Multiple subtitles streams in MKV

[Erynnis]

Hello,

I am very enthusiastic about matroska, but I got one problem. I Used MKVtoolnix and merged one video stream, 2 audio streams, and two subtitle streams into one MKV, making one of each the default track.

I am playing this in Media Player Classic 6.4.8.3. Switching between audio tracks works fine. When i right-click into the movie picture, I can select the subtitle streams from the context menu. When I select the first subtitle track (English), i get them displayed. But when I select the second one (German) no subtitles are displayed.

I think my system uses two programs to display subtitles. The Media Player Classic and the Direct Vob Sub show filter. Sometimes (playing another movie files) I see the subtitles twice - in this case I set the Direct Vob Sub to Hide subtitles. - Then I see them only once.

But Subtitles twice or once is not the problem here. The problem is, that I am not able to display the second subtitle stream.

Thanks for help

Erynnis.

[niamh]

Do they show using directvobsub instead of the internal MPC filter? They all should show, I have some matroska files with 6 or 7 languages in. Sometimes I have had problems with .ssa playback though, and never really managed to figure it out. So now I just use srt ;)
And, what matroska splitter are you using. You could try a new one like Haali's, or the latest Gabest's. And/or update your vsfilter.dll as well.

[Erynnis]

How do I determine whether I am using internal MPC filter or the direct vobsub? Is it in the MPC-otions/Filters/Source filters?

I have DirectVobSub 2.33b by Gabest, but I don't know how to run it. It executes only when my subtitle (srt) file has the same name as the movie file (mkv).

My Matroska Splitter is 1.0.2.4, but again, I don't know where I can see the program. The version number I have read from the readme of the matroska-Pack I installed.

On Matroska-Web (http://www.matroska.org/technical/guides/playback/windows/index.html) I have read this:
Gabest doesnt have the time to update the MPC anymore ( Real Life Issues ;-) ), the internal matroska parser in MPC is outdated. This is not a big problem, just make sure to de-activate the internal matroska parser and subtitles renderer in MPC's advanced settings, so that the external matroska parser from the latest matroska packs will be used.

But I don't know exactly how to disable the internal Matroska parser and subtitles renderer. Can you help?

[niamh]

Well you found it, go to options> source filters and untick the matroska box. You can try the splitter in my signature if you want, all it needs is installing. In that case, the stream switching will be made always by the tray icon, not the movie screen. Since you seem to have a mkv splitter already, it probably isn't necessary anyway.Not sure how Gabest's splitter works, but I would say the sub switching is done from the vobsub arrow, not the screen either.

As for your vobsub issue, if it loads only when you have external subtitles, well that's no good. go to vobsub configure in program files and make sure it's on load when needed or load always.
Sorry I am a bit rushed because I need to go to work (yes, on a sunday)..if it still doesn't work, just say so :)

[Erynnis]

Thanks for help, Niamh,

I finally found out what was wrong. I've done the subtitles with SubRip, but I grabbed one language after another. After each language I saved the srt-file and cleared the text window of srt. Then I chose another language from the IFO and let them grab into the cleared text window. I did not notice, that SubRip doeas not reset the timestamp whith each new language, but continues. - So in a 90min film my first subtitle language was from 00:00:00 to 01:30:00, second one from 01:30:00 to 03:00:00, third one from 03:00:00 to 04:30:00.

As I muxed them to MKV, only the first grabbed subtitles (with timestamp 00:00:00 - 01:30:00) could be displayed, because only for these there was a movie to display them on.

MPC and Vobsub where all working fine, the error was at the srt files.

Erynnis.

[niamh]

I did not notice, that SubRip doeas not reset the timestamp whith each new language, but continues.

LoL, yes it does :D . Everyone gets caught by this once at least. I should have thought of it because it's a common issue, and kudos to you for posting the right answer for other people to read :)