Win7, Movie Library and Subtitles ! Any idea ?

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DavidinCT

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Win7, Movie Library and Subtitles ! Any idea ?

#1

Post by DavidinCT » Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:22 pm

Hey all,

My wife is losing her hearing. So no matter how high I crank my HT, she still has an issue hearing voices correctly. The movies in the Movie library, I find that I need to rip/remove Subtitles or they have a problem playing at all. (MKV format).

So, has anyone found a way to put a srt or keep a Subtitle in a MKV file, and force WMC to have the option to use Subtitles ? It NEEDS to be selectable where it can be disabled. If I am watching a movie with the kids or by myself, I hate Subtitles, so it NEEDS to have that option.

Anyone ever really play with this ? As for movie formats, 98% of my movies are in MVK format (it's my preferred format, I rip movies directly to MKV)

Or should I move to something else (Note: Needs to work in WMC on an extender, if I need a 3rd party app, it will not fit my needs, and NO "My Movies")
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#2

Post by jachin99 » Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:28 pm

MCE remote plus let's you toggle subtitles. I know sharks codecs also have subtitle options. I have had problems with those 2 forcing subtitles actually but I just disabled them outright. Where you rip MKV with the guide (not auto rip and compress) if you expand the boxes on the left menu it will let you pick which subtitles to rip. You can probably configure this via rip and compress also. Hope that helps

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#3

Post by jachin99 » Mon Apr 09, 2018 12:58 am

One more thought, have you tried closed captions?

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#4

Post by DavidinCT » Mon Apr 09, 2018 12:13 pm

jachin99 wrote:MCE remote plus let's you toggle subtitles. I know sharks codecs also have subtitle options. I have had problems with those 2 forcing subtitles actually but I just disabled them outright. Where you rip MKV with the guide (not auto rip and compress) if you expand the boxes on the left menu it will let you pick which subtitles to rip. You can probably configure this via rip and compress also. Hope that helps
Riddle me this. With the MCE Remote plus (not sure what your speaking about). How should the subtitles be formatted in the movie library ? MKV files with subtitles inside it have issues playing sometimes (not sure what that is).

As for formatting, do you mean a SRT file (a subtitle file) named as the same as the video file or keep them inside a MKV file? I use a Pronto remote so I could find the IR code for it.

jachin99 wrote:One more thought, have you tried closed captions?
The closed caption option does not show in the movie library like it does in TV
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#5

Post by jachin99 » Mon Apr 09, 2018 1:23 pm

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... php?t=1283 Here they talk about setting it up. I think its in the list of third party addons on this site.
Here is another thread where they talk about it on the emby forums: https://emby.media/community/index.php? ... mote-plus/

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#6

Post by DavidinCT » Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:21 pm

Cool, if I get some time this weekend I'll play with it. It seems they use SRT files with it, I can hunt down subtiles for each movie (I think the wife would watch).
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#7

Post by DavidinCT » Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:06 pm

SO, I am playing with this today. And with DirectVobSub enabled, on h264 based MVK files with a SRT (Subtitles file) in the same directory, it kind of works. I set a "S" key as the hot key with MCE remote plus, and hitting the "S" key while the movie is on turns them off and on This is with Shark007 codecs as the base.

I had 3 movies I tried with this example,

Movie 1.
MKV - h264 video-audio DD, with a srt in it's folder.

Movie 2.
MKV - h265 video, Audio: DTS X 4K video with srt in it's folder.

Movie 3
MKV - h265 video, Audio: DTS HD master INBETTED subtiles (just one, English)

The issues are:.
1. By Default subs are turned on when a h264 movie starts, This needs to be reversed. I want the movie to start with out the subs and enable IF needed.
2. If it's not a h264 file, it does not work... I have a lot of newer moves in h.265, this does not work at all with them (movie #3 would not even play unless I removed the subs).

As more and more movies are getting ripped directly from a h265 source, this is a big deal getting these to work with a toggle.

Just so I am clear, I tried the other options for Subtitles (both FFDshow options) and I could not even get subtitles showing...

