Kodi Community Forum

Hi,

I need help/advice for subtitles in XBMC.

The problem is, regardless of the software (XBMC, XBMC+DSPlayer, XBMC+external player like MPC-HC or PotPlayer, ...), I have different behavior with subtitles. I don't know if the problem is identical for english audio/subtitle, but I have the problem for french audio/subtitle.


Before giving my result, I will list some properties of these three movies that I know I have the problem :

Avatar (BD-ISO)
Audio : One for each language
Subtitles : One for each language

The Hobbit (BD-ISO)
Audio : One for each language
subtitles : Two for each language (the first one appear throughout the movie, the second appear only when need)

Star Trek Into Darkness (BD-ISO)
Audio : One for each language
Subtitles : One for each language



Below, I give result from the last monthly built (alpha 8), but I have the same problem with 12.0 and 12.2. Also, when I'm telling "when need", I mean that subtitles appear only on special occasion. ex: when a character speak in Na'vi, Elvish, klingon, etc.


By default, on a new XBMC installation, subtitles are enabled. In System, I changed the default language for audio and subtitle to French.

Result 1 (subtitle enabled)
Avatar : When need
The Hobbit : Throughout the movie because the first subtitle is use by default
Star Trek : Throughout the movie


If, by default, I disable subtitle, I get :

Result 2 (subtitle disabled)
Avatar : No subtitle. I must enable it if I want to see subtitle "when need".
The Hobbit : No subtitle. I must enable it and select the second french subtitle
Star Trek : when need (Probably a forced subtitle)




I also tried with XBMC+DSPlayer, DSPlayer with external filter... but every time it is tricky and I cannot find a solution for every files. If I use software like PowerDVD or TMT, I don't have this problem. Maybe these software are using some information in index.bdmv to determine if it must enable or not a subtitle? I don't know. The problem is that these software are not free and I would prefer a solution for XBMC. But actually, an integration of TMT within XBMC seems to be the only working solution.

I hope you have suggestion, because I already spent a lot of time trying many options. Maybe it will be more fast/easy with your suggestions




* Also, maybe someone will suggest converting these movies in mkv. The idea is not bad, but you must know that I have more than one thousand of movies (ISO of real BD/DVD media). It will take a lot of time to convert these movies, verify if everything is working and if I have everything (full movie, bonus, all subtitles, some movies have multiple movie length on the same disk, multi-angle, ...).


Thanks

Interesting, I am having a very similar issue. I have not found a solution either.

what you refer to as "when needed" subtitles is known as "forced" subtitles, I am not an expert but i have found three kinds of subtitles. The normal subtitles that display the text transcriptions of the dialogue, then there are the closed caption type subtitles that do the dialogue and describe sound (this is meat for deaf or the hard of hearing and often have an icon of an ear crossed out next to them) then lastly there are forced subtitles, which is useful when a movie's audio track is in the right language but with in that film there is a second additional language spoken, so they only force the subtitles for these few lines of dialogue...sometimes these files are properly named and you will see "forced" somewhere in the file name when you download the srt file from a source like open subtitles or shooter...but they aren't always properly labeled and if you rip your own films then your the one responsible for naming the subtitles that are used in the file so it is important to know the difference.

the second problem you seem to be facing is which subtitle xbmc uses by default, there are two ways to handle this... 1) in the xbmc settings (settings, appearance, international) you can select your preferred audio and subtitle language which should work assuming that the srt files are tagged correctly and have a language on them. 2) use a program such as mkvmerge or handbrake (I prefer mkvmerge) and then you can place your subtitle files directly into your video/audio file, then you can retag your subtitles by language and also reorder them according to ID tags (if you want french subs to display by default for that particular film then you can make it the first on the list and so xbmc will read it first (assuming you don't have another language set to be the default).

Option 2 would require you making your db/dvd rips into mkv or mp4 files however (altho there are many ways to keep your bonus materials, including stacking mkv files or using multiple video and audio tracks. This is what i have done for my 500 plus films and its worked flawlessly for me so far, as long as I pay attention when ripping the first time.

Thank you for your answer

It seems a good idea to download/extract .srt and put it in the movie directory. At least, it is safer for me than converting every movie and also, probably shorter in time/efforts.

Though, it is a pity that I have to duplicate this information. Subtitles are already in the ISO but they are not properly used. This problem seems common (some other software have this problem too).

In my case, it is the only thing that bothers me. Everything else is working : Smooth playback of 1080p bluray, audio passthrough, etc. It takes some time to generate an nfo for every movie, but it is really nice to see the result in XBMC. The primary function of the htpc will be to replace a blu-ray player. All other features are only bonus. This project is for my uncle and without a solution (buying TMT, exporting/downloading .srt for almost every movie, rip...), my uncle would have to guess/try every time he plays a movie (and it will not be the only one to use this htpc). I hope to find/build a turnkey solution.


I will try some tools to extract subtitles from my ISO because I'm not sure I will find subtitles for all these movies. Some movies are really uncommon and only available where I live.

Also I will try to rips these three movies and see what happen to subtitle.


I'll let you know after my tests.

Necro55 : How are your movies stored? ISO, BD/DVD files structure, mkv/mp4, etc.


Meanwhile, if there are others people who have ideas or additions to the suggestions of digitaltomj, you're welcome.

Thanks again

Assuming your movies are properly named, then the offical XBMC subtitle addon should do a good job at finding your subs, You will have even better results after fiddling with that addon's settings so you can search multiple sites, state a prefered language (up to 3) and manually enter the search string. I have found a subtitle for every one of my films, both in english and in chinese...and I'm thinking if i can find subs in chinese for films and tv shows that are banned in china entirely, then it shouldn't be too hard for you.

I haven't dealt with ISOs in a while after discovering MKVs but there has to be a simple way to extract the subs from them and retag them so they can be properly read in xbmc.