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Hello all

Firstly, apologies for another Avatar Thread but I have Searched the Forum and am unable to find an Answer to my Issue.

I have the '3 Disc Collectors Edition' which has the Theatrical, Special and Collectors Edition on the Same Disc.

I have tried Ripping each Edition, Selecting the PGS English Subtitles and also the Forced Subtitles item.

The Threads on this Forum mention Playlist 802, but this Blu-ray has Playlists Numbered 101, 102, 103 which does not help.

No matter what I try I am unable to get the Forced Subtitle to Show, I can get the Full English Subtitles, but not the Forced.

I have tried using MKVToolnix to set the Forced Flag and still no luck.

I have been trying to get this right for the last few Days, I have now given up on it and have moved onto the Next Blu-ray.

Can anyone suggest anything that I may have missed?

Thanks in advance

Kevin

First, be aware that MakeMKV will only use the "Forced subtitle" track for subtitles that have the "forced" flag set. If there are none, the track will be empty, and it will be deleted.

This is important because it is very rare that subtitles get the forced flag set. That does not mean there are no forced (always display) subtitles... just that they are more likely to be in a SEPARATE track, that is only played when you select them. A common example is most anime; there will be TWO English subtitle tracks, one containing everything, the other containing only "forced" subtitles, but none of them will be tagged as forced.

So when you extract them from the disk there will be two tracks deleted as empty, if you tried to extract the "forced only" tracks.

Now, what are going to be the "forced subtitles"? That varies with titles. A lot of titles will show subtitles for non-native languages, i.e., non-Japanese on an originally-Japanese title, like they would show the subtle in Japanese if you were watching with Japanese audio. Always fun when you see one subtitle overwriting another on playback!

Hello

Thanks for the Reply.

If it is a case of the Forced Flag not being Set on the Forced Subtitle Tracks, is it just a simple matter of Enabling the Forced Flag for the Forced Subtitle Tracks in MakeMKV prior to Ripping?

Thanks in advance

Kevin

Prior to ripping, there is nothing you can do. If the flag isn't set on the disk, it's not going to be set in the MKV file or the backup (if you're not ripping to MKVs).

To be honest, I have not tried setting it after the fact. However, WHY you want it set can decide what you can do.

If it's just to make sure they are played, step one is determining which track has the "forced" subtitles. Then, you can use mkvtoolnix to set that track as both "default" and "forced", which works with most players (not all!). I use a batch file for that, AFTER I run my files through handbrake to put the tracks in the "right order".

In my case, I'm working with Japanese anime, so I want the tracks as English audio, Japanese audio, English forced subtitles, English all subtitles as the four non-video tracks, then this batch file to set the first subtitle track as "default" and "forced":
I've found that default alone does not work for most software players, and forced alone doesn't work for most hardware players, but both seems to cover most everything I've tried.

Hello

Thanks for the Reply.

Just curious but why not just Set the MKV Flags for the Subtitles in MakeMKV?

Select the Subtitle on the Left, Select MKV Flags from the Drop Down Menu at the Top and enter D for Default or F for Forced, it has worked here.

Doing the above has allowed me to finally get the Forced Subtitles on Avatar, Avengers Assemble and Charlie's Angels, thus far.

Thanks

Kevin

Well, because I never dug that far into the flags in MakeMKV, since it's pretty tedious to do that for most of my stuff.

When you're dealing with a disk with 5 to 15 (sometimes more) episodes, individually setting flags would take a bit. Not to mention that handbrake (my next step in processing a disk) doesn't preserve these flags normally. The batch file, though, fits into my automatic processing, taking about 1 second per track on the disk.

For someone who isn't processing a series (say you're only dealing with one video), it makes sense. But it seems silly for my processing.