Add option to compress bluray PGS subtitles

[brewman]

I use a WD Live-TV media player to watch MKV wrapped movies stored on a NAS. Unfortunately, the WD Live-TV will only play PGS subtitles that have been compressed with zlib. It would be very helpful to have the option when processing a bluray with MakeMKV to have an option to zlib compress PGS subtitles as opposed to leaving them uncompressed.

For what it's worth I've also filed a request on the WD site to support uncompressed PGS subtitles, but I'm not holding my breath on a timely update to address this from WD.

Thanks.

[robpdotcom]

Open the file with mmg (MKVmergeGUI, a part of mkvtoolnix), and click "Start muxing". The resulting file should play fine on the WD Live.

[Chetwood]

Which adds yet another unnecessary step, especially as Mike said, this was an easy fix.

[stream41]

Agreed - it sure would be cool to see automatic zlib compression for PGS subs in the next MakeMKV version

Just confirmed in my setup, too - re-muxing MKV's fixes the subs during playback on my WD TV Live (newest firmware). No subs before re-mux, then beautiful, wonderful, movie-changing subs after a re-mux. Now I'm looking at having to re-mux ~100 movies

[Chetwood]

MMG has a batch function but I guess you'd be faster by using mkvmerge manually.

[Romansh]

This should work:

Code: Select all

for i in *.mkv; do mkvmerge "$i" -o "${i/.mkv}.mkvmerge.mkv"; done

[stream41]

I'd have to split them up into separate directories with maybe 10 or 12 movies each - we're talking about 2.5TB of movies on a drive with only about 400GB free, so I'd have to do them in small batches.

OTOH, if WD would get off their ass and put support for uncompressed PGS subs in their next firmware update, we wouldn't be having this conversation

[crowfax]

I'm still of the opinion that Mike shouldn't have to add anything to MakeMKV to get around WD's sloppy firmware.

[Chetwood]

Why not if it's an easy fix, as he says? Also, MKVToolnix is pretty much considered standard in all things MKV and it does compress by default (which other players might rely on too).

[brewman]

I'm still of the opinion that Mike shouldn't have to add anything to MakeMKV to get around WD's sloppy firmware.

You're correct that Mike doesn't have to do anything. I simply made a very polite request that he consider adding a feature that would be useful to not only myself, but also many others.

[samtoy]

Like I pointed out before:

Let's hope this doesn't break compatability with certain hardware players. PGS zlib compression is switchable in MKVToolnix afterall..

[Chetwood]

Well, since it defaults to on and has so since like forever, it's safe to assume players expect this rather than the other way round. Just like the WDTV.

[DSkippy]

I would like this option also. It would save time from extra processing. I've been floating back and forth from the WD forums and here(and I can see others have as well) and learned quite a bit. Many WDTV(or other device) users want mkv with subs, but using tsMuxer or MKVToolnix is way beyond their understanding. It would save a lot of time and frustration for many people.

Here is a recent post in the WD issue section about this problem. It's specific as opposed to "my subs don't work in mkv's". Hopefully if it gains enough support they could fix it in their next firmware release.

Until that time, if it is an easy thing to do as mike posted, it would be a great feature.

If it's optional, I don't see how it would break compatibility with certain hardware players.

[DSkippy]

This feature is now available. To enable it, click on the wrench icon(preferences), then the general tab. Check the box for expert mode and then go to the advanced tab. Now you can select WDTV as your default profile.