Server Version#:4.30.2
Hello Everyone. Ive recently discovered that Plex Basically hates subtitles. Or the servers do for that matter. I’ve been told that PGS file are a no no. Servers buffer and freeze up all the time because of them.
I also hear the SRT and VOB, or CC files are fine. That the don’t play by the sane rules as PGS.
My question is wether this is all true, and wether any of these subtitle type being forced" is a good thing or a bad thing. Can someone reply why a full breakdown of the description and differences of these files and which play once and which don’t? I can’t get a straight answer from the random internet searches.
ie. PGS = Bad. PGS (forced) = Bad too?
SRT or SRT (Forced). Is there a difference? Will Plex play them without buffering.
Which of these file types should i select if I have the option, and want to keep some to the subtitles.
PS. Please don’t respond if all you’re going to say is something like “Turn off the subtitles. They’re all bad and worthless”. I’ve actually got a friend who is deaf, so I’d like to be able to keep subtitles available for as many of my movies as possible. I also like to have them from time to time if someone says something unintelligible and I want to find out what it was.
There are 2 types of subtitles. Text based (SRT, ASS, and a few others), so basically text files with special formatting. The other is graphic based (PGS and VOB), these come with discs, which are images.
Text based are usually easy for clients to read and display. It’s just writing text on the screen.
Graphic based one can be touch since you need 2 video layers to show them, 1 for the video, and 1 for the subtitle. Some clients can’t do this in which case PMS has to take both and combine them into 1 layer, this is called burning in. Sometimes the text ones can’t be displayed as text and must also be burned in with the video layer. Burning in subtitles can take a lot of cpu power.
If burning in subtitles is needed depends on the client and the situation. Clients like Plex for Android can playback any subtitle without needing to burn them in (there are exceptions), Plex Web can playback text subtitles but need graphic ones burned in, the older Plex for Smart TV apps can’t handle any subtitles and always has to have them burned in.
“Forced” is just a term used to describe subtitles that contain only words not in the normal language being spoken. Common examples are subtitles for aliens or a foreign speaker is an English movie. These can be in any format. A regular subtitles has words for everything spoken.
Ok got it. Thank your for spelling it out for me! Why are there so many variations out there? Why not just make it a simple. SRT, simple text, everything can read, and everyone’s happy?
Haha. Because people can’t agree on anything. Luckily there aren’t that many subtitle types compared to whats available for the video and audio streams.
Another good Mac tool is Subler: https://subler.org/. Originally developed to mux subs in/out of MP4 containers. You can use it to add/edit metadata and mux audio/video/subtitle tracks in/out of MP4 containers.
/Avatar (2009)
/Avatar (2009).mkv
/Avatar (2009).eng.srt <-- English subtitles
/Avatar (2009).eng.forced.srt <-- Just the English translation when Na'vi is spoken
