Subtitles Don't Play with Optimized Versions

General Discussions
1

I’ve seen this issue brought up several times on the forums, but no one has posted a solution.

When I have files that don’t have subtitles burned in (they’re either embedded into the media file or they are sidecars) that are Optimized (optimized versions), the optimized files do not play the subtitles. This is especially troubling for the many files that use forced subs which are necessary for understanding the content.

Other users have posted about this issue. Vaughtmt posted about this earlier but no one has posted any working solution. Below is his post that summarized my problem quite well:

Short version:
Subtitles created by the media optimizer are not recognized by plex. My investigation has concluded that this is caused by a number being included in the name of the .srt file.
How do I fix my media optimizer so that it does not include a number in the subtitle file? Or alternatively how do I make plex recognize a subtitle file with the name:
title.35655.eng.force.srt

Long version:
I have several .mkv video files on my server with embedded subtitles. My server creates optimized versions of these files as .mp4 files with an associated .srt file.
When streaming the optimized version, no subtitle options are shown. When streaming the original, I see the subtitle options.
In addition, I have already followed the steps outlined in the following link to ensure that my Local Media Assests are given priority (and then subsequently refreshed my library).
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200471133-Adding-Local-Subtitles-to-Your-Media
After some digging, I discovered something interesting:
Lets say I have some media file foo.mp4 in my optimized media folder. Associated with that I would have a .srt file. What I see in my folder is:
foo.mp4
foo.35655.eng.forced.srt
I have no idea where the 35655 number is coming from. In addition if I make a copy and rename it, dropping the number:
foo.mp4
foo.35655.eng.forced.srt
foo.eng.forced.srt
I can get the subtitle file to show up.

So the question is, why is the media optimizer adding this number to it, how do I fix it without manually renaming every .srt file?

Can someone please help me with this? If the Plex team is going to determine that nothing is wrong and this isn’t going to be looked in to (which appears to be their stance based on this issue not being addressed in multiple threads) I need to know this so i can change my method of getting content on my server.

Thanks in advance for any help/info!

2

Bump. I haven’t been on this forum in years and it’s amazing how many active users there are now. It seems like it’s becoming easy for things to get overlooked with so much activity and not many Plex employees.

I’m shocked this hasn’t gotten more attention as this is a major flaw in the Media Optimizer. Please anyone have suggestions? Again, if Plex employees have already looked at this and determined nothing is going to change, that’s fine… However I need to know so I can figure out a new process for getting my media stored.

Thanks in advance!

3

I don’t use Optimize as I “optimize” my files outside of Plex before adding them but I’d ask what happens if you look at the optimized file with MediaInfo?

Do you see the subtitle embedded in the file? I’m going to guess and say you don’t! :slight_smile:

Now I could be wrong but I don’t believe optimize takes care of subtitles correctly. It’s saving space and gets rid of it (on purpose or by accident). Again, I don’t use this feature so I could be way off base but when I played with it (to find it didn’t meet my needs) I recall this.

4

Thanks for the reply Cayars!

The way the Plex team presents Optimized Versions, the subtitles should absolutely work. The system searches the original file for embedded or sidecar subs and is supposed to place copies of these subs as sidecar files in the folder with the optimized versions. It does do this, however the way the system names the optimized versions (and/or the sub files) causes the subs to not display at all.

I’m a huge fan of optimized versions. I have a great server with a capable CPU that is mainly used for Plex. Before this feature, I didn’t feel like I was getting my monies worth. Now my server CPU is running at 99% 24/7 creating 1080p and 720p versions of my media (and these are great looking video files IMO). There aren’t many servers that can handle on-the-fly transcoding of multiple streams (mine included), so this seemed like a great solution. I really like the idea of getting 1 top-notch quality file on my server and the server handles everything else. That way I can just remux my blu rays, add them to plex and the hands-on work is done.

My only issue is that the subs are “lost in translation” so to speak.

5

No one with Plex can provide any quick solution to this? Or any indication that this is a known issue that’s being worked on?

Any reply is greatly appreciated.