My apologies for not troubleshooting more before posting. The subtitles not being displayed (not working) are VOBSUB in a MKV file. The SRT and PSG subtitles are working in other video files. The video in question has both VOBSUB and SRT subtitles. The SRT subtitle is working in the video in question.
The issue seems to be related to the few videos I just added in the last few days that have the subtitle as VOBSUB.
If I play the video in question in VLC, the subtitles are displayed. I updated both the Plex server and the DSM around the same time. It was a few days after that when I noticed the subtitles no longer being displayed.
I tried watching the video in both Firefox (Version 115.5.0esr 64 bit) and Chrome (Version 109.0.5414.120 64-bit) browser. The Plex Web App version is 4.116.1. I didn’t find any other player version.
After further investigation, I am now thinking the issue is the video file. The video file in question has both VOBSUB and SRT subtitles and I am now thinking that VLC is using the SRT subtitle when playing.
Thanks for the information on DSM not rolling back.
Should I see the VOBSUB subtitles in the same place I see the SRT subtitles ?
I bring up the video in Celluloid (like VLC but better on Linux)
The SRT subtitles play as expected (they are the first subtitle track)
Switching to VOBSUB subtitle track (subtitle #2) does not display any subtitle text
Can you confirm both should have text at exactly the same place?
Here is the mediainfo for the subtitles
Audio #3
ID : 4
ID in the original source medium : 189 (0xBD)131 (0x83)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 133 MiB (4%)
Title : Stereo
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Text #1
ID : 5
ID in the original source medium : 224 (0xE0)
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Duration : 1 h 34 min
Bit rate : 148 b/s
Count of elements : 1891
Stream size : 103 KiB (0%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Text #2
ID : 6
ID in the original source medium : 189 (0xBD)32 (0x20)
Format : VobSub
Codec ID : S_VOBSUB
Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on DVDs
Duration : 1 h 31 min
Bit rate : 271 b/s
Count of elements : 187
Stream size : 181 KiB (0%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 01
00:03:43.923 : en:Chapter 02
00:08:57.236 : en:Chapter 03
00:14:40.379 : en:Chapter 04
00:21:42.501 : en:Chapter 05
Now that I am learning more about subtitle formats, I am only displaying the SRT subtitle via VLC although the mediainfo shows both. I went back to the DVD and played the video in VLC and can only display one subtitle track called Closed Caption 1.
Displays at the top. This is at 7 min 52 seconds in the video. I am thinking that this is the SRT subtitle but how do I know for sure?
I am now looking for other ways (programs to use) to verify the video file has both subtitles. I thought there was a program I could use to export the VOBSUB subtitle into a separate file. I am trying to find that program.
The command line tool mediainfo (Linux) will show you the layout of what’s in the file
[chuck@lizum testfiles.1990]$ mediainfo Elf\ \(2003\).mkv
General
Unique ID : 285225814940670399333758878319112997127 (0xD6947E69106040FD0AEC5FE6F4EDC907)
Complete name : Elf (2003).mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 3.19 GiB
Duration : 1 h 36 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 4 722 kb/s
Movie name : Elf
Encoded date : UTC 2023-12-10 17:51:36
Writing application : MakeMKV v1.17.5 win(x64-release)
Writing library : libmakemkv v1.17.5 (1.3.10/1.5.2) win(x64-release)
Video
ID : 1
ID in the original source medium : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=12
Codec ID : V_MPEG2
Codec ID/Info : MPEG 1 or 2 Video
Duration : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 3 883 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 9 802 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 (23976/1000) FPS
Original frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.469
Stream size : 2.62 GiB (82%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Audio #1
ID : 2
ID in the original source medium : 189 (0xBD)128 (0x80)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 310 MiB (9%)
Title : Surround 5.1
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Audio #2
ID : 3
ID in the original source medium : 189 (0xBD)130 (0x82)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 133 MiB (4%)
Title : Stereo
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Audio #3
ID : 4
ID in the original source medium : 189 (0xBD)131 (0x83)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 36 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 133 MiB (4%)
Title : Stereo
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Text #1
ID : 5
ID in the original source medium : 224 (0xE0)
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Duration : 1 h 34 min
Bit rate : 148 b/s
Count of elements : 1891
Stream size : 103 KiB (0%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Text #2
ID : 6
ID in the original source medium : 189 (0xBD)32 (0x20)
Format : VobSub
Codec ID : S_VOBSUB
Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on DVDs
Duration : 1 h 31 min
Bit rate : 271 b/s
Count of elements : 187
Stream size : 181 KiB (0%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No
Original source medium : DVD-Video
Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 01
00:03:43.923 : en:Chapter 02
00:08:57.236 : en:Chapter 03
00:14:40.379 : en:Chapter 04
00:21:42.501 : en:Chapter 05
00:25:19.885 : en:Chapter 06
00:33:29.540 : en:Chapter 07
00:38:16.994 : en:Chapter 08
00:42:46.597 : en:Chapter 09
00:51:20.610 : en:Chapter 10
00:57:57.841 : en:Chapter 11
01:05:07.103 : en:Chapter 12
01:07:13.896 : en:Chapter 13
01:11:59.348 : en:Chapter 14
01:17:46.361 : en:Chapter 15
01:25:29.824 : en:Chapter 16
01:31:09.163 : en:Chapter 17
[chuck@lizum testfiles.1991]$
If I were to use a graphical tool to look at the contents, I’d use MKVToolnix-GUI
Thanks for your help and all the great information/tools like MKVToolnix-GUI and command line mediainfo that you provided.
Based on what you have shown me and what I see, this video file has issues with the VOBSUB subtitles.
Going forward I now know to check if there are other subtitles to choose from and pick SRT.
Anybody else reading this thread, the subject title is not correct. Subtitles are working with DSM 7.2.1-69057 Update 3. The issue is with the video file.
Thanks again ChuckPa. I’ll mark this post as solved.
