Subtitles not working (a more complex question than meets the eye)

Spiritos · Feb 25, 2016

I have 2 instances of adding subtitles (.srt) to a movie where it doesn't work and makes no sense at all. I'll say I'm comfortable with editting subtitles using several 3rd party software and have done this hundreds of times but with these 2 movies I'm clueless as to why it doesn't work.

With one movie the subtitles are shown dubble and with the other the subtitles don't load at all (and the option is greyed out as in not being recognized or present). This is the case with trying to play the files in MPC-HC, VLC and WMP.

I made sure the file format is correct, files are named similair and in the same folder and synchronised but to no avail. I also tried copying the text to a new .srt file and ofcourse meddled around with all possible options as FFDShow, internal, external, preferences and such.

The fact these 2 subtitles either don't work properly or don't show at all leads me to believe there is some kind of metadata in the .srt file (or alternatively something in the videostream that cripples the correct handling of the substitles). Now I know it's just plain text with time signatures and sometimes colour coding but I can't see why it doesn't work. Btw. this is for a MKV and mp4 file format.

Does anyone know about this 'metadata' or have an idea about what could be the culprit?

davmazin · Feb 25, 2016

do you have the k lite media codec pack installed?

Spiritos · Feb 25, 2016

davmazin :

No codec packs installed at all but mind you, I've subbed hundreds of movies of all different kind of video fomats already, so I don't see the solution coming from a missing codec as MKV and mp4 are as common as any.

why_wolf · Feb 25, 2016

well since its just those two files it obviously means it's something wrong with them. Have you tried loading the subtitles into Ageisub and then just re save them as a new file?

Spiritos · Feb 25, 2016

Well, like I wrote in my first post: yes, I tried making a new file but nothing. Interesting point is that me by doing so and you by suggesting so assumes there actually IS something as metadata in a .srt file -even though I found no mentioning of it anywhere.

Even more strange: My initial assumption and yours as well about being something wrong with the .srt file doesn't apply to one movie. No matter which other perfectly functioning subtitle from another movie I add (changing the name ofcourse) is selectable so this suggests at least in one instance the culprit could actually be in the video file.

It's utterly weird. Told you, not as simple as it may seem...

why_wolf · Feb 25, 2016

Very strange. You could re-trans coding the video file using Handbrake, but I don't now what other than maybe an already attached subtitle file might be blocking another subtitle file.

If it's a MKV file you could take a look inside the container with MKVToolnix to see how it was setup. http

/www.videohelp.com/software/MKVtoolnix

Spiritos · Feb 25, 2016

Thanks for the suggestion. By now I already finished watching the movie that doubled the subs and discarded it so now I'm only left with the one that doesn't load a subtitle at all (no matter which other sub I replace it with).

According to MKVToolnix the MKV file (MPEG4-p/AVC/h/264) has 1 video and 2 audio streams -which is correct but no mentioning of another "internal" sub. To me it does seem with this movie the film itself is somehow blocking the sub agreed? Since it doesn't load any other one either.

Any ideas how to further troubleshoot?

why_wolf · Feb 25, 2016

not that I can think of. MKV is a really weird but great format in that it has all these amazing features but its also horrible because people will actually try and use all these amazing extra features. So if I had to guess somewhere the features someone activated/deactivated something related to subtitles and just screwed it up.

Spiritos · Feb 25, 2016

I know little to none about MKV but your reasoning sounds plausible. I'll try to find out some more info about reading out the MKV-file but I guess upfront I need to decide whether I want to see the movie bad enough to dig deeper into troubleshooting..

Spiritos · Feb 27, 2016

SOLVED:

Scenario: The explorer folder option "hide know extensions" is opted in by default. The source subs are in a RAR file. When I then extracted them I got the actual .srt file but it's not recognized by several mediaplayers.

Now when I opt out the extension setting and THEN extract the .srt file I get exactly the same file (.srt - yes, I doublechecked it's not .srt.srt) but then it works like a charm.

No idea what could be the case here but for future references this was my solution,

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Subtitles not working (a more complex question than meets the eye)

Spiritos

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Spiritos

davmazin

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Spiritos

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why_wolf

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Spiritos

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why_wolf

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Spiritos

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why_wolf

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Spiritos

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Spiritos

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