Adding subs to blu-ray disc with zero existing sub tracks

[ecortez]

I usually use multiAVCD to make changes to a blu-ray (removing trailers and copyright warnings, adding subs, etc.) but it seems like you need at least one existing subtitle track to add subs. Oh the remux happens without a problem. But a set top player will not display the subtitles or even recognize them on the resulting disc. There must be a data file with a field for the number of subpicture streams that you can edit and change from 0 to 1. Or something like that. I just can't find any info on how to do it. Does anyone know how you go about adding subs when there is no existing set to be replaced?

[Ghitulescu]

first of all make sure you put the subtitles "on screen" so use a value of at least 80 pixels...

secondly, if this does not work and indeed they are on tv but not displayed, you can use the Set Stream command (in bdedit for instance) and use 49153 (first subtitle, increment values for other streams, although I gather you'd only use one)

[ecortez]

first of all make sure you put the subtitles "on screen" so use a value of at least 80 pixels...

secondly, if this does not work and indeed they are on tv but not displayed, you can use the Set Stream command (in bdedit for instance) and use 49153 (first subtitle, increment values for other streams, although I gather you'd only use one)
Thanks for replying! The .m2ts file is properly muxed and will display the subtitles when opened directly in a media player on my computer. When I burn the blu-ray to disc and view it on a set top player though, it's like the subtitles don't exist. There's no option to select them. I tried looking up tutorials on BDEdit but (while obviously full featured) it has to be one of the least user friendly utilities I've seen in a while. Using BDEdit is like climbing into the cockpit of a 787 and trying to take off with no prior flight experience. You don't even know where to begin.

Is set stream really the right command to use? I'm not trying to force display of a track that's already listed on the menu. I want to tell the disc hey, there's a subtitle track there - recognize it! If there were already subs present and I was simply swapping the new for the old it would be easy. Done that plenty of times. But it seems like whatever number the original file had is the maximum number there can be. Period. If you add two sub tracks to a disc that originally had one, only the first shows up on the menu and is selectable. Add five, or nine, or twenty, to a disc that originally had three and only the first three are recognized. My problem with the disc I'm working on now, obviously, is that the original number was zero - so this time I can't work within the usual constraint. I need to change it.

[Ghitulescu]

Check maybe the prohibited user operations...

[ecortez]

That's not it. The problem seems to extend to any track type; if you want to add a second audio track to a disc that came with only one, the player only recognizes the first. Having fewer subtitle tracks than there were on the original disc isn't a problem but if you try having more the additional tracks are ignored and can't be selected from the menu. If you open the corresponding .m2ts file in a media player on your computer, the extra tracks are there. If you try playing it as a blu-ray disc, they're not.

Some data file (one of those .clpi files perhaps) must tell the player how many tracks there are. If you remux the file itself but don't change the appropriate data your player doesn't know the added subs exist. I can't find a halfway decent tutorial for BDEdit that explains what its multitude of options and settings do. Somewhere in there is probably a way to perform the edits I need to make, but I'm having no luck figuring out what it is. Does anyone know? Or is there a program that will open these files and display them in the form of coherent text, so I can edit them manually?

[Ghitulescu]

1. maybe you have a problem with your mltiavchd.
anyway, you may try to redo all the operations in tsmuxer and a GUI of your choice. You can replace the new m2ts/clpi/mpls in most cases if you're careful.

2. halfway decent? there is no guide, except what's written on its home page - and snippets of information for particular cases.