Hi, I use Plex Media Player for Windows 10 and play remux .mkv files. What setting do I put it at to automatically get the subtitles that are part of the movie only and not get subtitles for all the dialog? if I disable subtitles, I often don’t see any subtitles and if I put it to english for example, I get subtitles for even the english dialog. I just want the subtitles that I would have seen if I watched the movie in the theaters. thanks.
These I believe your after. Naming of your subtitles is also important.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200471133-adding-local-subtitles-to-your-media/
ok i’ll look for those settings. but what do you mean by naming my subtitles? there is only one file for the movie, a .mkv file. there are no subtitle files.
That will only be required for sidecar subs. I see your remuxing with possibly MKVToolNix.
So you will need Forced subs for Remux
It sounds like you’re looking for Forced Subtitles. For example, in Avatar when the characters speak Na’vi.
See this post for additional information on finding them on Blu-ray rips.
See Your Media → Using Subtitles for information on downloading subtitles using Plex or from various sites on the Internet.
Because Plex follows the ISO 639, it’s important that you tell what language your subtitles are and what type of subtitles you want to see.
Regular ones: complete transcription of the dialog.
Forced ones: translate only signs and talking in foreigner languages.
Depending on what software was used to rip the file, you may have to set the “forced” flag yourself on the appropriate subtitle track.
https://mkvtoolnix.download/
is the standard tool to do that.
I don’t make the .mkv files, someone else does. as for the subtitles, I only want to see those subtitles when the dialogue is not in english and those that the movie creators want the viewers to see. for example sometimes in a movie people are not speaking english but you don’t really need to know what they are saying so the movie doesn’t have subtitles for those scenes. I don’t want plex to show subtitles for those. just for the dialogue that the creators want us to understand. for these cases, shouldn’t the subtitles be just part of the movie where you’d see them even if subtitles were disabled in plex?
So your profile should be setup the way SE56 said. But it will only work if your embedded subtitles have the flag “forced” set.
For external subtitles they should have the “forced” suffix.
Example: Movie_Name (1999).eng.forced.srt
But don’t hold your breath. Those subtitles aren’t easy to find.
This ONLY occurs when you have the Forced Subtitle track, or file for that particular movie - and that track, or file is named properly.
A ‘Forced Subtile’ contains ONLY the lines of dialog that are NOT in English. That file is contained with the original media and is different from the Full Subtitle. The Full Subtitle contains everything, usually including the Foreign Language bits as well, but not always.
There is NO WAY for Plex to know when an actor is speaking a Foreign Language and display the subs for that dialog.
If the original Forced Subtitle isn’t available for the media - nothing short of Manual Labor and a Subtitle Editing Program will be able to provide said subtitles.
You may get lucky here:
https://subscene.com/
You may not.
Note Season 2 Episode 8:
and since English is my Native Language Selection, and I have maintained and marked those Forced Subs as such - Plex will automatically select them - 'cause it knows I don’t speak whatever language the actors are speaking and those lines are contained in a Forced Subtitle:
Shown, are external srt sub files.
Internal sub tracks can be the same ones actually, if they are embedded in the container, but marking them appropriately requires more software - particularly the aforementioned MKVToolNix.
There is no Easy Button if you don’t have the subs.
It’s pretty easy if you do.
To follow up on @JuiceWSA well detailed post … since you mentioned not making these yourself, it’s good to find a reputable source that sets these flags correctly, particularly for embedded subs in MKV files.
You can check the flags in MKV\MP4 files using the software MediaInfo
This will let you know if the subtitle tracks are flagged correctly for language and for “Forced” tracks.
Managing subs is a bit of knack to pick up on but once it clicks for you, you’ll be all good. If you aren’t making these rips yourself, you’ll just need to occasionally do some extra work to help Plex automate some of it for you. Worst case, you’ll have to select the subs manually in Plex (it’ll remember for next time too).
If you need to set the flags yourself, use the MKVToolNix that @OttoKerner linked above.
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