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[Lefisu63]

Sometimes I have blu-rays - currently "Terminator Dark Fate" - there is only one subtitle track - with "permanent subtitles" - and not only on situations where subtitles are required.

When I play the original disc on my Windows 10 computer with VLC Player 3.0.8 or J River MediaCenter 26.0.35 with German audio and German subtitles I permanently see the subtitles and not only when required (e.g. when they speak Spanish at ~ 09:30).

When I play the original disc on my Sony Playstation 4 - it works perfectly. I only see German subtitles when they don't speak German.

So how does it work and why can VLC or JR MC don't do the same as the PS4?

Thanks

[wer]

Ah, this old chestnut... 

There are "issues" with how MC handles subtitles and how subtitles are selected.

Take a look at this thread, and it might help you:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=117442.0

[Lefisu63]

Thanks a lot - completely forgotten.

It works now with original disc + .m2ts rip.

Is VLC media player also able to do that? I just reset the preferences and tried to find a setting for this - but couldn't. My girl friend has only VLC ...

Thanks a  lot.

[wer]

I don't believe VLC has any special options for forced subs, but you'd have to ask the VLC people.

I wonder what happens if you google VLC forced subtitles?

Mostly I'm able to avoid these problems by ripping to MKV.  MakeMKV has an options to rip forced subtitles to a separate track.  That allows you to view just the forced subs on software that doesn't handle the forced flag well.

Good luck...

[Lefisu63]

"Forced subtitles" THANKS - the key word.

Just see my ripping software has an option "add an additional subtitle track with forced subtitles" .. not enabled. I will try to re-rip it with enabled tomorrow !

I only create .m2ts - industry standard.

Best regards!

[wer]

I only create .m2ts - industry standard.

You say that like it's better, but after extensive experience, it's not.  MKV is the most reliable, flexible, and capable container.  As long as you don't need to preserve the disc's menu structure, I and others have found MKV to be the format with the best support across a wide range of software packages.  It does not require the a/v streams to be transcoded, it preserves all subtitle and chapter information (unlike m2ts), and allows you to add/remove or alter things (like a/v sync) later losslessly.  It is generally a great format.  If you don't know about it, you might consider a little research; it can save you a lot of effort down the road. 

But heed this advice or not as you wish; to each his own.  Good luck to you.

[Lefisu63]

Thanks a lot, I know but I'd troubles 2-3 years ago with new VU Solo 4k (Linux receiver) to work with .mkv files.

Still have troubles with this Linux receiver - can only play SRT files (does not depend on image - it's more "inside") and no blu-ray subtitles. will sell it away next month.

I also had .mkv play issues with MC - it sometimes took over 30-40 seconds until the movie started to play from .mkv and sometimes hang when moving forwards / backwards. VLC had worked.

I only remux from blu-ray to one .m2ts with required audio files and the one required subtitle file. I use VSO blu-ray converter.

With Smart Cutter from Fame-Ring I can edit the .m2ts files (not .mkv) and remove the credits at the end (to save space!) without re-encoding (when I take the time ).

Another reason was I could stream the .m2ts film from external hard disc on TVs in hotels on holiday.

So I decided only to use .m2ts.

But JR MC is preferred with play back because of play only forced subtitles.

[wer]

If you were using VSO blu-ray converter to make the MKVs, that might have been the cause.  I use MakeMKV (free) and have never had a single issue like what you described, in any program.  Also FYI, MKVtoolnix (free) allows you to do lossless clipping of MKV files, like you mentioned for removing credits, although it's not frame-accurate; but frame-accurate is unnecessary for that purpose.

By the way, MPC-HC is free and understands forced subs.  VLC is great as it is so reliable at being able to play anything, but MPC-HC has some capabilities VLC doesn't.  It's also very good.