Spent about 3 hours on this and at this point I need to disable them till I get them working solid...
Last edited by DavidinCT on Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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#8

Post by jachin99 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:49 pm

I'm not sure exactly how MCE remote plus works but if I were in your situation, I would email sharks. I can't think of any subtitle software for WMC that has been actively developed since h265 has become more of a normal thing. I'm not moving past 1080p for a good while so I won't have any experience with that. I can tell you that LAV is all over the place, and the author (Hendrik I think) will very likely be building subtitle capabilities into his filters. It might be a good idea to ping sharks and ask him how you can enable it. I see subtitles requests in every Media Center Software forum so I'm sure the capability already exists. Its just a matter of getting it to play in WMC.

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#9

Post by DavidinCT » Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:58 pm

jachin99 wrote:I'm not sure exactly how MCE remote plus works but if I were in your situation, I would email sharks. I can't think of any subtitle software for WMC that has been actively developed since h265 has become more of a normal thing. I'm not moving past 1080p for a good while so I won't have any experience with that. I can tell you that LAV is all over the place, and the author (Hendrik I think) will very likely be building subtitle capabilities into his filters. It might be a good idea to ping sharks and ask him how you can enable it. I see subtitles requests in every Media Center Software forum so I'm sure the capability already exists. Its just a matter of getting it to play in WMC.
My TV is a 4K model, My Media Center was optimized for 4K, 4K videos run flawlessly on my setup. 4K videos are all done in H265 these days (and if you take a 2K movie and convert it to h265 it's almost 1/2 the size with 0 loss of quality).

MCE remote plus is very simple at it's setup, select the type of codec and the shortcut key. It's down to the codec it's self. This is where I am really lost on this one. I got EVERYTHING playing perfectly with bitstreaming audio giving me even Atmos audio but, this subtitle thing is a pain in the a$$..

I sent a PM to shark007 on here, maybe he can give some light on this one...

I disabled subitltes till I can find a option to get them working correctly across all formats... It's no good if it only works with some movies.
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#10

Post by jachin99 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:14 pm

You might try emailing headsoft as well. I'm no expert but it doesn't seem like building compatibility into a new file type would be that hard. Their site is still up so that alone tells you they care at least that much about their software. http://headsoft.com.au/

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#11

Post by Shark007 » Sun Apr 15, 2018 8:46 pm

DavidinCT wrote:I sent a PM to shark007 on here, maybe he can give some light on this one...
Hey Dave.
Although undocumented, and not communicated until this moment, there have been several subtitle improvements within the VSFilter.dll (both 32 and 64bit) file itself which is included in my installations and not available elsewhere. My 1st suggestion to you would be to upgrade to a current release of my codecs.
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#12

Post by Shark007 » Mon Apr 16, 2018 12:51 pm

A couple of things to add. . .
Use the [x] SUGGESTED settings checkbox
On the mkv TAB, choose to [x] disable Media Foundation for MKV (similar checkboxes exist for other filetypes such as avi)
and lastly, on the swap TAB, choosing to [x] disable the Microsoft Video decoder can greatly improve file (mkv) playback results in Media Center but at the same time, will be detrimental to drm'd LiveTV (and recorded) TV playback.
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#13

Post by DavidinCT » Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:44 pm

Shark007 wrote:
DavidinCT wrote:I sent a PM to shark007 on here, maybe he can give some light on this one...
Hey Dave.
Although undocumented, and not communicated until this moment, there have been several subtitle improvements within the VSFilter.dll (both 32 and 64bit) file itself which is included in my installations and not available elsewhere. My 1st suggestion to you would be to upgrade to a current release of my codecs.
Thanks for dropping in.

I am running your newest release, I updated it on this test. I have no issues running any type of video thanks to your codecs. It's a very solid pack. This is not the issue.

I am trying to get a option so I can toggle Subtitles in the WMC movie library. With the combo of MCE RemotePlus 1.3 ( http://headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=mce ) and your codecs. I was able to "sort" of get this working.

