Universal Media Server | Forum

Hello there, fellow forum members. First post here, so thanks in advance for any help eventually given.

I have a question regarding the use of external .SRT subtitles.

I saw that the UMS supports subtitles in multiple languages. Great, because my wife does not speak english, so I have to have Brazilian Portuguese subtitles avaiable for her.

However, I like to have english subtitles as well. Despite I don't strictly need them, they can make things easier when pronounciation is not clear enough (dark night rises "Bane" anyone?).

So, here is what I did: I download an english subtitle and a Brazilian Portuguese subtitle form opensubtitles.org for a few episodes of "community" I have, as a test. The Brazilian Portuguese files I renamed to have the exact same name as the video files. The english subtitle, just have na "-eng" added before the files extension, but is otherwise also a copy of the vídeo file name. AVIS and SRTs were placed in the exact same folder at my PC.

Example:

S01E01.AVI
S01E01.SRT (for brazilian portuguese)
S01E01-eng.SRT (for english)

I figured that the UMS would only load the Brazilian Portuguese file, giving preference to the .SRT that has the same name as the video file. But, to my surprise, the software always loads the english subtitle file, despite the name difference.

I already tried to add the modifier "pob; eng" to the subtitle preference order, to no avail.

So, here are my questions:

Do I have to rename the files to the exac same name, or does the program recognizes the modifiers -pob (for braziliam portuguese) and "-eng" (for english)? I supoposed it does, considering my issue; I'm just confirming this because I have read before that only the file with exact same name would be loaded, so i want to be through.

Does the files need to be at the exact same folder as the original, like I set things up? Is there a way I can gave the files load from a "subs" subfolder? (I know it has a field that gives na alternative path for subs, but it seens to me that I would have to have a single subtitle folder for everything. The way I usually organize files is by having a "movie" and by "series/season" folder for diferente videos, and then a "subs" subfolder for the .SRTs). Can I, then, set UMS to look for the subtitle file in a subfolder of whatever folder the actual vídeo file is located?

Is there a manual way to load a subtitle? I can only load them with the option to load automatically the one in the same folder with the same name. I would love to be able to change the subtitles settings without having to rename files all the time, if at all possible.

If there is such way, can it be controled by the TV remote, or only directly in the UMS interface? My TV is a Sonly KDL 50w805b, and when I have the video and subs in a pendrive plugged directly in the TV USB solt, I can use the "closed caption" button to change between .SRTs; this option does not work with DLNA streaming, though.

Finally, If I do have to use the automated loading, what settings should I alter to get the Brazilian Portuguese files to be preferential to the english files subtitles when both are avaiable?

Again, I thanks in advance for any assistence.

Best regards,

FredLC.

The naming convention is S01E01.eng.srt or S01E01.en.srt, S01E01.por.srt or S01E01.pt.srt etc. All available external subs are listed in TRANSCODE folder.

I see. I'm using the default naming scheme from my player of choice - BSPlayer, which uses the -eng, -pob, etc... solution to multiple language subtitles. Is there a problem In keeping that naming so I don't have to rename the .SRTs the program downloads? Is there some reason other than convention to adopt the filing system you mentioned?

I'll check the transcoder folder, but lemme insist on one thing: is there a way I can set the UMS to look for the subtitles in a SUBS sub folder of the folder where the video file is, or does video and subtitle really need to be kept in the same folder?

Thanks again.

Hmmm. Just tested, and it conflicted with the instructions.

I copied all my -eng SRTs from my SUBS sub-folder back to the same folder as the video file.

When I went to the transcoded folder and loaded the first file, it went back to loading the English subs, as expected, despite, again, Portuguese files having a closer name to the video than the English ones.

Also, I loaded all transcoding options, to no avail; the "no encoding" loads no subtitles at all, all others load the English file.

Perhaps I should uncheck the option to automatically load. Can this bring the option to select a load out inside the transcoder folder? Or am I missing something here...

