Casting movies WITH SRT SUBTITLES from Android phone to TV

[Ygramul]

So far I've been using an MHL adapter which doesn't support subtitles and I had to hardcode them. It works well otherwise.

I was thinking of getting Chromecast, but as far as I know it has the same problem. The solutions I found on the net seem to be very inconsistent.

I just don't want to embed subs (which involves reencoding, obviously) every single time I want to watch something.

Is there really no way of playing a simple MP4/MKV + SRT on my phone and displaying it on a TV screen? That's all I want.

[davexnet]

What is mhl adapter?
Does your tv have a DLNA receiver/player ?
You may be able to cast using an app such as Web Video Caster
or BubbleUpnp.
If you have a separate SRT on the phone, casting to Chromecast would work
with WVC

[Ygramul]

What is mhl adapter?

It's a dirt cheap Micro USB -> HDMI adapter which can be used with some old phones (Galaxy S5, for instance). Works like a charm.

https://www.mhltech.org/devices.aspx?tid=1

[Ygramul]

bump!

[netmask56]

Simple! just remux (no re encoding involved) with MKVToolnix adding in your subtitle/s and making it the default sub if you wish. This way means you can turn on or off subs via the remote on your media player. This method doesn't embed the subs into the video and no change of quality. Quite quick to do around 2 or 3 minutes depending on the length of the film.

PS I have Chromecast on my A/V receiver and built in to my TV and if I invoke a file on my iPad with subs it plays ok as does Netflix with subs, at 84 I'm hard of hearing due to age related hearing loss <groan> !!!!!

[Ygramul]

Simple! just remux (no re encoding involved) with MKVToolnix adding in your subtitle/s and making it the default sub if you wish. This way means you can turn on or off subs via the remote on your media player. This method doesn't embed the subs into the video and no change of quality. Quite quick to do around 2 or 3 minutes depending on the length of the film.

Yeah, I know how to do that. But will that really make it work? It's still a text file, just inside a container and not a separate file.

I want to gift Chromecast to someone for Christmas, that's why I want to make sure.

[Ygramul]

I read somewhere that it might make a difference if the subs are in .ASS/.SSA or .SUB + .IDX format instead of .SRT. So, not just "normal" text files. Can anyone confirm?

Also, supposedly it helps if you just "mirror" the phone's screen as opposed to... doing it another way. I really don't know. As long as everything stays in sync and the video isn't losing frames, it's fine.

[netmask56]

Simple! just remux (no re encoding involved) with MKVToolnix adding in your subtitle/s and making it the default sub if you wish. This way means you can turn on or off subs via the remote on your media player. This method doesn't embed the subs into the video and no change of quality. Quite quick to do around 2 or 3 minutes depending on the length of the film.

Yeah, I know how to do that. But will that really make it work? It's still a text file, just inside a container and not a separate file.

I want to gift Chromecast to someone for Christmas, that's why I want to make sure.

Well I don't have Android but I do have iPhone and iPad and Zidoo (Android 9 media player) and all my video's have subtitles within the MKV file structure and play just fine. On the Zidoo 3000 it doesn't care if the srt subs are in the MKV container or as a separate file (same name as video .srt) The operating system of the Zido players is Android (9).
Be adventurous and try it on someone else's Android phone or whatever!

[A_n_g_e_l_a]

Using an Android Phone the only way I have found to cast subtitles that are embedded is to play the video on the phone (using VLC) and choose to cast the screen from the Operating System's cast option.
All other apps I've tried fail to cast subtitles.