External subtitles

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
1

Hi,

So I’ve got a question about subtitles. I know there are many of those already, but I’ve searched through most of them on this forum and I’m still confused. 

Basically, my setup is a mybook live 2tb and a wdtv live, both connected over LAN. I’ve got a lot of video files with .srt subtitles with the same name as the video files. The frustrating thing is that for some of these video files, the external subtitles are recognized and display perfectly. But for other video files they don’t.

So I’ve been trying to get my head round why for some videos it works and others not. I’ve made sure that the subtitle files are in .srt format and that they have the same name as the video files. I’ve even had a look at the video formats (even though I don’t understand much about these) and as far as I can tell a lot of them are exactly the same as other videos where the subtitles DO work. 

Also, I’ve tested this out on another media player (an iphone app called 8player) and it has exactly the same problem; external subs are recognized sometimes, and not others, for no reason I can think of.

Can someone please help me solve this?! My only solution so far has been to mux the files in Mkv containers, but this is somewhat tedious, time consuming and Mkv’s aren’t recognized by some media players like the xbox 360 (and I’d like my brother to be able to use the mybook live in his room too)

Thanks for reading this and maybe someone can give me some insight into the problem…

2

Maybe you can try to search for this on the twonky forums.

i thought no subtitle works on mbl.

you can try to look at the twonky configuration page (http:\mbl-ip-address:9000): there is a list of connected devices with the corresponding “profile” the are recognized with. Maybe change a profile of your device to something else may help (try for example to force a device to be detected as windows 7).

With which video containers (ie file extension) do the subtitles work?

which bitrate, screen size, frame rate they have?

are you really sure that workig files do not have the subtitles already embedded in the video stream?

3

Hi,

Thanks for the response. Yes, this is what confused me as well. All the forums I read through lead me to believe that external subtitles weren’t possible over DLNA with mybook live. But as I say, I managed to get them working with some video files but not others.

So as far as I can tell, most of the videos with working subtitles are .avi and a few are labelled .mkv (subtitles are still external though). I’ve tested them outside the folders with the subtitles, and can’t detect any internal subtitles with VLC media player. The subtitles are mostly in .srt format but I do have a few .sub’s as well which work fine.

I can’t really see anything different about the videos that don’t work. They’re also mostly .avi’s with a few .mkv’s. I don’t really know how to give you any more information. Is there any software or anything I can use to find out the bitrate/frame rate etc?

4

Found a program that gives you a little more information about the video files (maybe a little too much). Here’s the info

on some working and some non working files anyway, maybe someone can see a pattern…

Working with external .srt and .sub subtitles:

____________________________________________

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 175 MiB
Duration : 22mn 55s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 069 Kbps
Writing application : Nandub v1.0rc2
Writing library : Nandub build 1853/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Muxing mode : Packed bitstream
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 22mn 55s
Bit rate : 925 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.176
Stream size : 152 MiB (87%)
Writing library : XviD 1.1.2 (UTC 2006-11-01)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 22mn 55s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 21.5 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 357 ms

________________________________________________________

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 175 MiB
Duration : 22mn 21s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 094 Kbps
Writing library : Nandub build 1377/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L3
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 22mn 21s
Bit rate : 965 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.171
Stream size : 154 MiB (88%)
Writing library : XviD 1.0.1 (UTC 2004-06-05)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 22mn 21s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 116 Kbps
Minimum bit rate : 32.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 18.6 MiB (11%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 26 ms (0.65 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 157 ms
Writing library : LAME3.93
Encoding settings : -m s -V 0 -q 2 -lowpass 19.9 --vbr-old -b 32
Writing library : LAME3.90.
Encoding settings : -m j -V 4 -q 2 -lowpass 17.6 --abr 128

_____________________________________________________________

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 696 MiB
Duration : 1h 26mn
Overall bit rate : 1 121 Kbps
Writing application : Nandub v1.0rc2
Writing library : Nandub build 1853/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L3
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 1h 26mn
Bit rate : 923 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 368 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 1.739
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.163
Stream size : 572 MiB (82%)
Writing library : XviD 0.0.09 (UTC 2003-03-25)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format profile : Dolby Digital
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 2000
Duration : 1h 26mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : 20ms
Stream size : 119 MiB (17%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 96 ms (2.30 video frames)
Interleave, preload duration : 500 ms

____________________________________________________________

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 350 MiB
Duration : 39mn 38s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 234 Kbps
Writing application : transcode-1.1.5

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 39mn 38s
Bit rate : 1 093 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.199
Stream size : 310 MiB (89%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.1 (UTC 2008-12-04)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 39mn 38s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 36.1 MiB (10%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.60 video frame)

__________________________________________________________

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 175 MiB
Duration : 22mn 8s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 108 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 22mn 8s
Bit rate : 960 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.175
Stream size : 152 MiB (87%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.1 (UTC 2008-12-04)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 22mn 8s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 135 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 21.4 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.60 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 501 ms
Writing library : LAME3.90.
Encoding settings : -m j -V 4 -q 2 -lowpass 17.6 --abr 128

____________________________________________________________

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 175 MiB
Duration : 21mn 49s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 1 122 Kbps
Writing application : transcode-1.0.6

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 21mn 49s
Bit rate : 985 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.187
Stream size : 154 MiB (88%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.0SMP (UTC 2006-01-08)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3

_____________________________________________________________

Not working with external .srt and .sub subtitles

_____________________________________________________________

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 351 MiB
Duration : 58mn 6s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 844 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 58mn 6s
Bit rate : 704 Kbps
Width : 624 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.134
Stream size : 293 MiB (83%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.1 (UTC 2008-12-04)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Mode extension : MS Stereo
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 58mn 6s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 52.9 MiB (15%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 24 ms (0.58 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 144 ms
Writing library : LAME3.90.
Encoding settings : -m j -V 4 -q 2 -lowpass 17.6 --abr 128

___________________________________________________________

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 234 MiB
Duration : 23mn 35s
Overall bit rate : 1 385 Kbps
Writing application : Nandub v1.0rc2
Writing library : Nandub build 1852/release

Video
ID : 0
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L3
Format settings, BVOP : 2
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Muxing mode : Packed bitstream
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 23mn 35s
Bit rate : 1 119 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.146
Stream size : 189 MiB (81%)
Writing library : XviD 1.0.1 (UTC 2004-06-05)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : 2000
Duration : 23mn 35s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 43.2 MiB (18%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 40 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 500 ms
____________________________________________________

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 135 MiB
Duration : 42mn 18s
Overall bit rate : 445 Kbps
Movie name : uploaded by OkAnn
Encoded date : UTC 2009-08-30 19:08:22
Writing application : mkvmerge v2.9.7 (‘Tenderness’) built on Jul 1 2009 18:43:35
Writing library : libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 42mn 18s
Nominal bit rate : 360 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 352 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.067
Writing library : x264 core 60 r900 a9af942
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:1:2 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=12 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=45(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=360 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq=‘blurCplx^(1-qComp)’ / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=50000 / vbv_bufsize=50000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=0
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : HE-AAC / LC
Codec ID : A_AAC
Duration : 42mn 18s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz / 24.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : 900ms
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

5

I believe the solution is to verify the encoding of the working srt files.
ie ANSI or Unicode
Just open these in Notepad and select “save as”
you will see the relevant setting.

In my setup all external subtitles in srt are ANSI.

6

I’ve checked them all, they encoding was already ANSI. Still not working…