Can I start by saying what a fantastic product Plex is, it has made my life so much easier streaming my video content to the TV's.
The next thing I would like to say is this is my first post / feature request so apologies if this is not the right place to post or I have done it wrong.
So now to the feature request.......
I have quite a few films which require subtitles for the foreign language parts in the films. At the moment I create a local srt file containing the subtitles in the same directory as the video file. All the plex clients that I use seem to pick this up fine and allow me to select it when playing the video. The problem I have is that I have no way of showing that the file is only for foreign parts. I can end the filename with the language code e.g. en which is fine but it doesn't tell me that it is foreign parts only. Would it be possible to add another extension to the naming so that it shows up in plex clients as foreign parts only e.g. en-forced for English subtitles for foreign language parts. It would then be even better if the plex clients could then automatically select this file to play with the video if found so that I don't have to remember which videos require subtitles.
If this can already be done then please can someone point me in the right direction.
You'll find the appropriate setting for this in PMS / Settings / Languages / Subtitle Mode -shown for foreign audio.
This only works when the subtitle file correctly indicates when subs are needed in relation to the audio. Otherwise, no player has the ability to automagically interpret language on its own - there must be an indication from the video/subs.
You'll find the appropriate setting for this in PMS / Settings / Languages / Subtitle Mode -shown for foreign audio.
This only works when the subtitle file correctly indicates when subs are needed in relation to the audio. Otherwise, no player has the ability to automagically interpret language on its own - there must be an indication from the video/subs.
I just started a thread in the ask a ninja forum about this very thing. If I burn a mkv from a Bluray and then encode it using Handbrake to compress the file, how do I configure handbrake so that it only shows subs during the foreign speaking parts?
Can't you name the subtitle steam in the MKV? I know MKV's have the option, but I don't know if Plex uses the title of the stream for identification...
You'll find the appropriate setting for this in PMS / Settings / Languages / Subtitle Mode -shown for foreign audio.
This only works when the subtitle file correctly indicates when subs are needed in relation to the audio. Otherwise, no player has the ability to automagically interpret language on its own - there must be an indication from the video/subs.
Hi David,
Thanks for the info, does this just work for downloaded subtitles or does it work for local .srt files as well. If it does, do you know how I put this information in the local .srt file?
Can't you name the subtitle steam in the MKV? I know MKV's have the option, but I don't know if Plex uses the title of the stream for identification...
Jaap
Hi Jaap,
Unfortunately the subtitle files I have are in a separate file and most of my videos are in a .mp4 container not .mkv
Can I start by saying what a fantastic product Plex is, it has made my life so much easier streaming my video content to the TV's.
The next thing I would like to say is this is my first post / feature request so apologies if this is not the right place to post or I have done it wrong.
So now to the feature request.......
I have quite a few films which require subtitles for the foreign language parts in the films. At the moment I create a local srt file containing the subtitles in the same directory as the video file. All the plex clients that I use seem to pick this up fine and allow me to select it when playing the video. The problem I have is that I have no way of showing that the file is only for foreign parts. I can end the filename with the language code e.g. en which is fine but it doesn't tell me that it is foreign parts only. Would it be possible to add another extension to the naming so that it shows up in plex clients as foreign parts only e.g. en-forced for English subtitles for foreign language parts. It would then be even better if the plex clients could then automatically select this file to play with the video if found so that I don't have to remember which videos require subtitles.
If this can already be done then please can someone point me in the right direction.
Thanks again for a great program.
What your looking for are sub files that say non-english only.
The setting in Plex use the entire subtitle when there is no english language channel in the source. Then it loads us the english subs.
But to get Subs just on the Non English parts of movies that for the most part are in english you need to find the right SRT file that only has entries for the non english parts.
What your looking for are sub files that say non-english only.
The setting in Plex use the entire subtitle when there is no english language channel in the source. Then it loads us the english subs.
But to get Subs just on the Non English parts of movies that for the most part are in english you need to find the right SRT file that only has entries for the non english parts.
