How do you make Subtitles selectable during playback?

[Bsmooth]

Just like you would on a bluray. So far I have made them nonvisible, then I got them to show. But in neither instance could I turn them off or on during playback. I'm also using Handbrake, so the options are available, but where do you set them, so while playing back a file I can either turn english subtitles off or on?

[Bsmooth]

After a little more research I think what I want is "soft" subtitles that can be either off or on. Is the only way to do this thru adding a separate SRT file? Sounds like there are either on or off but really not selectable?

[Woodstock]

Subtitles can be a pain. When doing DVDs, it doesn't make as much difference as when doing BDs, because the VOBSUB subtitles are usable in an MP4 (on most players!), but BDs use PGS subtitles, which aren't MP4-compatible. Those have to be burned in on MP4s. In that case, finding an SRT is your only option.

If you're staying with MKV files, though, handbrake will allow you to do switchable subtitles. Check your player - if it can handle MKV files, staying with them throughout works better than MP4s.

[flojo]

You really shouldn't use mp4 unless you have to, you should rethink this.

You can sidecar the raw PGS stream with certain players, I think Kodi can do it. Otherwise, you can extract the PGS stream to a .sup file and sidecar that file, which increases compatibility with players (I guess :-/).

Code: Select all

# Assuming track 0 is the PGS subtitle stream, extracts the subtitle to file "subtitle.sup"
mkvextract movie.mkv tracks 0:subtitle.sup
# You could also try to sidecar a .mks file, ie. "subtitle.mks"

There should be GUI's somewhere that help you do the above. Regardless, putting the subtitles into their own files along side the video isn't great, but you can sidecar just about anything including cover art, audio streams, chapters... pretty much anything you can put into the file. You also might be able to .zip all the files together, I don't remember. Me personally, I don't sidecar anything as the .mkv container can handle all the basic streams. Again, think about not using .mp4.

[Bsmooth]

So maybe MP4 for older black and white movies and MKV files for blurays. I wanted to have the ability to choose subtitles when I watched, but this sounds like a real pain, especially since most of what you just said makes little sense to me at all. After redoing one image about 4 to 5 times, I finally managed to either have the subtitles either on or off, but not the ability to have a choice when I played it back. I understand you could also use SRT files, but that doesn't sound too easy either.
So am I to understand most who have fairly large amounts of films on Hard drives have to do this for subtitles every time? Since I'm retired I'm not sure I'll be around long enough to tackle that !

[flojo]

... do this for subtitles every time?

No, many here put a disc in the drive and then rip to a .mkv file... that's their entire ripping process.

Good luck!

[dcoke22]

A safe recommendation is to put all your movies into .mkv files (assuming, of course, that your playback system can play .mkv files). .mkv files have much more flexibility and capability compared to .mp4 files. .mkv file is an output choice in Handbrake on the Summary tab.

You then need to 'pass-thru' whatever subtitles were on your disc (and ended up in the .mkv file MakeMKV produced) to the file Handbrake produces. On the Subtitles tab in Handbrake, select the subtitle track(s) you want and then uncheck 'Forced Only' or 'Burned In' since you don't want either of those behaviors; you just want the subtitle track(s) included in the output .mkv file.

If you do this, probably your playback setup will handle everything as you expect.

Now, there's one big caveat. This might not work at all or it might not work in some situations. Subtitle handling is a bit complicated and different players support different things. Without knowing lots of details of your playback setup, no one can say for sure what will or will not work in advance. So try this with both a blu-ray (with PGS subtitles) and a DVD (with vobsub subtitles) and see what works.

If it doesn't work, the next best choice is to either convert your subtitles to the text based format SRT or download SRT subtitles and use them instead. SRT format subtitles are widely supported.

As flojo mentioned, with lots of players, subtitles can either be a 'sidecar' file or part of the .mkv file itself. A sidecar file is just a separate file that lives next to the movie file and is named in a way that the player can recognize that the sidecar file contains subtitles for the movie file it sits next to. Or, with a few moments of work, a tool like MKVToolNix can include the subtitles directly inside the .mkv file and then you don't have to worry about a sidecar file.

[Bsmooth]

This is great info. After googling it for a couple days I got lots of info, but it seemed to go in every direction. Just between Mkv and Handbrake the options have kept my head spinning to say the least. As fas as DVD go sometime I can just put the DVD on with subtitles on and thats the way it comes out. The again I have run into a few older subtitles that don't have subtitles.
Just as a side story when I worked years ago, we used to share Records,Cassettes and CD's to listen to each others collections, and just to see what we all liked for music. I missed those days a lot, and the people I shared the music with, we didn't have streaming so it was the only way. I have to say backups are great, but having the actual discs themselves is good for peace of mind. But I wonder how long that will last.
As far as settings in MKv, should I check all the subtitles or just english, and then forced or not?

[dcoke22]

This thread has a relevant discussion of subtitles: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=36758