Linking an audio track to a subtitle in mvk.

[darthcloud]

Hi,

Many movies have "forced subtitles" which only contain language translation of part of the movies which are spoke in a language different from the current selection audio language.

I was wondering if it was possible for example to force within the mkv container an audio track to use a specific subs? So that when I change the audio language the linked subs would load automatically.

So far the only option I've found in mkvmerge is to make one subs default, this is ok if I want to play the default language but if I change it keep that subs and so I need to change the subs manually.

Not a big deal but would be great if a way to do this automatically was available.

[qyot27]

What version of mkvmerge are you using? I don't know when it was added, but there's a 'Forced track' option in 2.8.0; it sits right below the 'Default track' option in the GUI. I've never used it, though, so I wouldn't know if anything else has to be specified.

I know that Haali's splitter can be configured to force certain subs with certain audio tracks based on their language tags, but again, I've not used that functionality either.

[darthcloud]

What version of mkvmerge are you using? I don't know when it was added, but there's a 'Forced track' option in 2.8.0; it sits right below the 'Default track' option in the GUI. I've never used it, though, so I wouldn't know if anything else has to be specified.

I know that Haali's splitter can be configured to force certain subs with certain audio tracks based on their language tags, but again, I've not used that functionality either.

Don't know what the use of this option but I've tried it and it do not allow to force an audio track to load a specific subs. I'm using the latest mkvmerge v2.9.0

[darthcloud]

I've made some search and it look like that the forced track flag is made for that purpose. But it look like players just ignore it :S

But maybe the addition to mkvmerge will make this feature more popular...

[clavelm]

In the tutorial 101 things you never knew you could do with Matroska (http://www.mod16.org/hurfdurf/?p=8), a way is explained :
Yet another opportunity: tracksets. This is actually not included in the Matroska specs, it’s just a feature of Haali’s splitter. By abusing the tags file you can set and/or disable/enable combinations of tracks when a certain edition is selected. Hello, multi-language stuff! To use, add a tag with the Name set to TRACKSETEX, and the String value set to: EditionUID VideotrackUID AudiotrackUID SubtitletrackUID Three-letter_language_code Optional_name
No Target is necessary. Setting any of the track UID’s to “.” (a dot, full stop, whatever; without quotes) means “don’t change”, setting the subtitle track UID to “x” (lowercase letter X; again without quotes) means “disable subtitles”. When the edition given by the EditionUID is activated, the given set of tracks will be chosen. The track UID’s can be found with mkvinfo. If you’re too lazy for that you can also just specify track numbers if you say # before the number.
Example for the same sample as before: tags-trackset-example.xml
I didn't test it, and it's only with Haali's media splitter.