Subtitles and audio tracks on an IPTV stream
One channel may carry several languages, or none. Here is where they come from and what can be done about it.
Three different origins
Subtitles arrive by three routes, and that explains most of the surprises. Some are embedded in the file, alongside the picture and sound. Others are served separately by the provider, as their own file. Others still are searched for online, in community catalogues.
The first are always in sync, since they travel with the video. The last are not necessarily: they were written for a version of the film that may not be yours.
Why they sometimes take their time
Subtitles embedded in a file cannot simply be read: they are interleaved with the picture, and the file must be walked through to gather them. On a remote film, that walk goes at the speed of your connection.
That is why they sometimes appear a few seconds in, and more slowly still when playback resumes mid-film — the server then has to deliver the file from a precise point, which not all of them accept.
Offset and position
A subtitle running early or late almost always comes from a file written for another version. An offset setting, forward or back, fixes it in seconds.
Position on screen matters too: too low, and a subtitle ends up under the edge of the picture on some televisions, or on top of a news channel clock.
Default language
Choosing your audio and subtitle language once saves selecting it on every title. The player remembers the choice and applies it at each opening, whenever the language is available.
Watch out for language codes: providers write the same language several ways — fr, fre, fra — and a player comparing plain strings turns that into three different languages.
Zonda Player gathers all three origins into one menu, applies your default language, and lets you adjust both the offset and the position on screen.
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