MakeMKV 1.7.9 Subtitles in wrong character set on WDTV

[pennhaven]

How about uploading a 3 min sample clip to a filehoster? You should split the file with TSMuxerGUI rather than MKVToolnix so the latter can be ruled out as cause for any possible change to the sub. Once we have the sample clip, we can extract the subs before and after using MakeMKV on them.

All clips I created making cuts with TSMuxeRGUI ended up with no subtitles at all. i.e., Subtitles were no longer present in either VLC or WDTV. Subtitle settings in TSMuxeRGUI were left at default, though it doesn't look to me like those settings apply to Blu-ray anyway.



It looks to me as though TSMuxeR is not reading the subtitle files in the mkv.



I tried TS Muxing and M2TS Muxing. No subtitle show up when viewed. I can still upload a clip somewhere, but since it seems all of the subtitle info is missing I don't know what it will accomplish.

[pennhaven]

Here are examples of what appears on screen when subtitles are enabled with WDTV.

[Romansh]

The final output of the double remux as per above behaves exactly like the original .mkv.

That rules out some differences in zlib compression between MakerMKV and mkvmerge (which was already a bit of a stretch to begin with). I doubt anything can be done about it on MakeMKV's side.

[Chetwood]

D'uh, you should have posted this screenshot first cause now I've realized what you meant by "gibberish". PGS subs looked like this on the original WDTV Live before they fixed it in firmware 1.06.15. I haven't followed WDLXTV-Live but since it is based on the official 1.05.04 firmware, you're out of luck if you really need any of its enhanced features (personally I don't).

As for TSMuxerGUI and no subs, have you tried ripping the files with DVD Fab HD Decrypter so there's definitely no copy protection stopping TSMuxer from accessing all content?

Got MI: Ghost Protocol on BD?

Yes, and I got yellow German forced subs during the scene in the Russian prison.

[pennhaven]

D'uh, you should have posted this screenshot first cause now I've realized what you meant by "gibberish". PGS subs looked like this on the original WDTV Live before they fixed it in firmware 1.06.15. I haven't followed WDLXTV-Live but since it is based on the official 1.05.04 firmware, you're out of luck if you really need any of its enhanced features (personally I don't).

As for TSMuxerGUI and no subs, have you tried ripping the files with DVD Fab HD Decrypter so there's definitely no copy protection stopping TSMuxer from accessing all content?

No. As I said, I'm not at all into running various video software. I'm not a big time ripper and have been relying solely on MakeMKV for it's simplicity. It was only recently when I had a need for subtitles that I noticed this issue.

But thanks, at least now I know what the underlying issue is!

Now that we know this, would it matter if I could rip with Fab HD Decrypter as far as getting these PGS subtitles readable using 1.05.04 based firmware?

[Romansh]

Got MI: Ghost Protocol on BD?

Yes, and I got yellow German forced subs during the scene in the Russian prison.

Hmm. Forced subs were displayed blue for me (English track) on the WD TV (vs. yellow in VLC and on my PopBox v8). Interestingly the WD TV shows the full subtitle track for Casino Royale in white (correct), vs. pink on the PopBox. So ti varies from disc to disc.

[Romansh]

Now that we know this, would it matter if I could rip with Fab HD Decrypter as far as getting these PGS subtitles readable using 1.05.04 based firmware?

Not as PGS. I guess you could convert them to VobSub (IIRC the 'HD' VobSub variant works on the WD TV too). Won't look as pretty though (both in terms of colors and sharpness).

[Chetwood]

would it matter if I could rip with Fab HD Decrypter as far as getting these PGS subtitles readable using 1.05.04 based firmware?

Nope, cause the problem lies with the firmware and not the ripping process and I'm pretty sure I can imagine WD's answer: update to 1.06.15!

Forced subs were displayed blue for me (English track) on the WD TV (vs. yellow in VLC and on my PopBox v8). Interestingly the WD TV shows the full subtitle track for Casino Royale in white (correct), vs. pink on the PopBox.

I meant on the PC but you're right: as with Avatar the subs are yellow in BDSUP2SUB and VLC but blue on the WDTV LIVE. Which is meant when you said all hardware devices have all sorts of issues with PGS subs? How come?

[pennhaven]

Since the developers of WDlxTV are not planning a version using the WD 1.06 base firmware until it is more bug free. (most recent discussion re. 1.06.34 and .38) And since I regularly use the added features of WDlxTV I came up with my own workaround for the .mkv Blu-ray subtitle issue.

I learned that WDTV 1.05 firmware does handle Blu-ray subtitles perfectly in .M2TS files. So I used the MakeMKV's backup feature to make a decrypted backup of the entire Blu-ray disc.

Then I found the .m2ts file for the movie (the largest file).



That file played as is with the WDTV, but for some reason it would not play with VLC. So I re-muxed it using tsMuxeR GUI. This step also provides the opportunity to remove any unwanted audio and subtitle tracks.





The resulting m2ts plays fine on both the WDTV and the PC.

Of course this process is more complicated and time consuming than using MakeMKV as intended, but I found it gets the job done and solves my problem.

Too bad MakeMKV doesn't provide an M2TS output option as part of the normal functioning, but I guess that would make it MakeM2TS not MakeMKV.

[EDIT: Since I first posted this I learned it's important to use the playlist for the movie for input in tsMuxeR instead of just the primary M2TS. The playlist insures that if there is more than one M2TS for the movie that they are all included. It also contains the chapter information. The way I did it the first time there were no chapters. BDInfo software can be used to quickly figure out which playlist to use.]

[Romansh]

Which is meant when you said all hardware devices have all sorts of issues with PGS subs? How come?

All I meant is that, in my experience, hardware devices seem to have various issues (some of which are simply limitations, such as the WD TV's failure to render uncompressed PGS in MKV) when it comes to PGS subtitles…

[Chetwood]

Problem is to find out if it's the player or MakeMKV. I'd really like to know if the wrong subtitle color in Avatar is messed up by MakeMKV or not.

[Romansh]

Problem is to find out if it's the player or MakeMKV. I'd really like to know if the wrong subtitle color in Avatar is messed up by MakeMKV or not.

It's the player. For PGS, the color palette is part of the subtitle data, and not external like for DVD subtitles. There is no extraction/translation needed when going from Blu-ray to MKV, and thus no opportunity for the ripping application to mess up the color.