How to disable automatic subtitles

[nkley]

I've been reading through some forums as to how to disable subtitles when ripping a bluray, but how do you set the rip so that it keeps the subtitles but doesn't automatically turn them on? This didn't seem to be an issue with MakeMKV until it's most recent verions.

[Woodstock]

That depends upon the player software. Some players respect flags. Most... Not so much.

My experience is that some players always play the first subtitle track found in the user's preferred language, regardless of flags set on the tracks. Other players (ViMu on Android, for example) will play NO subtitle tracks, unless explicitly asked to, regardless of flags.

People say that Kodi respects flags. When I've been able to get it to work at all, it will play subtitles from DVD sources, but not BD. Not sure if it respects any flags.

[Grauhaar]

but how do you set the rip so that it keeps the subtitles but doesn't automatically turn them on?

All what you can do is to set the default and forced flag to "False or No". You can do this with "MKVTooolNIX GUI", select the Header Editor part, select the file, goto the subtitle section and switch default and forced it "No" and save it.

Unfortunately MakeMKV has changed the default profile settings (you can find it with the Forum search, also the solution) that the first subtitle track is set to "True". Setting the first subtitle track default to true is for me a wrong setting, this maybe correct but in most cases this is wrong, it makes only sense for forrced subtiles.

And as Woodstock tolds, it depends on the player if the flags are respected.

[nkley]

I know in previous versions of MakeMKV this was never an issue but as of recent, MakeMKV seems to set the subtitles of bluray rips to FORCED. Is there anyway to combat this and turn them off so it doesn't default to subtitles when played back on VLC player?

When I enable expert mode, this is the default selection tool configuration:

-sel:all,+sel:(favlang|nolang),-sel:mvcvideo,=100:all,-10:favlang

Is there anyway to manually modify this code to switch off subtitle automation?

[Woodstock]

No, the selection string does not control the "Default" flag. You need to create a new profile that has the flag variables set to false.

To do that, you need to extract the "default" profile from appdata.tar in the MakeMKV program directory, save it under a new name in your MakeMKV data directory, and modify the following lines:

<!-- profile name - NoSubFlagSet -->
<name lang="mogz">NoSubFlagSet</name>

<!-- Common MKV flags -->
<mkvSettings
ignoreForcedSubtitlesFlag="true"
useISO639Type2T="false"
setFirstAudioTrackAsDefault="true"
setFirstSubtitleTrackAsDefault="false"
setFirstForcedSubtitleTrackAsDefault="false"
insertFirstChapter00IfMissing="true"
/>

You have to be careful to make sure the XML syntax is maintained, and that the editor you use understands and can write UTF-encoded files.

I'm attaching a modified 1.15.0 default profile.

[nkley]

When I open up the data directory folder, all that shows up is:

_private_data.tar
screen.conf
settings.conf
update.conf

Should the "appdata.tar" be showing up as well? Or is there another location for that?

Thanks for all your help with this! Forgive my naïveté with this stuff.

[Grauhaar]

The appdata.tar can be found here: C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV

The new build profile must be stored here: C:\Users\<username>\.MakeMKV

[Woodstock]

The new build profile must be stored here: C:\Users\<username>\.MakeMKV

Or where Preferences->General, MakeMKV data directory points to.

[nkley]

Are these instructions for mac users? I'm running Catalina.

[Woodstock]

Yes, they apply to all MakeMKV versions, other than where the program directory is found. The data directory is controlled by preferences; the program directory is based on where you told MacOS to put the app.

On a Mac (and Linux), you already have tar available to extract the files from appdata.tar.

[nkley]

I still cannot seem to locate "appdata.tar" from the data directory within MakeMKV. I still only have those 4 options listed above in a previous reply. I tried copying and pasting the \Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV into my search bar but no results came up.

My only file path is Users/Library/MakeMKV

Do you think I need to re-install the software? Or is there another reason as to why it might not be showing up?

[Woodstock]

appdata.tar isn't in the data directory, it's in the application program directory.

At this point, though, you really don't need to find it; use the file attached to my earlier message, dropping it in the data directory. It is the current default profile from appdata.tar, already extracted and modified to disable the tagging.

You should not modify things in the program directory, by the way; updating MakeMKV will removed changed files. The data directory will be left untouched during an update.

[nkley]

Thanks for the continued help, @Woodstock. Would you mind if I sent you a screen recording of what I'm doing to follow the steps? It still seems like it's forbidding me to add a custom setting to the data directory? I don't think i can send videos though here but if you provide me an email I can send a google drive video or even wetransfer?

Let me know if you are up for that. No worries if not.

[Woodstock]

I can't help with direct steps on Mac, but your MakeMKV data directory should always be in a writable location. That is one of the reasons MakeMKV no longer stores user data in the program directory; that area is usually "read only" unless you're logged in with an administrator account.

[StoneWulf]

Is there an updated method available for this? I tried using the

setFirstSubtitleTrackAsDefault="false"
setFirstForcedSubtitleTrackAsDefault="false"

Method but that only turned ALL subtitles ON.

This seems like some thing that should be easily set in the UI. This is a great program but the UI is not very intuitive and too many settings are missing.