I'm talking about the burned in text of the foreign language parts of the movie without having to turn on the settings, even viewing them on the streaming site it is auto without a setting in the subtitle list. I have other videos from other streaming sites that show them in the video after downloading.
rmcaw52
There are a couple of ways of doing forced subtitles. I ran into this when ripping discs a while back too, and it was a pain. I'm going to probably do a bad job explaining, but I'm going to try and hopefully you can follow... This goes along with what @Potential_user was saying back in post #2.
How "forced subtitles" or subtitles of translations of the foreign spoken language in parts of a movie are handled can vary from movie to movie, and provider to provider. In this LONG post I cite two examples from Netflix that are done differently.
First way: have the forced subtitles rendered or burned into the video frames themselves, and not listed in the subtitles of the movie. In this case, these subs are part of the image, will always be on and can not be toggled off.An example of this is 2012 downloaded from Amazon. When I downloaded it the first time, I had English CC selected for subs. The downloaded MP4 file lists 1 subtitle track included in the MP4. If you toggle this track on, you'll see every line of dialog on screen, even the English parts and descriptions like [car alarm], in a plain font. Yet there are subtitles for the foreign language parts (at 1hr 19 min mark for example) in a different font and always shown, even if I toggle sub titles off. I downloaded the movie a second time, selecting NONE for subs. The resulting MP4 has no subtitle track, yet still includes the foreign language parts (like at at 1hr 19min mark) in that different font. That is because in the case of THIS movie, the subtitles for foreign language are PART of the video image itself, not separate.
That is how this movie was presented on Amazon, NOT because of how StreamFab downloads it.
Another example of this is Angels and Demons on Netflix. When downloading it with English CC selected, there is only 1 subtitle track listed in the MP4 file. Toggle subtitles on in your player, and you see every line of dialog plus descriptions. Yet at the 4min 17 sec mark there are are subtitles rendered/burned into the video presenting the spoken French dialog on screen in written English. Again, these parts are rendered or burned into the image.
Another example is Avatar in Disney+. The subtitles for the Na'vi language parts is rendered/burned in the video, and not a separate subtitle track included in the MP4.
For these, because these subtitles are part of the video image, you don't need to toggle subtitles on. And you can't toggle them off if you want either.
Second way: have the subs, including forced subtitles for foreign language spots, separated from the video, NOT "burned into" the image of the movie. These subtitles will be listed in the file with the other subtitle tracks, and can be toggled off/on.An example is Red Notice from Netflix. When you download with subs, there are 2 English subtitles. The first set is for the foreign language parts (example 31 minute mark), the second contains all of the English dialog including the descriptions like [car horns honking].
Another example of this is ripping the disc AVATAR to an MKV. The subtitles for the Na'vi language parts are a separate track, not rendered in the video, and you must turn them on.
The problem with doing it this way is the viewer needs to manually turn on subtitles and select the correct track.
My understanding is that the options for FORCED and DEFAULT are not supported in MP4 files, so even if you manage to flag those subtitle tracks that way, it wont matter.In the case of playing Red Notice on Netflix directly, its player has English[Original] as checked by default and you don't have to do anything. BUT when playing the downloaded copy via Plex, I did have to go in and select the subtitle option. In other words, I DO notice a difference in player functionality.
Also keep in mind that if StreamFab downloads a video this second way (where the forced subtitles are separate from the video) in order to make it like the first way (where the subs are part of the video, and therefore always on) it would have identify which set of subs is really the "forced subs" then re-encode the video, burning the subs into the video. StreamFab does not do that. It can somtimes be hard to determine which are the correct for forced subgs, and since this requires re-encoding the video it adds time and will likely result in degraded video quality.
ALL THAT BEING SAID...
If you have the exact same movie that was downloaded months ago, that had the subs burned in, and you download it today, and the subs are separate, sure it could be due to StreamFab, but it could also be due to changes on the streaming providers end. I don't know how to determine that.
