Subtitles not rendered if no language is identified

[Former user]

As explained on this forum topic, I suspect that despite having an embedded subtitle, certain files (in this case a MKV anime release) that do not have specified a subtitle language will not render any text.

This has been tested on a Sharp Aquos TV:

• This video does not display subtitles: http://i.imgur.com/OQBGBoy.png

• While this one does: http://i.imgur.com/Pb8nGO7.png

[Former user]

In addition to the above, I discovered that subtitles do work on my Boxee Box, probably because the file in question does not require transcoding. The subtitles do not work via MediaBrowser (tested with Chrome/Flash and iOS7).

[Petr Nejedly]

Reason for not implementing this is given on the forum.

[Sergey]

I do get the reasoning behind "wontfix" resolution, but still, it would be nice to have an option for users who know what they are doing and just want to make things work. That's why, as a proposition, I sketched this dirty patch. In org.serviio.library.local.EmbeddedSubtitles in function getLanguageCode() I change the following string:

return this.languageCode;

to this:

return ( ( this.languageCode == null ) || ( "".equals(this.languageCode) ) ) ? "und" : this.languageCode;

Looks awful, but gets the job done: you can add an "und" to the end (or in the middle, that's up to you) of "Preferred language" list and that's it.

[Petr Nejedly]

can you post ffmpeg -i for your file?

I'm thinking instead of hacking it, i could have another checkbox to use the "default" subtitles track if the language doesn't match any.

[Sergey]

The checkbox would be great!

Here is an ffmpeg -i for one of the typical files with no defined language code: ffmpeg version 2.4.git Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers built on Nov 19 2014 22:12:09 with gcc 4.7.2 (GCC) configuration: --enable-static --disable-shared --disable-ffplay --disable-ffs erver --enable-memalign-hack --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libass --enable-librtm p --enable-fontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-zlib --enable-libx264 --enab le-libspeex --extra-libs='-lrtmp -lpolarssl -lws2_32 -lwinmm -lexpat -lfreetype -lfribidi -lz' --arch=x86 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-pthreads --target- os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=i686-w64-mingw32- --enable-gpl --pkg-config=pkg-config

  libavutil      54. 14.100 / 54. 14.100
  libavcodec     56. 12.101 / 56. 12.101
  libavformat    56. 14.100 / 56. 14.100
  libavdevice    56.  3.100 / 56.  3.100
  libavfilter     5.  2.103 /  5.  2.103
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  1.100 /  1.  1.100
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'L:\dlna-tests\c3.mkv':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : libebml v1.2.2 + libmatroska v1.3.0
    creation_time   : 2012-01-10 17:55:06
  Duration: 00:02:33.40, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 3713 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High 10), yuv420p10le, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default)
    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (HE-AAC), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)
    Stream #0:2: Subtitle: ass (default)
    Stream #0:3: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : Arial Rounded MT.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:4: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : ARRBD_ECL2.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:5: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : ARTIS___xy.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:6: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : BodoniXT.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:7: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : Brianne_s_hand.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:8: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : CALIST.TTF
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:9: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : CartoonDemiBold.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:10: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : corbel.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:11: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : LBLACK.TTF
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font
    Stream #0:12: Attachment: ttf
    Metadata:
      filename        : LondonTwo.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font

[Gerard Martin]

I posted about this issue here: http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19302 . Glad to see it's being considered, at least.

The majority of my JP audio/EN subtitles library is arranged as Dvvarf's file above is, with the 'default' flag set on the subtitle track.

The behaviour of other players (mpv, VLC, etc.), and hence all of the JP audio/EN subs media I have, also seems to fit with the Matroska technical specs (http://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html) which states under FlagDefault: "Set if that track (audio, video or subs) SHOULD be active if no language found matches the user preference." - that is, subtitles are shown if the default flag is set, and not shown if it is not.

I'm thinking instead of hacking it, i could have another checkbox to use the "default" subtitles track if the language doesn't match any.

I would love to see this.

[Petr Nejedly]

related to #875

[Petr Nejedly]

added a checkbox to fallback to the default track if there is no language match for the embedded subtitles.