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Plex and forced subtitles (Game of Thrones, Star Wars, etc.)

Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:40 pm
by Giffdev
Hey folks,
I've been doing some searches but haven't quite found anything definitive for my needs. I noticed when playing movies like Star Wars 4k or Game of Thrones 4k, that quite often the subtitles for alien languages, dothraki/valerian, etc. are missing by default. For Game of Thrones, if I go into the subtitle options, there are 2 english subtitles - one is full-english subtitles for everything, the other are the "forced" subtitles only to just see the dothraki languages. However, this is inconvenient, as I have to turn the subtitles on for *every* episode that happens to have that in it.

In the Plex account > Audio & Subtitle settings, I have it set to:
Unchecked - automatically select audio and subtitle tracks
SUBTITLES FOR THE DEAF OR HARD-OF-HEARING (SDH) SEARCHES - prefer non SDH subtitles
FORCED SUBTITLE SEARCHES - Prefer forced subtitles

Under Plex Account > Settings > Languages I have it set to:
unchecked - automatically select audio and subtitle tracks
Prefer audio tracks in - English
Subtitle mode - show with foreign audio
Prefer subtitles in - English

So, I think there are 3 main questions:

1. How can I see when using MakeMKV if there is a forced subtitle track, to ensure it's available
2. If there are "forced" subtitles but they aren't labeled as such on the disk, how can I use a tool to set the "forced" flag and resave the mkv files?
3. For instances like Game of Thrones where the forced track clearly exists on applicable episodes, how do I get that to play by default (as it does on the physical disk) when watching in Plex?

Thanks so much in advance

Re: Plex and forced subtitles (Game of Thrones, Star Wars, etc.)

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 6:02 am
by Chetwood
Have you searched the forums? This has been discussd to death, recently with Game of Thrones subs. This should apply to Plex as well.