MKV not showing imbedded subtitles

[rajmahid]

I just backed up my BDs of Godfather I and II, and despite having checked 'forced English subtitles' in MakMKV, the subs don't show up during the Italian-language scenes when streaming to my Oppo -- though when I play back the original discs through the Oppo (BD-105) the 'embedded' English subtitles are all there there.

I've tried the 'subtitle' options on my remote during the abovementioned portions, but to no avail.

What am I missing here? I noticed a few others are having similar issues (though I don't use any other s/w to create the .mkv other than MakeMkv), but didn't see a satisfactory answer other than blaming the Oppo.

[Woodstock]

It is possible that the "forced" subtitles are not tagged as forced. There are a LOT of BDs out there that use a separate track for forced subtitles, rather than tagging individual subtitles as "forced" or "not forced" within a single subtitle track. The majority of BDs I've processed are that way. And some even have director/actor commentary as an additional track.

When you look at the data for each track on the BD (assuming you try the "Open" rather than "Backup" option), how many English subtitle tracks are shown for the movie?

[rajmahid]

It is possible that the "forced" subtitles are not tagged as forced. There are a LOT of BDs out there that use a separate track for forced subtitles, rather than tagging individual subtitles as "forced" or "not forced" within a single subtitle track. The majority of BDs I've processed are that way. And some even have director/actor commentary as an additional track.

When you look at the data for each track on the BD (assuming you try the "Open" rather than "Backup" option), how many English subtitle tracks are shown for the movie?

Here's a screen-shot of my original disc in MakeMkv, with all the appropriate tracks & titles checked, exactly as I prepped to create the original mkv (did it twice, as a matter of fact, to make sure I didn't miss anything:



If you can determine the cause of my issue from that, I'd be grateful.

[Chetwood]

It's also possible your Oppo does not support (unzipped) PGS subs. Try the WDTV profile to see if it makes a difference.

[rajmahid]

It's also possible your Oppo does not support (unzipped) PGS subs. Try the WDTV profile to see if it makes a difference.

I used the WDTV profile to rerip it to mkv but still no subs

I'll call Oppo to see if they have an answer or solution.

FOLLOWUP: I just spoke with Oppo and, unfortunately, you were correct -- their players don't support MKV subttitles. This would also make ripping my foreign (non-English-language) movies useless!

If anyone can suggest a workaround...other than using a compressed video format...please post it.

Thanks again.

[Woodstock]

There ARE workarounds.

The "easiest" is if the title ships with a DVD as well as the BD. You can use tools like MKVToolix to merge the subtitle tracks from a rip of the DVD with the video, audio, and chapter tracks from the BD, in place of the BD's subtitle tracks. They won't look quite as good, but... you can also run the result through tools like Handbrake to generate an MP4 file with switchable subtitles.

Handbrake (available from handbrake.fr) can read the PGS subtitles and "burn them in" to the video, when it creates an MP4 file. You can't switch them on and off if you do that, though.

[Romansh]

Get a dedicated media player (WD TV, Popcorn Hour, Mede8er) or an HTPC.

[rajmahid]

There ARE workarounds.

The "easiest" is if the title ships with a DVD as well as the BD. You can use tools like MKVToolix to merge the subtitle tracks from a rip of the DVD with the video, audio, and chapter tracks from the BD, in place of the BD's subtitle tracks. They won't look quite as good, but... you can also run the result through tools like Handbrake to generate an MP4 file with switchable subtitles.

Handbrake (available from handbrake.fr) can read the PGS subtitles and "burn them in" to the video, when it creates an MP4 file. You can't switch them on and off if you do that, though.

Get a dedicated media player (WD TV, Popcorn Hour, Mede8er) or an HTPC.

Thanks for the replies but I already have the DVD and BD versions of the Godfather trilogy...just wanted to have the convenience of streaming the blu-ray MKVs to my Oppo. But sacrificing quality for lower-res MP4s isn't an option for me. Not a big deal, though; even with my foreign films; the Oppo 105 upconverts even oldish SD DVDs beautifully, almost as good as BD!

