Server Version#: 1.25.4.5487
Player Version#: Need to look this up
I got a brand new Samsung QN95A TV and tried to watch 4K contend but it failed for some files (most files are fine). I’ve checked further and found the issue is only happening if I enable subtitles for these videos. If I do, the video does not play and I do get an error message on my TV. When I select no subtitle, everything works as expected (with a minor thing I come to in a minute).
So I encoded the Video (4k) again removing the 2s of “black screen” to match the HD audio and subtitle files. Now all file from the 4k video match the HD version.
As soon as I simply add the HD subtitles to the 4K file and make them default, the Video does not start. The subtitles are PGS format. If I turn off the subtitles at all, the Video starts and everything works as expected.
These subtitles are working absolutely fine in the HD version.
I believe PGS subtitles need to be merged with the video frames to be displayed, IE video transcoding needs to happen. If the client device can’t handle the task then the plex server has to, if it cant then the video stops playing. I’m having the same issue with a 2020 Samsung TV and a RPi server; the program plays just fine until PGS subtitles are enabled. I dont believe the Samsung TV can do it natively, so the Plex app requests the server to do it, but the RPi doesnt have the horsepower to do it so it stops playback. I havent investigated whether SRT subtitles will work since I believe they are easier for the client to display, but I could be mistaken.
Thanks @granjan7 , this is what I’ve learned late yesterday evening as well. I’ve converted the Subtitles to SRT and the video played directly without any issue. Before I was wondering why Video Transcoding was showing when the PGS subtitles where enabled.
So I never realized that as my Synology 418Play does the transcoding when watching the HD version.
Just checked my Library and every BD Video has a PGS subtitle as default. So I need to convert them to SRT in the future if I want to re-use them for 4K.
And there is nothing Plex can do about, I simply need a better NAS to do the Transcodung, right ?
I dont know if you need a better NAS, you need a more powerful CPU/GPU to do the transcoding. I don’t know if any NAS devices have that kind of horsepower. There is a program called Subtitle Edit that’ll convert PGS subtitles to SRT using OCR, from reading reddit it looks like a good piece of software. Or just let Plex download the subtitles. Last night I played a movie with SRT subtitles on the Samsung TV / RPi setup and it played just fine. I think your options are to convert the subtitles to SRT or let Plex download the SRT subtitles. Good Luck!
Thanks again, I’m already using Subtitle Edit. It works really really well (if not used with the default OCR, use Tesseract instead.)
I’m using this now, spending a lot of money on a new NAS isn’t something I’m going to do now.
