Captions are not working. Please help

[akulac]

Converted 4 blu ray movies (DJONGO, HOBBIT, JACK REACHER, THE LAST STAND) to mkv using makeMKV 1.8.4. When I play back I could not able to get captions. I tried on three different devices (OPPO 93, LG 3D blu ray player, LG LM9600 TV). When I play actual blu ray I get captions. I was about to buy this software. When I converted blue ray I selected ENGLISH subtitle and forced subtitle.
Am I am doing any thing wrong? All mkv files are on a 3Tb usb disk attached to ASUS router, so that I can play them by any DLNA enabled device in my home network. Please help me.Thanks

[Woodstock]

Your players do not support uncompressed PGS subtitles (the type BDs use) within an MKV file. For some, selecting the "WDTV" profile under the advanced settings of MakeMKV will make it work, by compressing the subtitles. For others, they simply will not work with their current software.

[Chetwood]

Which is not a problem of the software but of the players. Apparently Oppo players do not support embedded PGS subs.

[akulac]

Thanks guys for your valuable tips. I am not doubting the software. I will try "WDTV" profile and see if I am lucky.
But I was wondering why makemkv does uncompress PGS subtitles ? Thanks

[Romansh]

Subtitles are NOT zlib-compressed on Blu-ray.

It just does not compress them by default, unlike mkvmerge. HandBrake behaves the same as MakeMKV (though since we're lazy, there's no option to enable zlib compression in HandBrake - maybe it'll be possible with the new avformat-based muxer, IDK).

[Chetwood]

Subtitles are NOT zlib-compressed on Blu-ray.

But they ought to be in MKVs?

From the Matroska Specification Document:

**************************************************
Default Values
The default value of an element is assumed when not present in the data stream. It is assumed only in the scope of its upper-element (for example Language in the scope of the Track element). If the upper element is not present or assumed, then the element cannot be assumed
**************************************************

In the case of the "ContentCompAlgo" parameter (Content Compression Algorithm), zlib is the default value. Thus, zlib is assumed for all tracks unless specified otherwise.

[akulac]

Ok. Thanks guys. Unfortunately subtitles did not work with "WDTV" profile either.

[akulac]

Finally I got subtitles working. Used Handbrake 0.9.9 to "burn in" PGS subtitles in mkv container. One issue though. May be I do not know how to fix this in Handbrake. The video is stretched vertically cropping of horizontal bars. Thanks

[Woodstock]

Generally speaking, Handbrake will attempt to eliminate the bars if it can. But make sure that you have "Keep Aspect Ratio" checked on the Picture tab of the settings. Some of the profiles do NOT do this, and the results are very weird.

[akulac]

Thanks Woodstock. By default HB does automatic crop. I choose "custom" and set 0 for both top and bottom. Video is perfect now.

[akulac]

Hi Mike, I am sure there are lot of guys like me would like to know whether you have some time to work on the PGS subtitles.
I tried many blu-ray players and streaming players. None of them disply subtitles eventhough the titles were there in mkv file.
I am ready to buy any piece of equipment that display PGS subtitles from mkv file, extracted from blu-ray.
Thanks guys

[Woodstock]

"Working on PGS subtitles" how? MakeMKV puts them in. The player determines whether or not they work.

I have confirmed that PGS subtitles work on the Uebo M400 (if latest firmware is installed) and on the Micca EP600G2. Others say they work on WD Live, so long as the subtitle streams are compressed (this is included in the WD profile). The Uebo M100 does NOT support PGS subtitles, unless they've updated the firmware recently. VLC supports them.

A lot of older players do NOT understand PGS, and you can't put PGS into MP4 files so any player that doesn't support MKV will have to have them burned in during the conversion from MKV to MP4.