subtities to Image Formats Only in the Plex app, ASS will direct play, but all formatting is discarded. Plex treats them like SRT subtitles.
Thank you for the helpful tips, OttoKerner & FordGuy61. The audio tweaks, I will definitely try. And I never quite understood how the “Image Formats Only” option worked so never tried it. But now I will.
Really appreciate the feedback!
P.S. I have an original 1st Gen AppleTV box that’s been on the shelf for years. Don’t know if I can even get on the AppStore to d/l PLEX with it, but I’ll check. If I can get PLEX on it I’d like to see if my PLEX server (a Quad-core Intel i7 Sandy Bridge with a 2GB Radeon dGPU) handles things more smoothly than with ROKU or FireTV.
I have a Fire TV 4K device (bought in 2018) that’s still unboxed. Never opened it b/c right after I bought it, my TV screen got cracked during a move so I bought a Toshiba 50" 4K TV with integrated Fire TV. Six of one, half-dozen of the other.
I don’t have the latest ROKU stick (mine’s a 3800x), but I opt for it over Fire TV b/c it renders darker blacks. The picture just looks better. Which is weird to me since the Toshiba picture settings were carefully calibrated. However, after ROKU updated the software to version 10, the device has become glitchy for no apparent reason. If the update to v.11 doesn’t solve this, I may be forced to scuttle my ROKU & use Fire TV exclusively. Or maybe get a new Apple TV box.
As far as my server hardware, yeah, I know the CPU/Mobo/dGPU is old school & it’s time for a new setup. As soon as I can do it I will, since I rely on my PLEX library for probably 80% or more of my TV & movie viewing. I got a lot of mileage from that hardware so I won’t be heartbroken to say goodbye to it when the time comes.
