As far as I can tell any subtitle format (even the native blu-ray one) causes transcoding to occur on my LG B8 and B9. I don’t understand why this is necessary given that my TV clearly supports a lot of subtitle format’s. Heck some can even be verified using Plex as the same format when combined with a regular non HDR video will playback directly without any transcoding regarding which subtitles are chosen.
PS: This is not to be confused with unsupported subtitle formats. For them it’s fairly straightforward and understandable why they require transcoding.
I recommend everyone to use MP4 containers for rips/downloads, with native MPEG-4 subtitles (mov_txt, txt3g, however apps call them) muxed in, and avoid exotic (external or embedded) sub formats. Not because they’re terrible formats (ssa, vobsub, srt, pgs, teletext, all have their uses), but pretty much every media device made the past ten years does MP4 containers and subs out-of-the-box, they work even with DLNA streaming (always an issue with external subs), and when you copy the video file, the subs automatically more along with it.
Also FireStick 4K. I wish there was a big table with various devices and supported formats in Plex (kinda like those tables you see on Wikipedia articles).
SRT is not “exotic” in any sense of the word. It’s just the subtitle lines and their timecodes. And the LG client supports MKV and SRT subs fine.
The OP’s problem likely is they are trying to play back an audio format the Plex client on the LG can’t handle, while using subtitles at the same time.
SRT is used a lot and there’s nothing wrong with the format in principle, but it’s not part of a standard like MPEG-4 so less devices don’t support it (all Apple products need 3rd party software to play it, for example) and for streaming over DLNA sidecar files also aren’t ideal.
LMAO @ using Apple as an example in an argument about who we should consider a supporter of industry standards. This would be the same Apple that makes you rename all your mp4 files to m4v to get iTunes/iPods to accept them? That felt the need to reinvent the wheel on lossless audio (instead of just supporting FLAC)? Refuses to use USB-C on iPhones and insists on their Lightning connector? I seem to recall they did not use CABAC in their h264 encoding scheme back when they started selling video, too. How that for following standards?
Eh, you don’t need to rename anything? MP4 works fine.
Anyway, this is not a discussion on Apple vs Microsoft vs Android or anything, just a note on what works best in practice. Nearly all devices work with MP4 and its native subtitles format, and even though there are other formats, support is not as wide spread.
Yes, a world where everyone uses VLC as a player might be easier but that’s not the reality right now. Given that you can’t change that, better to have your media in the best supported format.
I mean even Plex is an example: it supports MP4 metadata, not MKV, AVI or WMV.
And the LG client supports MKV and SRT subs fine.