Forum Discussion

MuhChicken's avatar
MuhChicken
Channel Surfer
5 years ago

Add support for Image Based Subtitles

Feature request:

I'm using Plex to watch media on a 4660X Roku Ultra from late 2018, but turning on subtitles requires media to be transcoded because the subtitles are PGS (image based).

Note: I also have an Amazon Firestick 4K from around the same time and it does not have this limitation. I can select either subtitle track from any video and they display properly without transcoding media on my Plex server.

I prefer the Roku 100% over the Firestick, so I am really hopeful something can be done with the Roku to begin allowing image based subtitles without the need to transcode them into the video.

Update:  We purchased an Apple TV 4K 32GB during the Apple Black Friday sale and it doesn't have any issues with subtitles.  Looks like we're moving on from Roku since they don't seem to be doing anything about resolving this issue.  This makes me sad...  I loved my Roku!

  • jmorrow25's avatar
    jmorrow25
    Newbie
    4 years ago

    You would think, at least in this day and age, that a standard feature of any "media player" would be the ability to natively play standard media formats. I would expect by this point the feature request would have asked for something trickier, such as support for the more complex, though still incredibly common, SubStation Alpha subtitle format. But, no, here we are in 2021 still begging for support of subtitle formats that have existed for decades (vobsub and pgs). I mean, they're only the most common subtitle formats for personal media in existence. Why would a media player want to bother supporting something silly like that? 

  • armen's avatar
    armen
    Newbie
    4 years ago

    Absolutely would love this as well.  I've tried all other media players across my devices (VLC on most devices, Kodi, etc, and nothing matches reliability of Roku Ultra's built-in Media Player.  The image-based subs are its only Achilles' heel!

  • Cyno01's avatar
    Cyno01
    Reel Rookie
    4 years ago

    This is all i need, besides this i have zero complaints about my Rokus, but seeing folks on my server direct play embedded PGS subtitles with the AppleTVs and Xbones without any hassle or headaches has me jealous enough to be thinking about upgrading to a Nvidia Shield even though i dont need ATMOS support or anything any time soon. 

    • jlw_4049's avatar
      jlw_4049
      Reel Rookie
      3 years ago

      Yeah its 2022. Support for this should have been done a long time ago. 

      • Mr_RockU's avatar
        Mr_RockU
        Newbie
        3 years ago

        Yes please, I just spent a day trying to figure out why my 4K movies were transcoding, took me a while to stumble across forum discussions suggesting to turn off PGS subtitles.  That worked but it's a huge hassle, please fix the Roku Plex app so it supports this modern subtitle format.

  • EmDash0's avatar
    EmDash0
    Newbie
    2 years ago

    I love my Roku, but the lack of image subtitles is a massive deficiency. Please add this. It seems that Amazon Firesticks and Apple TVs have supported this for many years.
    Whenever it is time to replace my current Roku. I likely will switch brands if this feature has not been added.

  • saltpeter's avatar
    saltpeter
    Newbie
    4 years ago

    If the Fire Stick can support PGS I feel like Roku should be able to as well. The Roku interface is so much better than Amazon's... I really hope this feature becomes supported at some point

  • JG707's avatar
    JG707
    Newbie
    4 years ago

    Thank you for putting in this feature request. The lack of image based subtitle support (PGS) is the only reason I moved from a house full of Roku devices to a house full of Fire TV devices.

    I prefer the Roku and would like to move back to Roku devices again but this missing feature is the road block.

  • jlw_4049's avatar
    jlw_4049
    Reel Rookie
    4 years ago

    Can we get an update on this? Seems silly it hasn't been added. 

    • Sector14's avatar
      Sector14
      Newbie
      3 years ago

      This is a pretty important feature to me, there's so many movies that require forced subtitles to be watchable, yet the lack of support requires transcoding which puts an unnecessary strain on the server and wastes power.

      I've returned all but one of the Roku's I bought because of this issue and the dts tag stutter issue  (https://community.roku.com/t5/Playback-Issues-Audio-Video-Power/Rou-4800x-Stuttering-During-Playback-with-DTS-Audio/td-p/783744/page/3). Kept one to test future updates in the hope these issues are resolved. It's so close to the idea media player, but not quite there.

      • jlw_4049's avatar
        jlw_4049
        Reel Rookie
        3 years ago

        It's 2022 and PGS subtitles had been used since 2006. 

        It is the largest subtitle format used and for some reason the biggest mainstream home media player does not support this feature. 

        ExoPlayer is open source and most large players use it. Guess what, it supports all formats. 

        All the roku devices will be my last and ill stop recommending them to the 20+ people I have on my plex. 

        The cheaper chrome with Google TV players image based subs natively. Cheap tablets/phones play it. 

        It's ridiculous. We should at least get a response on this subject. 2022, image based subtitles not supported. These subtitle types are the most common and have been around long before 2006. 

  • moleman's avatar
    moleman
    Newbie
    3 years ago

    I want this too! I just got a TCL Roku TV and this is possibly the only thing that's wrong with it. I don't want to pay for another device, and it would also clutter up my setup and require keeping track of an additional remote.