External SRT subtitles over UPnP in iOS

[Svet]

Hello VLC dev team,

First of all let me congratulate you on the excellent job developing the iOS VLC app! I recently upgraded to an iPad Air and with VLC I can play 1080p MKV files smooth as butter! Truly impressive work! Plus the app gets better with every new version! Thank you!

Now to the point: When streaming video files over UPnP from my Synology NAS the VLC app does not recognise at all external SRT subtitle files. Embedded subtitles in MKV files are recognised and displayed perfectly.
I've searched forum and other sites for a mention of this but couldn't find any reports or explanations. Is this a current limitation or is it up to the DLNA server (in this case my Synology)? Other DLNA clients such as my Samsung TV seem to work fine with external SRT subtitles.

Thanks for your time and help!

Svet

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Yep. SRT over Upnp is not standardized, so that's why you don't see it working. Someone needs to look at the upnp framework to fix that.

[Svet]

Thanks for the lightning fast reply, Jean-Baptiste!

So basically, as i kind of knew already, upnp is a mess and it is a miracle it works at all. I've had my share of bad, bad experience setting up and trying to get dlna servers and clients to work. As a user mostly but nevertheless... Case in point: Most Samsung TVs would work with external SRT subtitles over dlna but do not recognise embedded subtitles at all. Go figure!

I know VLC for iOS is quite feature rich already, but have you guys considered adding SMB shares as a local network option? This would solve the issue of separate subtitle files and in theory should be a lot more compatible compared to upnp.

Thanks again!

Svet

[fkuehne]

Supporting SMB is hard because there is no suitable open-source library available right now which is also App Store licensing compatible. libsmb, derived from samba.org, which is usually used by most competing apps is not an option, as it licensed under the GPLv3, which is clearly not app store compatible.

Regarding your initial question, we are only fetching the file you clicked on, right now. However, what we could do is pre-fetching the external subtitle prior to starting the movie playback (or in parallel), so we could feed it as an external subtitle to VLC. This is a bit hackish, but should work quite fine. I'll play with this, once I have a bit more time (which will be some time later this year, I fear).
If anyone would like to look at the code in question, I'd be more than willing to lend a guiding hand, since VLC for iOS is quite a beast to develop.

[Svet]

Felix,

Thank you for the clear and encouraging reply! Knowing that a solution could be implemented even if it takes time is very good and encouraging news indeed.

I cannot tell how important this use case is - perhaps it is only an edge case. However, I do know that in my home country (small state in Eastern Europe) external subtitles are basically the norm for one reason or another. Working with external subtitles seems more versatile and (at least at this time) seems to be the popular way.

I'm not a developer myself (i used to be years ago) so unfortunately i cannot land a helping hand. But i've got patience.

Thanks again to you and the whole team for all your extraordinary work! I for one really appreciate your efforts!

Svet

[Aurel11]

Hello,

I'm really interested in this feature : external SRT subtitles in iOS.

It would be a great improvement in vlc for ipad, to be able to read a video with external subtiltles on a distant hard drive.

Thanks.

[stefek202]

+1 to request. it's must have:)

[luigiscerre]

+1 I'd really wish for the same too

[Aypeus]

The app Infuse in App Store have the ability to both chose imbedded subtitles and it can download chosen languages and it works like a charm of upnp, but it can't handle high quality sound in MKVs and so that is why I myself chose VLC over anything else any day but I still wanted to mention that the feature VLC really should have is already out there and working like a charm..

Best regards, Daniel

[ScarAce1989]

Still no update?

This is a most have feature and it is strange this isn't working already.

[manroca]

I am also interested on this external subtitles feature, are you working on that?

[Steamywee]

Hi Guys, Here we are nearly in June 2015 and I have just discovered this thread concerning the "non-appearance" of subs stored in SRT Files.
I must admit that I know absolutely nothing technically about the magic that is Digital Video, I am just in awe of those who can make it happen....more so because they are generous enough to release their work "into the wild" so that we may all benefit from it for free!
Thank you all.

Not sure if what I'm wanting is the same as the folks above me in the thread stack, I'm at that age where my eyes AND my ears need glasses, so subtitles are a large part of my enjoyment of Video.
I'm using a HooToo TripMate Nano to wirelessly stream MP4 Video files with an associated SRT subtitle file from my pocket to my iPad whilst on long journeys.
Sadly, at the moment, VLC and the "stock IOS player" do not seem to see the SRT file.
(Just another "Thank you" to the Open Source Community, ... the files I refer to are "Gleaned" using Get_iPlayer, yet another magnificent tool freely given!)
I have tried to select the SRT file before the MP4, but I'm told "There is no application which can read this file" I suspect this is not what Felix Paul Kuehne had in mind when he says "However, what we could do is pre-fetching the external subtitle prior to starting the movie playback (or in parallel), so we could feed it as an external subtitle to VLC. This is a bit hackish, but should work quite fine." but it gives me hope that it may soon be possible.
My Thread:- https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=126376