How To Play Subtitles

[gbclowes]

Hi,

I have a Panasonic Viera TC-P50UT50 television. Hooked up to the network is a network attached storage "Buffalo 4TB". The televison and the NAS are both on the same network. The television can see all of the MP4 movies that I have on the NAS. The problem I am having is the subtitles. When I play a foreign film, the subtitles do not play.

How the heck do I get them to play. I know that the .srt subtitle files are in the same folder as the .mp4 files and they have the exact same name as the .mp4 files. What am I doing wrong? If I wasn't already bald I would be pulling out my hair.

Thanks in advance,

Geoff

[aedipuss]

check the manual to see if the tv even supports subs. not all do, tv's make very bad media players.

[yoda313]

Aedipuss is correct it may not be doable.

Have you tried muxing in the subtitles? I believe mp4toolbox should do it. (ie muxed not burned, I'm not talking about hardcoding but muxing in the file itself)

It might actually work with it merged into the file itself. Worth a shot and the muxing shouldn't take much time at all.

There are a ton of mp4 tools out there so you should be able to find one to mux in the subs without too much hassle.

Good luck.

If in the end you can't you could look into getting a used wdtv media player. Even a gen 1 should be sufficient as they support subs and a wide range of file types (though the early models don't have a lan nor wifi ability, you need a "live" model to get net support).

[aedipuss]

even a cheap blu ray player would probably do a better job as a media player. i like my networked 3d lg player quite a lot.

[yoda313]

even a cheap blu ray player would probably do a better job as a media player. i like my networked 3d lg player quite a lot.

True but I've found it doesn't like certain items. My sony (2013 model) doesn't seem to like very old divx/xvid material and has audio problems on some files. I think its aac 5.1 material or possibly ogg, I don't remember off hand.

But all in all as long as you mainly deal with preset xvid/divx or level 4.0/4.1 h264 material a bluray player that plays files SHOULD be more than adequate for a majority of users.

But as mentioned they do have limitations.

[gbclowes]

It does support subs as a few files will play the subs. I will try embedding the subs using Handbrake.

[yoda313]

It does support subs as a few files will play the subs.

Use mediainfo to identify the exact details of those files that do play properly. So long as you match those you should be ok going forward.

I will try embedding the subs using Handbrake.

Just make sure you don't "burn in" the subs in handbrake. That will involve a reencode and alter the quality.