[michaelwbray]

Hi Guys,

I know this is probably something easy but I can't figure it out. I disabled subtitles on all videos by default, as I often downloaded movies which would have people speaking English, and it displays English subtitles, which is annoying. However occasionally there are movies where there is a scene in a foreign language for a couple of minutes, i.e. Snowpiercer. What is the default setting so that it won't show English subtitles when they are being spoken - but will show them when the native language is no longer English and they become necessary.

Thanks in advance.

[Mike_Doc]

Don't believe there is a setting, you need to search subtitles for the movie for a 'Korean only' version, I think it's Korean they speak in Snowpiercer. Basically you need to see it there is a foreign language only subtitles to download and then you'll have what you need i.e. only subs when not english talking.

[lrusak]

What you want is a "Forced English" or "Foreign only" subtitle. There is no settings, you just need the proper subtitle.

[sub0ptimal]

The video file itself describes the usage of subtitles to XBMC. In a MKV file, subtitles have two flags, "default" and "forced". A subtitle with "default" turned on will be played if the player (i.e. XBMC) wants to show subtitles. A subtitle with "forced" turned on will be played whether the player asked for subtitles or not.

So it is not up to XBMC whether to show subtitles or not. Whoever created the video file should have authored the file so that "forced" is turned on for these foreign language snippets. Now if the person that created the file speaks a language other than English, they will naturally have a different idea on what is meant by a "foreign language" and may have the subtitle track marked differently.

You can change the "default" and "forced" flags with MKVToolnix for MKV files. Otherwise, you will have to turn subtitles on and off manually.