Force Subtitles not read by Syabas newest firmware on A200

[philnort]

The newest firmware for the Popcorn A200 released on the 24th of this month was supposed to display the FORCED Subtitle..AUTOMATICALLY even if subs were turned off. I rip ALL my BDs with the parameters enabled of all English normal subs + English FORCED subs.

However, with this newest firmware of Syabas' Popcorn I can only view the PGS forced subs when I manually select it in the Popcorn user interface (they DO play fine !)

When I questioned Syabas that this "feature" did not work I explained that all my BD rips were with MakeMKV. Their reply: "Unfortunately MakeMKV doesn't properly flag forced subtitles (known issue).

You will have to remux the file using mkvmerge and flag the subtitle as forced. Only then will it play automatically....."

It is too time consuming to bother with a re-muxing. I can more quickly manually enable the forced sub within the Popcorn interface. Are you aware of this "problem" within MakeMKV?..and is it going to be fixed?

Thanks, Mike.

[mike admin]

It's rather a shortcoming of MKV format - MakeMKV deliberately doesn't tag forced subtitles with "forced" flag as many players behave incorrectly when they see it. You can change this flag without remuxing, by using MKV header editor from mkvtoolnix.

[philnort]

Mike, thank you for the fast reply. I did some (brief) research on using the MKV Header Editor. I can easily change the force flag for the subtitle in question to "Yes". However, (excuse my ignorance here) I still have to "mux" ...or "Save the file"..correct? which can be lengthy for a BD.

-Phi

P.S. I saved (or muxed) my changed samplers and the forced subtitle was recognized and played perfectly on the Popcorn A-200. Is there a chance you can provide an option in your next release to "Flag" the forced subtitle "yes" or "No". You mention that some players cannot 'recognize' the flagged "forced subtitle" but I'll testify that the Popcorn A-200 is not one of them...plays the flagged 'Forced subtitle' perfectly.

P.P.S. Oops! Re-read instructions on using 'Header Editor' in MKVMerge. Exceeding fast and simple. I guess no need for you to add....

[MikeMcr]

It's rather a shortcoming of MKV format - MakeMKV deliberately doesn't tag forced subtitles with "forced" flag as many players behave incorrectly when they see it. You can change this flag without remuxing, by using MKV header editor from mkvtoolnix.

I don't think it is fair to say this is a shortcoming of the MKV format just because some players behave differently. It seems clear to me what the flag was designed for.

Do you have examples of players that mishandle this flag? What do they do? The ones I have tried just ignore it.

If there really is a good reason not to set this flag on tracks ticked as forced subs only, then it should be an option in the Settings dialog, for those of us with proper players.

[mike admin]

This is on the list to be a configurable setting. It's unlikely to show up in a next version though.