Srt and Pgs subtitles allow direct play while Ass subtitles force a transcode. As far as I know, when I’m using VLC for example, it is not transcoding my video so why Plex can’t direct play video using ass subtitles? Not optimal for people like me with not very powerfull server. Would be a nice feature to add.
That is highly dependent on the type of Plex client.
Please specifiy for which Plex clients you’d like this.
On top of that: many clients don’t support the very complex subtitle formatting and effects, which are possible with ASS. To display ASS fully and correctly, a renderer is needed. Plex cannot implement this on many devices.
So often it comes down to either:
- remove all formatting (which can result in major unintended subtitle display errors – up to total unreadability)
- leave the rendering of the subs to the Plex server (which means transcoding)
Early 2021 clean-up: duplicate
