Subtitles shows as selected but not shown when playing

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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1

Server Version#: 1.28.2.6151
Player Version#: android 9.8.2.35221

I’ve been recently having weird issue where in plex client GUI is showing that I have external SRT subtitles selected but subtitles are not shown at all. If I select some other subtitle from subtitles menu in the player, subtitles are shown. If I now select the original subtitles again, they are shown. However this means I have to always go into settings and select none / some other subtitle and then switch back to original in order to have subtitles shown. This is very annoying

I’m using plex on nvidia shield via android application. My friend has also reported same issue with the normal plex web client. What’s going on here and how to fix the behaviour?

2

I was also just checking a bit and it looks like if I force “subtitles burn: always” then I will have subtitles when playing without workaround. But if “automatic” is selected, I won’t have subtitles visible without toggling something from subtitles selection menu

However always burn is not option as I’m playing 4K HDR material with direct play and I cannot transcode

3

Same issue here. Same specs, android 9.9 version, server 1.29.0.6219.

Previous version 1.28.2.6106 didnt have this. Going to roll back (I only update maybe once a month)

4

Based on this I did rollback to 1.28.2.6106-44a5bbd28 - same issue. Also tried rollback to 1.28.0 - still same issue

Did the rollback solve the issue for you?

5

No it didnt either - must be the players side ?
Not sure if we can roll back in that.

6

Maybe, unfortunately changelogs / older versions are not readily available on android as far as I remember. I just tried clearing all data / cache / defaults from my android client application and reinstalled. No change by this either

Guess I’ll need to look if I can find changelogs for android client and figure out way to rollback versions. I’m not sure when this issue actually started but it was somewhere within last month. Something there must have broken this, first I didn’t care so much as I thought maybe its “one-time bug” but now I see it happening with about all media I’m not transcoding which have external srt subs (all of my library … )

7

I did rollback to 9.7.0.34811-e3f8b122 and 9.6.3.34515-1b12302f both of then have the same issue. I’m really not sure if this is client or server issue here

I was checking plex media server log and grepping for subtitle. This happens when I’m starting to play the file with external .srt subtitle

Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.341 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] We’re going to try to auto-select a subtitle.
Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.341 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] Subtitles: Found a candidate subtitle language [fi] for a foreign film
Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.342 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] We’re going to try to auto-select a subtitle.
Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.342 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] Subtitles: Found a candidate subtitle language [fi] for a foreign film
Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.344 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] We’re going to try to auto-select a subtitle.
Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.344 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] Subtitles: Found a candidate subtitle language [fi] for a foreign film
Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.344 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] Subtitles: Found a candidate subtitle that matches our forced / language preference. [fi] [0]. Reason [Prefer sidecar]
Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.349 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] We’re going to try to auto-select a subtitle.
Sep 19, 2022 15:56:05.349 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#1f87] Subtitles: Found a candidate subtitle language [fi] for a foreign film

And this when I select NONE and then my desired external srt from player

Sep 19, 2022 15:57:34.266 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - Request: [ClientIP:41622 (WAN)] PUT /library/parts/7805?subtitleStreamID=0&allParts=1 (9 live) #2034 TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (USER) (SHIELD Android TV)
Sep 19, 2022 15:57:34.271 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#2034] Selecting subtitle stream 0 for part 7805
Sep 19, 2022 15:57:34.276 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#2034] Selecting similar subtitle stream ID -1 for part 7791
Sep 19, 2022 15:57:34.276 [0x7f7827626b00] DEBUG - Completed: [ClientIP:41622] 200 PUT /library/parts/7805?subtitleStreamID=0&allParts=1 (9 live) TLS GZIP 9ms 195 bytes (pipelined: 14)
Sep 19, 2022 15:57:40.160 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - Request: [ClientIP:41622 (WAN)] PUT /library/parts/7805?subtitleStreamID=52557&allParts=1 (9 live) #2038 TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (USER) (SHIELD Android TV)
Sep 19, 2022 15:57:40.165 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#2038] Selecting subtitle stream 52557 for part 7805
Sep 19, 2022 15:57:40.170 [0x7f7824f0cb00] DEBUG - [Req#2038] Selecting similar subtitle stream ID 52517 for part 7791
Sep 19, 2022 15:57:40.171 [0x7f7827829b00] DEBUG - Completed: [ClientIP:41622] 200 PUT /library/parts/7805?subtitleStreamID=52557&allParts=1 (9 live) TLS GZIP 10ms 195 bytes (pipelined: 15)

This issue only seems to be valid when we are using external srt subtitles with direct play. If we are using internal srt subtitles they are shown without toggling them off and on

I also noticed that I’m not able to get “video statistics” overlayed in video. I remember trying this earlier and it was working. As this seems to be “overlay” issue I think this might be related. nielsvdp any chance you can try enabling the video statistics from client settings, play video and check if statistics are shown on top of video for you?

8

Ohh and changelogs and apks are available from plex forums here in case you want to try some older version by yourself Plex for Android - #440 by sixones

9

Same issue here.

10

I will give it a try - This doesnt only affect SRT as you describe - PGS subs are affected too.

11

I’m still running 1.28.0.5999, and have the same issue.

12

Ok, need to double check then too. Also today I noticed this issue also happening with video with internal srt subtitles… So happens with internal and external srt subtitles too

@Deepfriedbutter @nielsvdp @Dystaxia are you by any chance encountering this issue with 4K HDR material? Going thru a bit more my library I’m actually seeing that with 4K HDR material subtitles never show on by default but with normal SDR material, they seem to be there always… Maybe HDR is the common factor here?

13

@Nurffe

Confirmed on my end as well. SDR titles work as desired. HDR/DV titles do not.

14

Looks like there is another similar thread here posted within 24 hours Nvidia shield plex client initially not playing external srt subtitles

@ChuckPa @anon18523487 looks like we have here also bunch of people with the issue. What exactly you need in order to look into this? Are there easy ways to censore private data from log files?

15

Having the same issues, with Plex on a Chromecast with Google TV, and on a Samsung with Tizen.

It’s not related to the other Shield TV issue, as turning them off and on doesn’t work. The only workaround is to burn-in subtitles, which doesn’t support direct play.

16

Same issue. External srt subtitles, not showing on Chromecast with Google TV, Android 12.

Burn subtitles works.

17

I have a Roku Ultra 4 user that’s experiencing the same issue. @ChuckPa can you look into this? This is different from my other thread because the same workaround doesn’t work here.

18

Fire TV App has the same issue. Most likely it is an issue of the Android based app. Anyone with a AppleTV, to confirm, the issue not happening with it?

19

I have an AppleTV and can confirm there’s no issue with subtitles - just on my Shield and FireTV.

20

The latest beta fixes it I think