Cannot find where the subtitles are

[bluehippo]

I am a newbie - so I will apologise for that in advance.

I have an mkv file that via MKVToolnix - shows only two tracks only - video and audio. no reference to subtitles.
I play the mkv in VLC or other media players - no subtitles are selectable (Only tested on Windows platform).
I look via MediaInfo - no reference to any subtitle tracks.

So, I found a copy of a srt that i could embed, although it was way out of sync.

I then used Subtitle editor - So I could match the subs to the video. I normally do this with the waveform and video open.
- But for this one mkv file, the video playback shows subtitles already. And when loading the srt, then two sets of subtitles at the same time.

They are not displaying at same time, so I know its not the srt being displayed twice. slight differences throughout.

If the subtitle was already embedded - I dont know how the tools don't show any reference to it, or the mediaplayers cannot detect it.

My concern is if i do post the final mkv online, that people will report it displays 2 subtitles on their mediaplayer.

Any advice?

[manono]

But for this one mkv file, the video playback shows subtitles already. And when loading the srt, then two sets of subtitles at the same time.

One set is 'burned' or 'hardcoded' into the video, not selectable. The other is the embedded or external subtitle, selectable.

If the subtitle was already embedded - I dont know how the tools don't show any reference to it,

It's not embedded but already a part of the video.

Any advice?

Don't add any new subs, embedded or otherwise.

Unless I misunderstood. You said the subs play even before you added your own, right? One wonders why you thought you needed more subs when it already had some.

[bluehippo]

If I playback the mkv - there are no subtitles i.e. it is not burnt into the video.

The subtitles only show when using the video mode in Subtitle Editor - but the fact it shows them means there must be subtitles there already somehow.

[netmask56]

If you open the file in MKVMergeGui if only 2 tracks are shown then that's all that is in that MKV. The reason you see subs in the Subtitle editor is probably because of the external SRT you have. Try searching for another version of the subtitle and try that for sync. Depending on your media player you probably won't have to mux the subs into the MKV file rather just name the SRT EXACTLY the same as the MKV. ie Movie.mkv ~ Movie.srt and not movie.srt

[bluehippo]

Thanks. This does seem to be correct. I grabbed a random srt file from another movie, renamed it to be for this movie - and get same experience ... it is reading the srt file twice.
I cannot explain the variations (normally commas/fullstops etc ... and sometimes the sync was quite different) - possible font interpretation by the tool.

Cheers for the help.