Hi guys, I recently noticed that a movie of mine couldn’t be directly played with subtitles, while (fortunately) the most of them could. The uncompatible subtitle format of that movie was PGS (codec: HDTV PGS) while usually in my other movies I have SRT.
So here my questions:
Which subtitles format are compatible with direct play and which are not? (On that App, since I tried the same movie from Plex for windows and it direct played easily)
Is there anywhere to check this kind of information?
Generally speaking - UTF-8 Text formatting can be Direct Played by everything (almost/probably) while any Image Based sub can only be Direct Played by a few devices/clients.
Your TV is gonna love UTF-8 subs.
Clearly it hates PGS (Image based) subs.
PfW(hatever) and PMP are ‘Player Apps’.
They do NOT run in a crappy browser - like Plexweb does.
They’ll Direct Play a LOT of stuff your TV will not.
You may need them at some point - make a note of that.
Ah ok so…you’re just saying that PfW and PMP are the best? (I guess?)
Well, I get it, but I need to use the TV app to watch on the TV. Connecting my PC on it is quite unhandy (since the TV is on the wall). Plus, I couldn’t control it with the remote controller.
Well… they are more likely to Direct Play anything you throw at them. <—like those misbehaving PGS subs. Remember them? lol
Here’s what I do:
The Roku Ultra and it’s world-class UNO App is the workhorse. It won’t do everything. I know that.
PMP is setup to open on the TV’s 3rd HDMI input. I control it with the Plex App in my phone and a wireless mouse shoved in the end-table drawer. It’s fun and all, but thankfully, temporary.
I have PfW set to open on the deckstop - to be dragged to the second monitor if something strikes my fancy while watching Handbrake work.
The Right Tool… you have plenty.
As for PMP?
You know it’s the most powerful horse in the barn, right?
You’ll have to take it for a drive, but it’s TV View is actually a wonderful thing - if you have a Harmony/Other/10’ Remote System. You may actually prefer it over your LG App, but only you can make that call.
Enhanced Settings are only available in TV View - once set they will work in either view mode. PMP is the Alpha Dog of Player Apps, but it too has it’s quirks - like 4KHDRwhatever. If your LG App does those - use the right tool.
Enabling image based subtitles, PGS & VOBSUB, forces a video transcode.
If the audio is transcoding, enabling text based subtitles, such as SRT, forces a video transcode.
If the audio is direct playing / direct streaming, text subtitles direct play.
For an LG, this means avoiding TrueHD audio, as it always transcodes when using the LG Plex app. AAC, AC3, EAC3, dts, and dts-HD should direct play. With dts-HD audio, only the dts core is used. The “-HD” part is discarded.
Samsung users should also avoid dts & dts-HD audio, in addition to TrueHD, since Samsung TVs do not support dts based audio.
Not for subtitles.
There is some documentation: SmartTVs & Tivo. However, it does not mention subtitles and the section on supported media formats is out of date.
Hi, my situation is slightly different and strange . I have a Samsung KU6000.
If I start a 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) file with .srt file disabled, it’s all ok (direct play video and audio)
If I start the same video with .srt file enabled, everything seems ok in dashboard (direct play video and audio) but the transcoding process starts on the server
. I have a Samsung KU6000.