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Subtitles do not work anymore after pushing the back or replay buttons on the remote. The whole video has to be excited and restarted for subtitles to come back. This is on all my Roku which I have several. Upon further inspection, my Roku 3 is working fine, my Roku TV keeps losing subtitles when I press back or replay buttons.
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Iām having what I believe to possibly be the same issue. Iāve searched the forums to see if anyone else has reported this, which brought me to this thread.
To add additional info to the OPās postā¦ I have a Roku TV running 9.2.6, Plex Client 6.4.5, Plex Server 1.18.2.2015. So, all the latest versions. One of the reasons I never reported this issue is because itās not consistentā¦ or at least it appears that way. Oddly enough, it seems (I think, Iām still not 100% sure) to only happen for me on files with HE-AAC 5.1 which is transcoded to AC3; what that has to do with subtitles, I have no idea. And, not ALL videos encoded that way. Stereo audioā¦ no problem. DTS audioā¦ no problem. Even HE-AAC 7.1 transcoded to EAC 7.1ā¦ no problem. All files are HEVC with mkv container. Like I said,
It has been happening to me for a LONG time. I canāt pinpoint exactly when it started. I never reported because of the inconsistent nature, and I was hoping it would just be fixed eventually. As OP said, pressing the quick rewind button or manually seeking causes the subtitles to stop displaying. Exiting the video and replaying will display them once again. So, it can be very annoying.
Also, the subtitles are embedded SRT that show direct play in Tautulli. External SRT seems to always (I think) work fine.
Anywayā¦ please help! What can I provide to help pinpoint this bug?
Edit: I forgot to mention that this only happens on my Roku. My Fire TV and web clients donāt have the issue.
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Confirmed - for at least 6 months now - seems to be āthe new behaviorā.
Thanks for the report, and sorry for the troubles. We will investigate. Just to be clear, should these steps reproduce the issue?
- Open Plex channel
- Go to Movie
- Go to settings
- Select a subtitle stream
- Roku Captions Mode: on
- Play movie
- Subtitles are displayed
- Rewind, subtitles are no longer displayed
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Yes this is exactly what is going on with embedded ASS subs.
External SRT work fine
That does it most every time at my house.
Also note:
Missing lines of text
Doubled lines of text
Long running and consistent/intermittent failure of sub titles on anything Roku.
Thanks for the info! I have been able to reproduce in one specific case.
- Source content is HEVC
- Source is not direct playing (e.g. converting audio or SSA/ASS subs)
- Subtitle source is embedded
We will investigate further to see if we need a client change or server change. Thanks for the report and sorry for the troubles!
not a good work around, but seeking twice seems to re-enable the subtitle display.
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I have no HEVC material
ALL my media Direct Plays with UTF-8 Text based muxed in subs (mostly - all for purposes of this error report - 'cause I created some externals to test - they failed at the same frequency in the same manner).
What you describe is not the same as the OP. Feel free to open a new thread so we can track that properly. Weāll most likely need samples to replicate.
I may do that at some point. As it stands the display of Roku/Plex subtitles is so poor, if I need them I use something else.
The drop shadow isnāt nearly big enough - everything behind them comes right on through them like they arenāt even there.
NOTHING else I play the subs on does that - or repeats or drops lines - and I canāt make it NOT happen on any Roku I own - but for now Iām good.
thx
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Excellent, glad you were able to replicate! First time Iāve posted, so let me know if you need any logs.
Thanks!
On my Roku TV, Iām able to make all sorts of visual adjustments by going to Settings (from Roku home screen), Accessibility, Captions style. Iām pretty sure thatās there for all Rokus but I donāt have another one to look at right now.
If you, or anyone, canāt see whatās wrong with Roku Subtitling in Plex:
- you havenāt seen them on anything else
No amount of fiddling makes them ANY better. They are for all intents and purposes, invisible most of the time.
