Converting TV broadcasts and then playing back on Kodi

[Simon_Haddad]

In the Kodi Media Player settings ( under Settings > Video > Accessibility ) I find settings marked (for example) "Prefer audio stream for the visually impaired".


Assume I'm converting a TV show with descriptive audio to the MKV format, preserving the video, audio 1 (surround), and audio 2 (stereo descriptive for the visually impaired) tracks in the resultant file. What would I name the audio 2 (stereo descriptive for the visually impaired) track for Kodi to recognize it as such?


There are also settings for "Prefer subtitles for the hearing impaired" and "Prefer audio stream for the hearing impaired" that I'm curious about.

Google has not helped.

[usually_quiet]

I'm not currently using KODI, but I think those settings may only work for live TV broadcasts or maybe TS files.

I don't use MKV files often, but I've only ever heard of setting a default audio stream in the file itself and cycling through the others manually if a different audio stream is desired instead. There is a way to set the default audio track for MKV files. https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/313455-How-to-delete-switch-default-language-in-a-M...=1#post2376758

[Simon_Haddad]

It's not working when I watch live TV either. I'm in the US watching ATSC over an antenna and (so far) the shows default to the surround channel.


I'd rather not mess with the defaults in the mkv files themselves. So far I've been using MKVMerge to set the visually impaired track name to "Descriptive" (and the track language to English as needed).

[usually_quiet]

My next guess is those settings affect what Kodi does when playing a DVD. The PAL and NTSC DVD standards includes flags indicating those types of audio and subtitles. There are conventions for MKV files, but no real standards.

[netmask56]

If you want the descriptive audio to be the default then you need to make it so in the MKV file - change forced track flag to YES. If you prefer the normal audio track then you would need to manually change it in KODI.