If I am running a MKV with h264 this works. I can hit a key on my keyboard (will put on a remote) and it will turn off and turn on Subtitles (using DirectVobSub ) but, on a h265 movie, this does not work and I am trying to figure out why and if there is an option to make this all work.

Any idea ?
jachin99 wrote:You might try emailing headsoft as well. I'm no expert but it doesn't seem like building compatibility into a new file type would be that hard. Their site is still up so that alone tells you they care at least that much about their software. http://headsoft.com.au/

Tried, Went to their contact page, entered info, and hit submit, then it went to a "this page cannot be displayed"... sigh..
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#14

Post by Shark007 » Mon Apr 16, 2018 5:16 pm

With the movie playing, drop Media Center out of full screen so you can see the system tray.
If LAV icons are showing as splitter and video decoder, there is nothing else I can offer, sorry.
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#15

Post by DavidinCT » Mon Apr 16, 2018 6:40 pm

Shark007 wrote:With the movie playing, drop Media Center out of full screen so you can see the system tray.
If LAV icons are showing as splitter and video decoder, there is nothing else I can offer, sorry.
Thanks for the throughts, I'll check that out but, sigh, I don't see this working after all.


Ok, to everyone... A replacement movie library that can handle subtitles, fits in WMC and will play on Extenders natively in WMC, not as an external app on the xbox. ideas ?
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#16

Post by DavidinCT » Wed Apr 18, 2018 2:12 pm

So, after battling with this for 4-5 days now, putting a lot of time into this, it appears WMC's Movie library was not really designed for this, and even though there are some "work-a-rounds". it does not work on every type of movie (h265 movies does not allow me to turn on subs) and has other issues.

So, now the quest is on to replace the movie library, something I have been using for well over 5 years now is now in progress. There are many quirks with the movie library and they are getting very old...

the quest is ok....
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#17

Post by jachin99 » Wed Apr 18, 2018 3:04 pm

Off the top of my head you might take a good look at emby primarily because it is still being maintained. If you tweak it right it also looks REALLY nice. You could also try using MPC hc as an external player for your movies. It has also had a recent release and subtitle duties would be offloaded to it.

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#18

Post by DavidinCT » Wed Apr 18, 2018 4:28 pm

jachin99 wrote:Off the top of my head you might take a good look at emby primarily because it is still being maintained. If you tweak it right it also looks REALLY nice. You could also try using MPC hc as an external player for your movies. It has also had a recent release and subtitle duties would be offloaded to it.
Oh, something else that plays my movies (transcoading, etc), No way ! I have my codecs so tweaked so I can run everything and getting bitstreaming to get HD audio formats.

I might try Plex based on what was suggested by @newfiend it also seems like it will do what I need, just a little more homework before trying.
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#19

Post by jachin99 » Wed Apr 18, 2018 4:44 pm

If your looking for a new platform completely you could also try JRiver. Its probably more complicated than plex but I see quite a few plex orphans on the Emby forums. JRiver also gives you MadVR, which will upconvert your videos to 4k, it has bitstreaming for your HD audio, and it supports SOME streaming. It might be easier to set things up, and its less expensive than plex. I have never used plex though, and I'm sure its pretty nice. Plex will have more "Apps" like news, etc.

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#20

Post by DavidinCT » Wed Apr 18, 2018 5:01 pm

jachin99 wrote:If your looking for a new platform completely you could also try JRiver. Its probably more complicated than plex but I see quite a few plex orphans on the Emby forums. JRiver also gives you MadVR, which will upconvert your videos to 4k, it has bitstreaming for your HD audio, and it supports SOME streaming. It might be easier to set things up, and its less expensive than plex. I have never used plex though, and I'm sure its pretty nice. Plex will have more "Apps" like news, etc.
I am not looking to REPLACE WMC, I am looking to replace PARTS of WMC. As long at the system PLEX or EMBY I can take a shortcut, just to MOVIES or Music and create a link in WMC, it will do what I need but, to go into a whole HTPC OS to access content will be a deal killer for me.

Even Plex with their max lifetime thing, is only like $120, it's not crazy expensive.
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