MKV and Subtitles Question

Hello all,

Can't seem to get Serviio to play subtitles on an MKV file.I have checkmarked 'Enable subtitles' and 'Enable extraction of subtitles embedded in video files. I have also entered in the 'Preferred Language' box: "en,eng,english" (without quotation marks).

I am able to play these files with subtitles through VLC (on Mac) and Plex, but have had no success through Serviio. I have admittedly been unable to confirm what language codes exist within the mkv files, but have failed across a range of files, leading me to believe it may be something else. Is it really necessary to specify a language code when there is only one subtitle track?

Any help in solving why I can't seem to pull this off is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

[zip]

What is your device?

Post ffmpeg -i of the file.

I'm trying to stream to a PS3.

Unfortunately, I can't get ffmpeg -i to work. The Terminal tells me "-bash: ffmpeg: command not found". Any idea on how I can get what's required? Sorry I'm so unfamiliar with how to go about doing this! Your help is much appreciated!

Okay, I think I may have figured out how to get the ffmpeg - i info:

  Code:

Input #0, matroska,webm, from 'video.mkv':
  Metadata:
    creation_time   : 2013-09-08 15:04:55
  Duration: 00:23:40.16, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1905 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (High), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.81 fps, 23.81 tbr, 1k tbn, 47.95 tbc (default) (forced)
    Stream #0:1: Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp (default) (forced)
    Stream #0:2: Subtitle: ssa (default) (forced)
Codec 0x18000 is not in the full list.
    Stream #0:3: Attachment: unknown_codec
    Metadata:
      filename        : OpenSans-Semibold.ttf
      mimetype        : application/x-truetype-font

[DenyAll]

The PS3 has limited (read almost nil) support for subtitles and doesn't support subtitles in MKV files (which it doesn't support anyway) or in the transcoded file (m2ts). There are only two ways that I know of for getting subtitles working on the PS3:

• For AVI files, you can use a program called AVIADDXSubs to embed the subtitles into the AVI container. I have heard this also works with MP4's but have not had it confirmed. My undertsanding is that this is only supported by the PS3 because of the licensing requirements for DivX;
• For all else (and in your case) - you must burn the subtitles into the video stream. This requires transcoding of the video stream and is processor intensive (particularly for HD content). In Serviio console, Delivery, Subtitles select Enable burned-in subtitles

Thank you for your insight, DenyAll.

Unfortunately, I have selected 'Enable burned-in subtitles' as well and the subtitles still fail to appear

The file is relatively small, however, and my computer nowhere near weak enough for it be a hardware issue.

[DenyAll]

Cheers - you are trying to extract the subs from the MKV and then burn them back into the m2ts transcoded file. Should work, but maybe the type of subs is an issue (ssa) - zip is best to follow up. Can you see the sub file being extracted (in your transcode temp file I believe).

While I can see the transcode temp file, I'm uncertain how to go about verifying if it doing anything with the subtitle. How can I go about doing this?

[DenyAll]

Post a (click for details) detailed log of when you are playing the file and lets see what Serviio is doing. I don't think it is extracting the subtitles (which it must do prior to burning them in).

[zip]

it looks like the FFmpeg is old - it doesn't state the language of the subtitle track, so the embedded subtitle track matching will not work. Then you have to enable burned-in subtitles for the PS3.