Thanks for the reply AsphyxNYC. The .srt files that I have only contain the foreign parts i.e. I have deleted the rest of the entries, ripped only the forced subtitle track (if this is how it was stored), or have obtained non-English only files. The problem is that I need to remember that a film has non-English parts in it and therefore to select the subtitle file at the start rather half way through the film and then rewind the bit I missed before the file was attached. At the moment if plex sees a subtitle file in the same directory as the video, it gives you the option to select it e.g. if the directory contained two files:
movie.mp4
movie.srt
then it would give you the options of untitled (srt) or English in the subs section. English being the file it has downloaded and "untitled (srt)" the local file. If the srt file has say .en appended to it before the extension then it comes up as English (srt) rather than untitled. As Plex already can decode the Language from the file name i.e. .en = English, then it would be useful if it could say recognise .en.forced as say "English Foreign Parts". If this was the case then you could have say three files in the directory:
movie.mp4 --> the movie
movie.en.srt --> full English subtitles
movie.en.forced.srt --> English for foreign language parts.
From this position I assume it would then be fairly straight forward to have the following option in plex:
always display subtitles --> always display full subtitles i.e. .en.srt file for example
always display forced only --> always display movie.en.forced.srt file if exists in directory or display no subtitles
manual --> user chooses to display subtitles or not.
This way you are not relying on the online sub database that plex uses, (or embedded subtitle file if using mkv with forced subs option) being encoded properly so plex knowes when forced subs are used providing you have a local file that only contains the foreign language parts, (fairly easy to get from places like subscene). This method would then work for other languages as well so you could have say .fr.forced.srt for French forced subtitles.
Can't you name the subtitle steam in the MKV? I know MKV's have the option, but I don't know if Plex uses the title of the stream for identification...
Thanks for the reply AsphyxNYC. The .srt files that I have only contain the foreign parts i.e. I have deleted the rest of the entries, ripped only the forced subtitle track (if this is how it was stored), or have obtained non-English only files. The problem is that I need to remember that a film has non-English parts in it and therefore to select the subtitle file at the start rather half way through the film and then rewind the bit I missed before the file was attached. At the moment if plex sees a subtitle file in the same directory as the video, it gives you the option to select it e.g. if the directory contained two files:
movie.mp4
movie.srt
then it would give you the options of untitled (srt) or English in the subs section. English being the file it has downloaded and "untitled (srt)" the local file. If the srt file has say .en appended to it before the extension then it comes up as English (srt) rather than untitled. As Plex already can decode the Language from the file name i.e. .en = English, then it would be useful if it could say recognise .en.forced as say "English Foreign Parts". If this was the case then you could have say three files in the directory:
movie.mp4 --> the movie
movie.en.srt --> full English subtitles
movie.en.forced.srt --> English for foreign language parts.
From this position I assume it would then be fairly straight forward to have the following option in plex:
always display subtitles --> always display full subtitles i.e. .en.srt file for example
always display forced only --> always display movie.en.forced.srt file if exists in directory or display no subtitles
manual --> user chooses to display subtitles or not.
This way you are not relying on the online sub database that plex uses, (or embedded subtitle file if using mkv with forced subs option) being encoded properly so plex knowes when forced subs are used providing you have a local file that only contains the foreign language parts, (fairly easy to get from places like subscene). This method would then work for other languages as well so you could have say .fr.forced.srt for French forced subtitles.
Part of the issue is there is nothing coded into the Audio tracks that says This line is in French and This line is English...
So the best the transcoder can do is see what the Audio Track is labeled (each language has it's own code) and deciding to display Subs or not.
I'll be honest and have found it such a PITA dealing with SRTs and such that I simply hardcode the Subtitles into the Library source and be done with it.
It's not like I'm likely going to want to see the same movie only this time in French subtitles...
Part of the issue is there is nothing coded into the Audio tracks that says This line is in French and This line is English...
So the best the transcoder can do is see what the Audio Track is labeled (each language has it's own code) and deciding to display Subs or not.
Exactly, forced subs only exist when there is spoken dialogue that you as the viewer are supposed to understand but in scene some characters are not. What and where that is - is not something that the playback system needs to worry about, it just knows that it has a language forced file it needs to load and use. That's the idea here is to let the transcoder what file to use :)
Exactly, forced subs only exist when there is spoken dialogue that you as the viewer are supposed to understand but in scene some characters are not. What and where that is - is not something that the playback system needs to worry about, it just knows that it has a language forced file it needs to load and use. That's the idea here is to let the transcoder what file to use :)
I just think a better subtitle standard needs to be invented in general (not by Plex Devs but some standards type organization) that does what David S suggested so that the SRT file or Subtitle Track denotes what language is being spoken at that timeline followed by Translations needed for those lines. Multiple Translations could exist in one master Subtitle file (that may be a bit audacious of a goal given the number of languages out there but could perhaps be done in the same way DVD Regions are separated to keep the sata size manageable.)