As for getting a 'dedicated media player' -- none of the abovementioned even come close to the sheer video, audio quality and flexibility of the Oppo. I actually tried the WD and it...well, it sucked.

It's all about convenience -- and not having to get out of my couch every 2.5 hrs. to change DVDs.

PS: One of the HUGE pluses I discovered with MakeMKV is that I was able to successfully rip a PAL region DVD to mkv and play it on my NTSC-only Oppo 105. Older Oppo SD units were easily converted to multi-region with a few clicks of the keypad...but thanks to the good old greedy pigs in the movie industry, all BD players *must* conform to a single-region standard. And no, I don't want to hack my 105

[Smithcraft]

Did Oppo tell you what type of subs were supported in a Matroska container?

If text subs are supported, you could try using Subtitle Edit to convert the PGS subs to SRT.

SC

[Woodstock]

You can set the level of compression in tools like Handbrake, and trade size for quality.

But, if you're the sort that can't stand ANY aliased pixels on your display, you're already giving up some of that since BD data files are compressed...

[Chetwood]

But sacrificing quality for lower-res MP4s isn't an option for me.

Why lower-res? Noone is forcing you to encode to anything lower than full HD with Handbrake.

I actually tried the WD and it...well, it sucked.

Any screenshot comparisons to back that up?

It's all about convenience

Other options:

- extract PGS subs and convert to VobSub (idx/subd) with BDSUP2SUB and try if the Oppo can play them externally
- extract PGS subs and convert to srt with Subextractor (check doom9)

[rajmahid]

Once again, I appreciate all your suggestions. It's just a shame that a $1200 unit like the Oppo 105 doesn't support MKV subtitles. Ah well, there's always tradeoffs, regardless of the price.

While Handbrake is a terrific piece of software, as previously mentioned, I don't want to compromise quality with any added compression. And while compression certainly exists on BDs -- in theory, at least -- my 50" flat panel and eyes like the 'compressed' quality of the full-blown blu-ray experience in well-mastered releases. I'm one of those tweaks who loathes MP3s at *any* bitrate -- and can definitely hear the vast difference when I play 24/192 flacs on my stereo system.

Lazy slug that I am, I much prefer a turn-key solution to tedious and messy workarounds -- and MakeMKV seems to be ideal for ripping and streaming BD movies to my Oppo without compromising the quality -- save for the unfortunate inability of Oppo to display subs in MKVs. The best-of-all-worlds would be to stream ISOs to the Oppo -- but thanks to the movie industry, they've forced BD player manufacturers to eliminate that ability with draconian firmware 'updates'. But, seeing as a relatively small percentage of all my movies require forced subs I'll have to stagger 10 feet and slap a shiny disc in my player. In the meantime, I'm lovin' it!

[danitim77]

Hi guys ...
I have the same problem with Oppo 105 and I want to bring some info (what I found) and maybe we can find a solution together.
Let me start saying that Oppo DOES play subtitles . I can confirm that I played mkv with subtitles from oppo (the mkv that worked was not made with MakeMKV soft). The problem is that for some reason the format MakeMKV is using for subtitles is not supported by oppo players. Not even the forced ones ... and that can be very frustrating

Pls let me know if you guys found any solutions to this. Is it a way to edit the subtitle (maybe change the format to a format supported by oppo) after you have ripped the MKV file ???
To use another player si out of question as nothing come close to the video quality of the Oppo ...

Thanks guys...

[Chetwood]

Pls let me know if you guys found any solutions to this. Is it a way to edit the subtitle (maybe change the format to a format supported by oppo) after you have ripped the MKV file ???

You could post a Mediainfo output of 1 file that works and of 1 that doesn't. Or better yet: extract those 2 subs with MKVextractGUI or MKVcleaver, zip them up and post them to sendspace.com or something so we can have a look.

To use another player si out of question as nothing come close to the video quality of the Oppo ...

Which is apparently what Oppo managed to convince it's customers of. Good or them.

[angelgraves13]

Same problem on WD TV Live.

Fix is simple enough...run the MKV through mmkvmerge and it will add zlib compression. Most players require this.