[CLOSED] Subtitles issue with Bravia 2012 TV (ffmpeg issue)

Well, first, I would like to thanks the Serviio team for their overwhelming DLNA server, I tried many before Serviio and now nothing would make me switch to another. I currently own a 2012 model Sony BRAVIA KDL-40HX755 running the latest firmware available in Brazil (PKG1.910BRA) and I'm using Serviio 1.3.1. Everything is set up and working perfectly, except for subtitles. I already know that the 2012 lineup from Sony is a pain in the ass regarding to subtitle support and mkv container, so, I turned on "burned in" subtitles option in Serviio, but after doing that, any file with subtitles present in my library makes the TV throw up the "The server is Temporarily unavailable" error, however, on Serviio side, everything is working. I say that because when the error appear, looking at Task Manager I can see ffmpeg process running and Serviio Log doesn't show any error (if you go to the temporary folder, the file being remuxed is here and plays fine with Media Player Classic), but the TV still refuses to load... Running the ffmpeg command externally (outside of serviio) works normally and the file starts being remuxed on-the-fly, so, ffmpeg conversion is working, but the TV still show up the "The server is Temporarily unavailable" error. I tried manually updating the ffmpeg binary but nothing changes... Any clue?

[Illico]

Subtitles support : http://www.serviio.org/index.php?option ... icle&id=33

WARNING: Embedded subtitles might not work for some (large) files, due to the time needed to extract them. It's even more true if the file is stored on a remote drive.

Could you provide information about your file media ? ( see signature links)
Does the path is local or remote ?

All my files are stored locally and streamend directly from my laptop (where I installed Serviio) to the TV through an TP-Link WDR4300 router... I have different kinds of files, but none of them worked (they work fine if I disable subtitles):

• MKV file of about 8GB containing a 1080p AVC stream, an AC3 audio track and 2 embedded srt subtitles
• MKV file of about 300MB with an external srt subtitle of the same name
• AVI file of about 700MB with an external srt subtitle of the same name plus the lang code (in my case, avepg.avi and avepg-por.srt)

The ffmpeg I updated was compiled with libass and when I try to play the file in the TV, Serviio actually starts transcoding the file (if I go to the temp folder and try to play the file, it works with media player classic and actually have the subtitles working fine, "burned" in this partial file). My problem is that the TV apparently doesn't see this "partial file" that Serviio start remuxing with ffmpeg to stream to the TV, throwing "The server is Temporarily unavailable" message...

[Illico]

No idea...
Could you enable detailed logging then find the ffmpeg command line used, try the same command line in a terminal and post ffmpeg log here ? ( you can also add -report option and post the ffmpeg log file)
I want to now the transcoding process time...

Uh, the subtitle extraction time is the problem... If I try to play the file, ffmpeg will start extracting the subtitle and the TV will throw the error. Waiting about one minute and asking the TV to play the same file again works. Isn't there any way of increasing the "wait" time or using another binary to extract the subtitle faster? Weird is that this applies too to videos with external subtitles (in this case the remux should start instantly, not?)...

[Illico]

... Isn't there any way of increasing the "wait" time or using another binary to extract the subtitle faster?

I have the same problem with files are stored in a external network drive.
Does your drive is an standard HDD or SSD ? Try to copy your file in a local HDD drive and retry.

The files are on my computer's HDD. Tried moving it to an external portable HDD connected through USB 3.0 but got the same thing...

[Illico]

So this is probably due to a low CPU.
What is the time (fps) of the transcoding process ?

Definitely not a slow CPU. My laptop have a Core i7 3630QM @ 2.4 GHz (up to 3.4 GHz with Turbo Boost) and I get around 140 FPS during the transcoding time... It's just the subtitle extraction that take long time and make the TV throw the error, when the transcoding process starts, if I try to play the same file again then it works...

[Illico]

Uh, the subtitle extraction time is the problem... If I try to play the file, ffmpeg will start extracting the subtitle and the TV will throw the error. Waiting about one minute and asking the TV to play the same file again works. Isn't there any way of increasing the "wait" time or using another binary to extract the subtitle faster? Weird is that this applies too to videos with external subtitles (in this case the remux should start instantly, not?)...

No more ideas.

- We know that for large file, subtitle extraction (with ffmpeg process from a file with embedded subtitle) can reach the timeout (something like 30s), and TV failed to play.
- But I don't understand why you have same problem with external subtitle (are you sure there were not embedded subtitles ?), and yes should start instantly.

btw: You have to set the same char encoding between serviio console and external subtitle files (utf-8 for example).

I found the problem: the files I tried to play with external subtitle also had embedded subtitle -- removing the embedded subtitle form the container fixes it (the other strange part is that my avi was actually a mkv file with wrong extension). One more thing, extracting subtitles through MkvMerge tools is pretty fast (around 2 seconds), isn't there some way of making serviio use an external program (rather than ffmpeg) to extract the subtitles and use ffmpeg only for remuxing?

[Illico]

I found the problem: the files I tried to play with external subtitle also had embedded subtitle -- removing the embedded subtitle form the container fixes it (the other strange part is that my avi was actually a mkv file with wrong extension).

OK, so problem comes from embedded subtitle very long to extract (with ffmpeg)...

One more thing, extracting subtitles through MkvMerge tools is pretty fast (around 2 seconds), isn't there some way of making serviio use an external program (rather than ffmpeg) to extract the subtitles and use ffmpeg only for remuxing?

No, I'm not sure Zip would like to change it.
The best is to know why ffmpeg failed to extract subtitle more faster. You can post on ffmpeg forum.

Ok, thanks for the help. One last quick question, when I add online media in the Serviio console, in which folder at TV should I look?

EDIT: nevermind, figured it out. Thanks again