Or at minimum denote when the language is not what the default Audio track is So English sub file can be set to display all subs (Closed Caption Mode) or Non English Only and the new standard SRT file would tell the system when Non English was evident and required subtitles.
So I like the request for the feature the OP made I'm just not sure PlexDevs can solve that for us as it requires a better Subtitle Standard than we seem to have now.
What would be nice is if the current Not Default language setting for subs was used in conjunction with the Opensubtitle.org to search available subtitles that had just the Non English Only titles.
Doesn't really mitigate the issue of lack of standardization and adds lack of naming convention to the mess (especially when dealing with Director cuts or non-theatrical versions) but like I said not much Plex can really do to solve the problem until some better standards on the subtitle side are enacted and implemented.
I just think a better subtitle standard needs to be invented in general (not by Plex Devs but some standards type organization) that does what David S suggested so that the SRT file or Subtitle Track denotes what language is being spoken at that timeline followed by Translations needed for those lines. Multiple Translations could exist in one master Subtitle file (that may be a bit audacious of a goal given the number of languages out there but could perhaps be done in the same way DVD Regions are separated to keep the sata size manageable.)
Or at minimum denote when the language is not what the default Audio track is So English sub file can be set to display all subs (Closed Caption Mode) or Non English Only and the new standard SRT file would tell the system when Non English was evident and required subtitles.
So I like the request for the feature the OP made I'm just not sure PlexDevs can solve that for us as it requires a better Subtitle Standard than we seem to have now.
What would be nice is if the current Not Default language setting for subs was used in conjunction with the Opensubtitle.org to search available subtitles that had just the Non English Only titles.
Doesn't really mitigate the issue of lack of standardization and adds lack of naming convention to the mess (especially when dealing with Director cuts or non-theatrical versions) but like I said not much Plex can really do to solve the problem until some better standards on the subtitle side are enacted and implemented.
I agree a better subtitle standard needs to be created (and supported by everyone) however as a work around, the above would allow me to have the forced subtitles shown without having to worry about remembering to select them at the start of the film. As the file would only contain the foreign language parts, the plex client would just need to know that it needed to play the file along with the movie (if option set for forced subtitles)
I agree a better subtitle standard needs to be created (and supported by everyone) however as a work around, the above would allow me to have the forced subtitles shown without having to worry about remembering to select them at the start of the film. As the file would only contain the foreign language parts, the plex client would just need to know that it needed to play the file along with the movie (if option set for forced subtitles)
I'm all for a setting that tells the server to use Non English Only Subs when they exist perhaps it should use those by default whenever the SRT file that corresponds with the default language set is found. If default Language is french then if it sees a SRT that say NOT French only it should use them (or look for them in the current system being used) And I guess that would have to look to see if a SRT for that exists when it starts the Transcode to know if it needs to use it since it couldn't tell that just from the Audio Track....
I am just very frustrated with the Standards currently set the way they are.
What we need is new Video standard container type (like MKV) that can handle subtitles much better either in a single Sub Track or via a Two track system where one track uses Language tokens as a sync track to denote what language the line spoken is in, and some Marker so matching up SRTs to Version Cuts don't make matching SRT files such a hit and miss proposition.
Time Code doesn't work for multiple cuts (like DC compared to Theatrical and DVD) so some Scene Marker would also be on that second track.
When it sees a marker for scene it knows to skip to that marker in the SRT and when it sees a marker for NOT DEFAULT language it can send the appropriate subs for that dialogue.
MKV is such a great innovation and if it's anything goes capability wasn't such a PITA to support across the various players it could easily implement such a system. All the work would be done on the front end and one SRT per movie/per language regardless of Cut and default language would make the entire experience much more intuitive and less prone to sync errors and a breeze for media Servers and transcoders to deal with.
There just needs to be some real connection as opposed to the slight relation based on name and time going on between the Video and the current Subtitle systems we have available.
MKV is the only container I know of that could support such a system.
I would be more than Happy to see an Update to the MP4 container standard to support multitracks the way MKV does but I won't hold my breath waiting for either container to support such a system.
