www.makemkv.com

I would like subtitle flags to remain as on the original. It seems my MMKV rips will include the forced subtitles (if selected), but the flag is cleared. This means I have to manually choose it every time I play the file.

I saw a vague reference to an xml file that can be used to drive preferences. If that is the solution, could someone provide that file. Im truly horrible with complex xml. If not, is there a reference page with the COMPLETE xml documentation

Forced subtitle flags are pretty much a myth. They can happen, but rarely do. I have personally seen them on only one title, Avatar, but I've heard of a couple of others. Everything else has a separate track that contains just the "forced" subtitles. This applies across DVD, BD, and UHD.

The "flags" you are thinking about are more likely to be part of the menu system of the disk, selecting the forced track by default. MKV files do not have that menu on them, so it falls back to whether there was a "default" flag set on the track. Not many players honor those, either; I find that the only "mostly guaranteed" way to have the forced subtitles be treated as such is to make sure they are the first subtitle track in the file.

Funimation disks, for example, require the order of the two English subtitle tracks to be "swapped", using either MKVmerge or (my preferred) handbrake.

I play my MKV files with KODI on an ODROID N2 and the best way I've come up with is to first reference this spreadsheet to see whether or not a movie has a separate forced subtitle track:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 2134580265

If there is a separate track that needs to be flagged as forced, I usually go the extra step of playing the MKV file with VLC on my PC to confirm the subtitle track in question. Once I have that, I use MKVToolNix. In the 'Header editor' section, open the MKV file, find the subtitle track, and expand the entry in the list. After expanding it, click on 'Forced display' flag and check the 'Add element' box. Checking this box will allow you to set the value to 'Yes' from the default 'No'.

I have KODI set to only play forced subtitles, and forcing subtitles in this manner has worked well for me. No other subtitles play other than the correct forced subtitle track.

Argo UHD is an example of a movie that gave me fits before I figured this out. Multiple episodes of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul (BD) were similar. Other UHD movies that come to mind with separate forced subtitles are Ford v Ferrari, Black Hawk Down, and Zombieland 2.

This all may be irrelevant depending on the player you use, but this is what I've found works best with MKVs played with KODI.