My FireTV Plex App (experiment in epic failure) does a much better job from display right through selection - but all itās other faults stack up rather quickly leaving, PMP or Plex Player.
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Dude, relax. I was trying to be helpful. So youāve taken the steps that I mentioned and tried changing the look in the Roku caption settings?
Iāve personally found the Roku client to be the most stable and usable, and itās my usual go-to, but I also have Fire TV, Xbox, and PMP. The only recurring issue that hasnāt YET been fixed is the one I just posted about earlier in this thread. Which isnāt a deal breaker, but at most an annoyance. And, I use subtitles on absolutely everything I watch.
Itās unfortunate that youāve had issues, but maybe if you calmly listed them, instead of vaguely saying itās an āepic failureā, and mention the steps youāve taken to troubleshoot, someone may be able to help. But, maybe itās because Iām in IT and I understand the frustration when a userās only input is āit doesnāt workā.
I know, thank you, but for years yes, years Iāve been trying to adjust Roku Subs to no avail, but Roku and Plex havenāt gotten subtitles down to a fine art yet - or they cater to the āUnder 30ā crowd.
Yes, I am fully aware Roku UNO is the flagship of the Plex Apps (I have not seen ATV4, but I hear itās awesome) and the App Iād prefer to be using, which is double frustrating when:
Roku UNO forces users to wade through field after field of Hub Noise on Preplay screens to get to the first actor image. Roku doesnāt seem to care - or they would have fixed that by now.
Every other Plex App uses āRandomā suggestions in the aforementioned Hub Noise for Hubs like āRecently Releasedā or āStart Watchingā - on Roku itās the same dam alpha listing over and over and over. Plex doesnāt seem to care - or they would have fixed that by now.
Roku subtitling in association with Plex is - disappointing - when everything behind a sub blows through them like they arenāt even there. Yes, I could use that opague black background - like the subs you see on the TV in the Doctorās Office waiting room - but I admit I am resisting that temptation - by using something else.
There are plenty of users already embroiled in the reality of FireTV Plex App Suck, so they donāt need another user to add to the chorus - Iāve been a FireTV Plex App victim for years and nothing ever changes, or is likely to, if history is any indication of future events.
The CTO isnāt so much involved in the repair and improvement of the existing fleet - as he is in selling Shields. Hey, I hear that new one is awesome. Is that what I should buy as āthe approved deviceā?
My confidence in pretty much everything Plex is at an all time low.
Sorry, If Iāve upset you with all my negativity. The Truth in the Plexiverse is often a negative user experience - generally speaking.
The latest Roku preview v6,4.8 works great, no more problems with subtitles disappearing after seeking! Thank you, thank you!
Side note, is Roku ever going to get back background images?
Iāve been a Plex Pass user for around 6 years or so, and itās certainly had itās share of issues. However, Iāve either been able to find a fix or workaround online, or theyāve fixed the issue in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe Iāve been lucky, I donāt know. But, Iāve tried some other media solutions and nothing comes close.
Iād be curious how many devs they have, but it canāt be easy trying to support so many different servers AND clients, each with their own bugs and/or quirks, and each one constantly changing with their own software updates. Iām sure they donāt have the dev resources of someone like Netflix, and Iāve had issues with their Roku client that still arenāt fixed.
Again, maybe itās because of my IT background, but I tend to be more patient and forgiving of issues. Doesnāt mean that there hasnāt been a time or two that Iāve wanted to drop my Plex server off a very tall building, prompting me to go looking for alternativesā¦ and coming up very short, calming down, and realizing Plex is still there best out there.
Just look at all of the update issues Microsoft has been having with Windows 10! For some people itās a nightmare. Iāve happened to luck out with that too. Maybe I should go play the lottery, hmmm.
I personally think most people are way too quick to get angry and negative, about everything. Relax, pop a Xanax if you need to, and marvel in the things that Plex does right. The newest transcoder is a huge leap forward, for example; thumbnail generation is vastly improved, and my gen 3 i5CPU rarely hits 100% anymore even with multiple transcodes.
