VideoHelp Forum
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 16 of 16
Thread
  1. Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    London
    Search PM
    Hi,

    i Have a Samsung 40D6510 led tv, i hook a western digital hard drive to it with mkv files on. None of these files play subtitles, when i hook it to my mates panasonic plasma they play, but not on mine. I have used mkvmerge to extract the subtitle as i've seen this on other forums but still no joy...

    I'm completely new to this kind of thing so does anyone know whats going wrong and how i might fix it?

    Thanks in advance.
    Quote Quote  
  2. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Somewhere on VideoHelp...
    Search Comp PM
    Does your TV (in the manual) specifically state that the TV will support playback of subtitles from external files? Or which formats it'll support? I believe most devices still only support just SRT and maybe SSA, or VobSub support. I'm not sure how well anything out there (hardware) supports ASS format subs, if at all.

    The subtitle file also should likely share the same name as the video, if it is one of the formats the TV supports. For example:

    MyMovie.mkv
    MyMovie.srt
    If cameras add ten pounds, why would people want to eat them?
    Quote Quote  
  3. Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    London
    Search PM
    Thanks for the reply,

    It says
    Supported subtitle formats
    .ttxt
    .smi
    .srt
    .sub
    .sub or .txt

    i have tried to extract the file and named it .srt as you said but still no good.
    Quote Quote  
  4. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    canada
    Search Comp PM
    What's the exact file name of the sub you extracted?Naming it srt wont work if its a sup or other subtitle.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
    Quote Quote  
  5. Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    London
    Search PM
    S_TEXT/UTF8

    Does that sound right?
    Quote Quote  
  6. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Freedonia
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by BigAl77 View Post
    S_TEXT/UTF8

    Does that sound right?
    That means you have SubStation Alpha subtitles (known mostly as ASS but also as SSA). That is not supported by your TV.

    Please note that you have learned a hard lesson. TV's are NOT "play anything" devices. I know consumers want them to be, but they are not. I'm not kidding when I say this - If I could go back in time and I had super powers, I would forbid TVs to play files - period. All it has done is create unrealistic expectations on the part of consumers who expect their TVs to play anything they throw at it like a dedicate media streamer would (ie. Western Digital) and the reality is that we get posts all the time from people who find out that they have to convert damn near every file they get their hands on to get it to play on their TVs.

    It is possible to convert ASS to SRT. After doing that you'll have to use MKVToolnix to put the SRT subs inside the MKV file.
    Quote Quote  
  7. Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    London
    Search PM
    Had a feeling that might be the case.. luckily i didnt buy the tv for its media player.. just something i came across and thought i'd got lucky!

    now the question.. whats the simplest way to convert the files from ASS/SSA to SRT?

    Thanks for the help.
    Quote Quote  
  8. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Drag out the manual for your TV or download the .PDF version from Samsung's website, and find out what it allows to be used for subtitles, before converting. Unicode, for example may not be supported for .sst.

    Media players play more kinds of files in general, but most still won't play everything. It is necessary to review the documentation for a media player as well, to be sure that it that plays what you need it to play.

    If I had a time machine I'd prevent jman98 from changing the timeline. I bought my TV specifically because it could play video files. I'm thrilled with the feature. I didn't need a full-fledged media player. I only needed to play files that I recorded myself using a PC TV tuner, and if I converted those files, it would be done with the TV in mind. I read the manual before looking at the TV, and brought test files to the showroom with me to make sure that they played.

    [Edit]Subtitle Workshop might be able do the conversion.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 26th Apr 2012 at 19:40.
    Quote Quote  
  9. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    canada
    Search Comp PM
    Use subtitle edit to convert ssa to srt.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
    Quote Quote  
  10. Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    London
    Search PM
    So, if i use mkvmerge to extract the subtitles (S_TEXT/UTF8), put that through subtitle edit and change it to an SRT file (is that easy to do by the way?) then use mkv merge to put that back into the mkv i should be in buisness? or do i need to keep the SRT file seperate?
    Quote Quote  
  11. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Somewhere on VideoHelp...
    Search Comp PM
    Does your TV's manual actually say it supports external sub files? Some hardware might actually work better with external subs - but you'd still need to know whether or not your TV does support it.
    If cameras add ten pounds, why would people want to eat them?
    Quote Quote  
  12. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by BigAl77 View Post
    So, if i use mkvmerge to extract the subtitles (S_TEXT/UTF8), put that through subtitle edit and change it to an SRT file (is that easy to do by the way?) then use mkv merge to put that back into the mkv i should be in buisness? or do i need to keep the SRT file seperate?
    Subtitle Edit and Subtitle Workshop are both easy to use. For Subtitle Edit, you would use File->Open to import, then File->Save as->SubRip (*.srt). For Subtitle Workshop you would use File->Load Subtitle to import, then File->"Save as" and double-click on SubRip.

    The conversion may or may not be satisfactory. .ass and .ssa files often contain special formatting that .srt doesn't support. Also, while there are such things as .srt files that use UTF-8, it is likely your TV only plays .srt files that use ANSI text (consult your TV's manual). If that is the case you will need to do additional conversion to correct it (with Windows Notepad?), and some UTF-8 characters may not have a corresponding ANSI character.

    Like Ai Haibara said, you may be better off with external subtitles, but you need to consult the TV's manual.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 27th Apr 2012 at 11:50.
    Quote Quote  
  13. Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    London
    Search PM
    Thanks for the help, it worked on one of the movies I tried but not another. Emailed Samsung help and they told me there's an issue with their tvs that they're trying to resolve.

    Not sure about the external subtitles bit, can't find anything in the manual and to be honest I don't really understand the difference?

    Thanks again.
    Quote Quote  
  14. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    United States
    Search Comp PM
    External subtitles means the movie and its subtitles are contained in separate files with similar names, instead of including the subtitles in the same file with the audio and video. For example, the folder containing the movie would contain my_movie_name.mkv and my_movie_name.srt.

    I downloaded the manual for your TV and read the pages related to video playback. I suspect the TV supports external subtitles, but the manual does not say so specifically. The manual also doesn't say if the TV supports UTF-8 for text encoding or ANSI for text encoding.

    ANSI is more commonly used for text encoding in .srt files, but UTF-8 is possible. If you want to change an .srt file from UTF-8 to ANSI encoding, open the file in Notepad, then select File->"Save As". Type in a new filename with the extension .srt, click on the "Encoding" button at the bottom of the window, and select "ANSI", then "Save".

    Just in case you do not know about the feature, your TV can be used with a USB drive for timeshifting, in addition to watching videos. DRM is applied to the recordings the TV makes, which means you can watch the recordings only on the TV that recorded them, not on a different TV, a PC, or another video playback device.
    Quote Quote  
  15. Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Germany
    Search Comp PM
    Srt file is in DOS try to change in ANSI....
    Have same problem..
    Have 2 srt files..opened with UniversaViewer saw the difference..
    ansi can see on screen..dos codirung NOT!!!!
    Quote Quote  
  16. Samsung TV's are a pain in the arse as lower price TV's have more codecs updates than Samsung's.All you have to to is rename the srt/sub file to the exact name of the .mkv file plus the language ! Example for english subtitles : Movie.mkv >>>>Movie.en.srt
    Works 100% unless your TV is very old (before 2008)
    Quote Quote  



Similar Threads

Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!