Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:20 pm
Transcoding MKV subtitle track with 'default' flag
Hello,
Thanks for your continued work on Serviio, it's much appreciated.
My current problem is that I have a large number of MKVs with Japanese audio and English subtitles. The majority of these files have the "default" flag set on the Subtitle track in the MKV container, but do not have the specific Language flag set on the subtitle track.
These files work exactly as I'd expect they would with other players (mpv, VLC, etc.) in that because the "default" flag is set on the Subtitle track, the subtitles are displayed. In files that have Subtitle tracks with no "default" flag, the subtitles are not shown.
The behaviour of other players (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."
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe at the moment Serviio does not try to transcode subtitle tracks that do not have a language set, meaning I would have to edit my entire library to get them to work. (Though if you know of a less painful workaround I would be all ears!)
The reason given in the past (see http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14696) for not changing this seemed to be that people might be forced to watch burned-in foreign subtitles they didn't want, but given the behaviour of most media players that handle this, I would think that most media files would only set the default flag when it makes sense in context to have subtitles on screen anyway (a foreign-language release aimed at an English-speaking audience, for example).
If this is too large a step, perhaps having a user-definable setting to allow the transcoding of subtitle tracks that have the "default" flag regardless of their Language field would be preferable?
I do hope you'll consider this, it will make me very happy if you do.
Thanks for your continued work on Serviio, it's much appreciated.
My current problem is that I have a large number of MKVs with Japanese audio and English subtitles. The majority of these files have the "default" flag set on the Subtitle track in the MKV container, but do not have the specific Language flag set on the subtitle track.
These files work exactly as I'd expect they would with other players (mpv, VLC, etc.) in that because the "default" flag is set on the Subtitle track, the subtitles are displayed. In files that have Subtitle tracks with no "default" flag, the subtitles are not shown.
The behaviour of other players (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."
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe at the moment Serviio does not try to transcode subtitle tracks that do not have a language set, meaning I would have to edit my entire library to get them to work. (Though if you know of a less painful workaround I would be all ears!)
The reason given in the past (see http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14696) for not changing this seemed to be that people might be forced to watch burned-in foreign subtitles they didn't want, but given the behaviour of most media players that handle this, I would think that most media files would only set the default flag when it makes sense in context to have subtitles on screen anyway (a foreign-language release aimed at an English-speaking audience, for example).
If this is too large a step, perhaps having a user-definable setting to allow the transcoding of subtitle tracks that have the "default" flag regardless of their Language field would be preferable?
I do hope you'll consider this, it will make me very happy if you do.