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I Have been looking all over for an answer but I can't find any.

My miniDLNA server doesn't seem to stream the srt files (named the same as the video and utf-8 encoded) to my playback devices.

I have tested this with my ps3 and android phone.

Does minidlna not support it (found mixed answers to this around the net)?

Or is it a ps3/android issue?

Or maybe it requires some configuration I missed?

Please advise.

PERSONAL SETUP UPDATE: In the meantime I'm still running miniDLNA, but have resorted to sticking to smb and doing playback on OSMC(kodi aka xbmc) on a PI 2 B. This works like a dream.

2016 update (kodi 15+) Kodi 15 includes UPnP improvements including external subtitle support.

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  • Is the SRT file beside the video, or is it embedded? In the first case, is DLNA Server able to handle two files (i.e. a video plus a subtitle) simultaneously?
    – Morgan Courbet
    Sep 8, 2014 at 13:35
  • That's basically my question too... Some fora claim it does, while some say it doesn't... for me it doesn't seem to work out of the box.
    – Havnar
    Sep 8, 2014 at 13:46
  • I would tend to think it is not specified by the DLNA protocol. But it could be implemented by the miniDLNA server, in which case, the server would have to multiplex on-the-go the video and the subtitle file.
    – Morgan Courbet
    Sep 8, 2014 at 14:03
  • AFAIK subtitles arn't specified in the upnp protocol. But some servers implement it in their own way, I just don't know how/if minidlna does. And if it doesn't I would like an alternative.
    – Havnar
    Sep 8, 2014 at 14:04
  • Well, I'm not completely sure, but I remember having displayed embedded subtitles with my PS3 through my Synology NAS. Maybe you should have a try with a random sample video file with embedded subtitles. I will test again as soon as I can when I get home.
    – Morgan Courbet
    Sep 8, 2014 at 14:28

4 Answers 4

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Well, according to this reply from the ReadyMedia author (formerly known as miniDLNA), subtitles are not meant to be used through the DLNA protocol. I could see the subtitles on my LG TV because LG added some features to the DLNA protocol (that seems to be used by my Synology NAS though).

The ReadyMedia author does not want to implement specific features as it may be incompatible with other clients.

You can have a look to Universal Media Server. On the official website, it is mentioned the following:

Subtitles on all devices

When your device does not support the subtitle format in the video, we add it to the video stream to allow you to view them anyway.

I don't know if the subtitles are multiplexed on-the-go to the video file (in which case, subtitles can be shown/hidden), or if the video is transcoded on-the-go with the subtitles (in which case subtitles cannot be hidden as it is part of the image). In the second case, I doubt the RPi could handle such a load...

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  • Is LXiMedia an alternative to minidlna or an addon? Also, will it run on a pi?
    – Havnar
    Sep 9, 2014 at 9:35
  • @Havnar Oops, wrong line during copy-paste :-)
    – Morgan Courbet
    Sep 9, 2014 at 9:42
  • Seems that I need to look into swapping out minidlna for UMS, I 'll get to it when I get home I guess :) (anyone with some info/experience with UMS is welcome to comment)
    – Havnar
    Sep 9, 2014 at 9:50
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Few hours ago I tried with a Samsung smart TV and I have to say (or type):

Now, miniDLNA supports srt files so you don't have to implement something else

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  • is it miniDLNA that supports it, or your TV?
    – Havnar
    Jan 10, 2017 at 10:54
  • I also confirm it works: miniDLNA on a RPI 1 (having a video file and separate srt file in the same folder), VLC playback in Windows (using the built-in UPnP functionality)... now it depends if the TV is able to request the SRT file from the server
    – Dan Mirescu
    Feb 28, 2018 at 21:30
  • Do you know if i can deactivate the transmission of subtitles by minidlna from mkv files? my samsung TV seems not to support deactivating them by default.
    – bomben
    Jan 23, 2020 at 21:12
  • I confirm, Samsung TV Q95T displays subtitles from an external .srt with miniDLNA on Ubuntu 18.04.
    – Maxim Egorushkin
    Jun 21, 2020 at 21:09
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I tried to play a movie with embedded subtitles with my PS3 from my Synology NAS, and I cannot display them. I cannot change the audio track either (for languages). My LG TV is able to read all of them, and I can hide or show the subtitles. So I guess the DLNA protocol can handle videos with embedded subtitles. PS3 is just not as good as you expect about playing video files.

You should really consider playing videos with embedded subtitles first. If it works with your player, leave a comment, and then we will work from that.

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  • Like I said before embedded subtitles work on my phone. But what I'm asking here is .srt files.
    – Havnar
    Sep 9, 2014 at 7:38
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Trying to get minidlna on raspberry pi 4 serving .srt files along with video files did not work for me.

Ugly workaround by embedding .srt files into the media file works for me. I have used mkv container. source.mp4 and source.srt are combined into the destination.mkv by ffmpeg using the following command line command:

ffmpeg -i source.mp4 -f srt -i source.srt -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -map 1:0 -c:v copy -c:a copy -c:s srt destination.mkv

Philips 65PUS7303/12 now plays video from minidlna with subtitles.

Not quite happy with the solution, but it works.

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