Thanks in advance.

Hmmm... Unchecking the auto load made all subtitles disappear, including the English ones. The solution is elsewhere...

Ok, this might be something interesting for the development team.

I have decided to buy Airplayer in my IPad, and loaded the UMS in it to test the streaming (I have Avplayer, that should work, but files don't load in it).

We'll; in Airplayer, I can select English or Portuguese subtitles. With the FFmpeg encoding option, special characters such as ã, à, ç, etc... crashes and loads as a "?" mark, but with MEncoder, subtitles load properly.

I can distinguish witch file to load as one shows in the file name of the virtual folder [MEncoder]{Subs:SubRip (-eng)}, for the file containing my -eng marker, while the unmarked file containing Portuguese subs shows without any distinct marker, just as [MEncoder]{Subs:SubRip}.

And, as I would expect, with Airplayer, if I load the first I get English subs, if I load the second I get Portuguese subs.

I was very surprised, than, when I loaded UMS on my TV again, loaded the same unmarked [MEncoder]{Subs:SubRip} subfolder showed in the TRANSCODER folder, and I still got the english subtitles. Seems to me that I wasn't doing anything wrong, and the reason I am not getting the subs I want has more to do with something not communicating properly to a Sony W8 series tv. After all, If I had something configured improperly in my server, I could not be getting proper results at the IPad's Airplayer.

Guys, any hints as to what might be causing this, and how to fix it?!?

Thanks again.

The [MEncoder]{Subs:SubRip} means that UMS doesn't recognize the language from the file. When subs are not named like videoname.lang.srt UMS try to analyze language from the text in the subs file. It is not 100% working. So I recommend to rename all your portugese subtitles to videoname.por.srt and set the "Audio/subtitle language priority" to Explanation is here http://www.universalmediaserver.com/faq/#Video3

-eng is not acceptable because UMS detects language tag divided by DOT, like moviename.en.srt
"-" is used for defining "flavor". If you will have more subs with same tag, flavor will help you to play correct one from TRANSCODE folder.
Also there is builtin "forced" (definable in UMS GUI) string used to define forced subtitles. It means subtitles which should be displayed also in case AUDIO/SUBTITLE preference say not to load them.
As an example if you will be from Germany a will use AUDIO/SUB preference like "de,off;*,de;*,und;*,off" what means not to load subs for movie with german audio, forced tag in subs will override it so file like moviename.de-forced.srt will be loaded.
Some "very very old" overview about the naming convention is written here: http://code.google.com/p/pms-exsport/wiki/FAQ

Ok; after a long delay, I got around to test what is said above (personal issues; I was busy moving to another apartment), and I used the following files for such test.

Test.mkv
Test.srt (a "default" Brazilian Portuguese file, for my DLNA player in iPad will only play a file with exactly the same name as the audio)
Test-eng.srt (an extra file I can rename when I want the default to be English)
Test.pob.srt (as recommended)
Test.eng.srt (as recommended).

Now, inside the transcode folder, there will be options that will show options for "Brazilian Portuguese", instead of unknown language; however, when I select them, it STILL plays the English subs.

I truly am at a loss here. Is there anything else I could try? Maybe the "extra" files are interfering, but is there a solution in which I keep them (as I need them for other players)?

Thanks in advance...

FredLC

Ok; small update on where things are.

I erased half the subs files; left only the test.eng.srt and test.pob.srt;

It still only loads the English subs, no matter wich I choose; even the options that show "Brazilian Portuguese" in the transcoder option.

Also, I got a whole other series of files, that have embedded subs in 5 different languages, plus on Brazilian Portuguese external sub file. Now these do work. I can choose the language of the subs.

The sub file in this second configuration is placed in the same folder as the video file, and has the same name except for the extension. From where I'm standing, seem that when there are two external subs files, the English one gets priority no matter what...

Again, I'm out of ideas; any configuration I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance.