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Subtitles are displayed in the Center of the Screen!

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cloudyo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
144
242
After upgrading to tvOS 13 subtitles are displayed in the center of the screen. I don't mean on the bottom center but in the horizontal and vertical center of the screen.

It happens when I airplay video using iTunes and it happens when I start the video on the apple tv itself.

Is there any way to force the apple tv to put the subtitles on the bottom of the screen?
 
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tw319884

macrumors newbie
Sep 22, 2013
10
14
i had the same problem, do you happen to use iFlicks to encode the videos you're using? cause that was what was causing my problems.

I downloaded their beta, and had to reencode the movies but that fixed the subtitles positioning.
 
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Solver

Solver

macrumors 65816
Jan 6, 2004
1,221
3,192
USA
What is the source app of the video on Apple TV: Netflix, Amazon prime, Plex, (all of the above), etc?
 
iMacMan9000

iMacMan9000

macrumors newbie
Oct 14, 2019
7
3
Encoding doesn't matter... This is Streaming from iTunes library to Apple TV iOS 13... Many others have the same problem...
Subtitles play fine with VLC etc.. but when you stream to the new iOS 13 on Apple TV they
are displayed in the Middle of the screen... Apple Bug!
 
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Vanir

Vanir

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2019
6
3
Perth Western Australia
iMacMan9000 said:
Encoding doesn't matter... This is Streaming from iTunes library to Apple TV iOS 13... Many others have the same problem...
Subtitles play fine with VLC etc.. but when you stream to the new iOS 13 on Apple TV they
are displayed in the Middle of the screen... Apple Bug!
Click to expand...
Must agree with you, I have the same problem, then I upgraded to Catalina thinking it will fix the problem, big mistake! Many of my apps as Scrivener which I upgraded not long ago, was of no use. With Catalina, even if I open up a movie or TV show with Quicktime Player which had subtitles, it showed it in the centre of the screen, but VLC did not. I went back and restore my computer back to Mojave. At least my apps worked but not the subtitles with Apple TV. Went to my daughter's house, she has two apple TV as I do. We share our movies and many of our TV shows, her Apple TV showed the subtitles correctly, but when I went to have a look at the other Apple TV, the subtitles, showed as mine right in the centre of the screen. I have many Bollywood movies and Chinese, can't watch them any more. Have called Apple, and got some idiot on the phone, she told me her subtitles worked. I asked her if she had ripped movies, she said no. My reply was, "no wonder you don't have a problem!" Then I hanged up. Mind you Netflix subtitles work, as well as Rakuten Viki, but not my Library.
 
Vanir

Vanir

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2019
6
3
Perth Western Australia
Ritsuka said:
Use Subler to export the subtitles to srt and add them back to the movie.
Click to expand...
I have Subler, also Subtitles theEditor, it has nothing to do with the srt, but Apple TV, not to mention Quicktime player with Catalina, as it shows the subtitles in the centre of the Mac screen as well, but when watched with VLC it works perfectly. Had to restore back to Mojave and still Apple Tv is showing subtitles centre screen.
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cloudyo said:
After upgrading to tvOS 13 subtitles are displayed in the center of the screen. I don't mean on the bottom center but in the horizontal and vertical center of the screen.

It happens when I airplay video using iTunes and it happens when I start the video on the apple tv itself.

Is there any way to force the apple tv to put the subtitles on the bottom of the screen?
Click to expand...
Have tried everything, nothing happens.
 
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Ritsuka

Cancelled
Sep 3, 2006
1,464
968
Actually yes, it does have to do on how the subtitles are written in the file. Subtitles in mp4 are stored in the tx3g format, and there is a way to place them on the screen. Apple devices used to ignore the screen placement written in the tx3g subtitles, but maybe now it doesn't anymore.

I wrote Subler (that writes the right placement information in the tx3g subtitles) so I know what I am talking about.
 
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priitv8

macrumors 601
Jan 13, 2011
4,038
641
Estonia
iMacMan9000 said:
It's an Apple tvOS 13 bug!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing else!
Click to expand...
Have you checked your subtitle position settings in MP4 file?
You can edit them in Subler directly. Earlier advice to export sub track to srt, delete from mp4 and reimport using Subler should set subtitle screen coordinates properly according to frame size.
I am asking because incidentally I do not see your problem on my tvOS13 and all my movies are subtitled.
 
iMacMan9000

iMacMan9000

macrumors newbie
Oct 14, 2019
7
3
priitv8 said:
Have you checked your subtitle position settings in MP4 file?
You can edit them in Subler directly. Earlier advice to export sub track to srt, delete from mp4 and reimport using Subler should set subtitle screen coordinates properly according to frame size.
I am asking because incidentally I do not see your problem on my tvOS13 and all my movies are subtitled.
Click to expand...

iOS 13 subtitle issues
I know we’re out of beta but subtitles are displaying wrong in movies. For example, when watching a movie purchased from iTunes subtitles are positioned normally. When watching a movie with subtitles that was not purchased from iTunes, subtitles are in the middle of the screen. This was not an issue in iOS 12, and only showed up after the iOS 13 update. Does anyone know of a fix for this or have the same issue? Also program used for subtitles is iflicks 2, but again not an issue with iOS 12, on my Mac, or Apple TV, and only occurring on devices with iOS 13 installed.


Yes Subler fixes the problem but Apple created it...
 
B

BrianARussell

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2019
2
0
tw319884 said:
i had the same problem, do you happen to use iFlicks to encode the videos you're using? cause that was what was causing my problems.

I downloaded their beta, and had to reencode the movies but that fixed the subtitles positioning.
Click to expand...
iFlicks is definitely the problem, in conjunction wiht the Apple TV update. I have been using iFlicks v 2.6 and upgraded to 2.8.1 to try and solve this, but continue to have the same problem. When I encode with Handbrake the subtitles work fine and are in the correct place on the screen. This is pretty annoying though because iFlicks has a nice quick "iTunes Compatible" and "Update Metadata" modes that make it much faster. Plus I have hundreds of movies and tv shows previously encoded with iFlicks, and not none of those subtitles are useable. It is definitely something Apple did in their most recent update. In the past all subtitles worked fine, regardless of how I encoded them. Which version of iFlicks are you using that fixed the problem? And did you have to fully re-encode, or were you able to just update metadata, or make iTunes compatible? I guess for now I will be re-encoding everything though Handbrake.
 
P

priitv8

macrumors 601
Jan 13, 2011
4,038
641
Estonia
chrono1081 said:
Well other users identified it as an iFlicks bug so...yea...
Click to expand...
It is definitely a metadata (subtitle size+position info inside MP4 file) problem. tvOS prior to v13 must have ignored it but not anymore.
I repeat - subler always set the defaukt values for subtitle coordinates properly. In that respect it works even better than HandBrake.
 
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StraightSix

StraightSix

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2014
17
0
priitv8 said:
It is definitely a metadata (subtitle size+position info inside MP4 file) problem. tvOS prior to v13 must have ignored it but not anymore.
I repeat - subler always set the defaukt values for subtitle coordinates properly. In that respect it works even better than HandBrake.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I assume the same.
iFlicks Beta has it fixed, but that leaves me with "some stuff" to fix.
 
Vanir

Vanir

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2019
6
3
Perth Western Australia
The problem is not going to go away. When I upgraded to Catalina, thinking it will fix the subtitle issue, it was worse. I tried to open an Asian TV Show with QuickTime Player and the subtitles showed in the middle of the screen, but not with VLC. What confuses the s...t out of me is the following. When I went to my daughter's house, both Apple TV4 had "upgraded" to the latest, just like mine had. I went ahead, to show her the subtitle problem and she did not have it, never the less when I went to my grandson’s TV and opened the SAME TV show under the same roof, using the same iTunes Library the subtitles showed in the centre of the screen. I must admit, the only difference is that her Apple TV is a 62G, while my grandsons and mine is a 32G, but still... To think, I have to go back and fix all the subtitles… it’s easy to say, but for me its nightmare all on its own, as I have a huge Bollywood, Asian and Spanish media Library, which I share with my children. I ended up restoring my computer back to Mojave for now, as many of my apps did no longer work either.
 
P

priitv8

macrumors 601
Jan 13, 2011
4,038
641
Estonia
iMacMan9000 said:
I repeat Defiantly Not anybody's bug but Apple's tvOS13....... Just wanna make sure everyone gets this??????? You shouldn't need another program to fix this!!!
Click to expand...
It is not a bug. It is a feature. Full processing of metadata, I mean. When older versions did not do this (ignorance), I would not call that a bug-free situation.
Let me illustrate. Please see the subtitle settings in my file and how they are displayed on my screen. I would not call this exactly in the center of screen. Ergo - I do not see a bug here.
Screenshot 2019-10-31 at 08.49.25.png
 
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