Subtitles & alternate audio tracks on Roku

[VinceA]

Is there any way to get soft-subs & multiple audio tracks in MP4s to work with the Roku app?

[Peter]

Hi Vince,
yes we have made a lot of changes in Mezzmo 5.1 specifically for the Roku devices to support subtitles and multiple audio tracks. Please send an email to support [at] conceiva [dot] com and we will send you the Mezzmo 5.1 beta to try.

[VinceA]

Excellent. Email sent.

[Paul]

Mezzmo v5.1 was released today, so you can get the latest version from http://www.mezzmo.com or update your current Mezzmo via the Help -> Check For Updates menu item.

[VinceA]

Updated to v5.1 and my Roku 3 doesn't show any subtitle or audio options in the app for an MP4 that has dual audio tracks and soft-subs. Checked to see if there was also an app update but there wasn't. I must be missing something.

[Paul]

Are you running the new Mezzmo app on your Roku? It has the support for subtitle and audio options (when running Mezzmo v5.1+). Go to the Roku Channels and search for Mezzmo. Download and install it (it's free) and see how you go. We're creating a wiki at the moment for the Mezzmo for Roku app, so it will explain all the features, etc. Should be completed in the next few days.

[VinceA]

I'm using v1.1 of the Roku app which is the latest in the Channel Store here. Looks like it was updated in October 2016. Yes, I'm using v5.1 of the server software also.

[Peter]

Hi,
you need to press the * button on the remote while the video is playing to get the menu that allows selecting audio and subtitle options. If you do not see any audio or subtitle options when pressing this button then Mezzmo may be transcoding the file and only including one audio stream, please go to the properties of the file in Mezzmo and on the Transcoding tab check to see if the file has been transcoded. Also while the file is playing you can check in the Transcoding pane to see if the file is being transcoded on the fly.

[pointner720]

I'm having the same issue with getting the subtitles to come up on the Roku device, I have the latest update for mezzmo on the PC and have downloaded the app on the roku. I am having this issue whether mezzmo transcodes or not. I am also having trouble getting the roku to appear in device list on the android app, I have tried finding it while its on the roku home screen and when its in the roku mezzmo app. Is there any way to use the Roku app to connect to a mezzmo server over the internet?

[Peter]

Hi,
the Mezzmo Roku app only supports external text subtitles so Mezzmo will need to transcode these to text/vtt subtitles when delivering them to the Roku so that the Mezzmo app can display them. Please check in the properties of the file in Mezzmo on the Subtitles tab to make sure the subtitles are in an external file, you can select the subtitles there if they are embedded and click the extract button to extract them to an external file. The Roku app does not have support for accepting Play To commands so it will not appear in the Mezzmo Android app's device list, we may add support for this at a later time. The Mezzmo Roku app needs to find the Mezzmo server on the local network so it is not possible to connect over the Internet to the Mezzmo server unless you use a VPN to connect to the network that is running the Mezzmo server, we may add support for manually adding servers and this would allow connecting over the Internet by entering the public IP address and port of the Mezzmo server.

[VinceA]

Is the external subtitle requirement a limitation of the Roku device or the Mezzmo software? Just curious if it's ever going to work with internal subs. Thanks

[Peter]

It is a limitation of the Roku, see https://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/Closed+Caption+Support for information on subtitles support in the Roku

[VinceA]

Ah ha... thanks for the info. It does look like EIA-608 support might do the trick but would probably require transcoding to a different format.

[Peter]

Currently Mezzmo does not support encoding EIA-608 subtitles when transcoding but the external subtitles used when transcoding should allow you to view the subtitles on the Roku.