Iām not totally sure what youāre referring to work you mention having to āwade through field after field of hub noise on preplay screensāā¦ my Rokus seem to follow your description of āevery other Plex appā. Maybe reinstall and go through hub setup again? Could you send a screenshot of what youāre referring to?
If, for instance, you wanted to jump out of a Movie or TV Show to satisfy that nagging āWho Is That Guyā thing you have in your brain - count how many dam Hub Fields you have to wade through to get from the Play Button to the First Actor Image. It varies, but it could be as little as 2 (with the hated Previews we canāt get rid of) to as many as 8 (that Iāve seen and counted, then said: WTF?!)
Obviously you donāt do that regularly or youād be giving me a āLikeā instead of trying to calm me down.
I donāt know a thing about how this stuff gets done, but I gotta believe itās not a big deal to list the actors at the top of the Hub Noise, rather than at THE BOTTOM! Can we not simply MOVE them up the page? Does that take a complete overhaul? Whoās Idea was that anyway - or did it even matter to development at all? Why did it matter to the Team creating The New Player/New Plexweb when they moved the Actor Images up the page? WHOāS IN CHARGE? IS THERE NO ONE IN CHARGE?
Count how many clicks it takes, on your Roku to get from where you start to, say, A Westerns Genre list - donāt bother - 31 clicks.
I donāt give a hoot about the 31 clicks - I use Genre Collections (ācause 31 clicks is freakinā madness!), but how long has UNO been like this since Roku Release? Donāt bother - Since Day One! Now nearing 2 years.
Does no one at Plex, from the CTO right down to the Pastry Fetcher have the gumption to see something broken and just āFix Itā, or have the ability to listen to user requests to fix said nonsense - THAT WE WERE TOLD ON DAY ONE WOULD HAPPEN, IF ONLY WEāD BE PATIENT!?
Iāve been patient. Iām not unreasonable. Iām tired of patient. Itās not working.
As an IT Expert, if you donāt see a problem in the way Plex handles user issues - youāre a perfect example of what is wrong with a society that simply doesnāt have any pride in the work they do any more.
As an electrician for more than 50 years if I saw something I did that wasnāt right, or could have been better, or the customer noticed something out of whack, it would bother me so much Iād have to go back FOR FREE to make it right or I just couldnāt live with myself.
THAT work ethic, drilled into our heads by our parents, is clearly gone in our society and itās dam sad.
I have ZERO confidence this will EVER be fixed, but what can I do? Emby sucks. I canāt go anywhere. Iām just gonna have to live with it - but not without the occasional āreminderā that UNO on Roku (The Flagship?) is broken in spots, but it is, by far, the best Plex App ever developed - were it not for a few issues that drive me insane! - those enough to make me forget how good it is.
If Mr. InBetween showed up at your door each week to give you a thousand dollars - but to get it you had to let him kick the crap out you - eventually youād stop answering the door. The bad sometimes outweighs the good in just about anything and ends up being the only thing you notice.
Speaking of notice, I just noticed the Preview app has cast images fixed. Finally. I am pleased.
Squeaky Wheel?
@ljunkie I am, and always have been, a fan of yours - even before Plex got wise and hired you.
I enjoy our interactions and hope the baby sleeps better soon.
Thanks for fixing The Actor Images.
We need more info on the Roll Over (Run Time - Episode Name (you developed it in Retro, we just need it back). We also need the āNewly Releasedā and āStart Watchingā hubs to be randomā¦ but you know that.
Thank you.
Enjoy T-Day.
External srt subtitles for HEVC / x265 files donāt play on Roku Express (but do on Plex Web).
Exernal srt subtitles for h264 files play fine.
Very frustrating - any news on when weāll get a fix for this, or if thereās a workaround?
Tried adding Plex Preview channel on Roku but the channel is not showing up.
Strongly considering switching to AppleTV 4k.
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