From 2a689f268bc88ee7ab7e25121a6d43f71c1f8a5f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Piotr Niełacny <piotr.nielacny@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 2026 21:57:58 +0100
Subject: Embed external subtitles into MKV when transcoding

Allow external subtitle files (SRT, ASS, PGS, etc.) to be muxed into
MKV output containers when the device profile requests Embed delivery.

Previously, the IsExternal guard in GetSubtitleProfile excluded external
subtitles from Embed consideration entirely, forcing them to be served
as separate sidecar files even when the output container supports
embedding.

Changes:
- Extract CanConsiderEmbedSubtitle in StreamBuilder to allow external
  subs through when transcoding to MKV
- Add external subtitle file as FFmpeg input (-i) for Embed delivery
- Map external embedded subs from the correct FFmpeg input index
- Fix external audio map index to account for the new subtitle input
- Extract NeedsExternalSubtitleMuxing in EncodingHelper to deduplicate
  the external subtitle input check

Fixes #16403
---
 .../MediaEncoding/EncodingHelper.cs                | 58 ++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 36 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

(limited to 'MediaBrowser.Controller/MediaEncoding/EncodingHelper.cs')

diff --git a/MediaBrowser.Controller/MediaEncoding/EncodingHelper.cs b/MediaBrowser.Controller/MediaEncoding/EncodingHelper.cs
index 65f6b79656..1fdb5fd4bd 100644
--- a/MediaBrowser.Controller/MediaEncoding/EncodingHelper.cs
+++ b/MediaBrowser.Controller/MediaEncoding/EncodingHelper.cs
@@ -1267,22 +1267,23 @@ namespace MediaBrowser.Controller.MediaEncoding
                     .Append(_mediaEncoder.GetInputPathArgument(state));
             }
 
-            // sub2video for external graphical subtitles
-            if (state.SubtitleStream is not null
-                && ShouldEncodeSubtitle(state)
-                && !state.SubtitleStream.IsTextSubtitleStream
-                && state.SubtitleStream.IsExternal)
+            if (NeedsExternalSubtitleMuxing(state))
             {
                 var subtitlePath = state.SubtitleStream.Path;
-                var subtitleExtension = Path.GetExtension(subtitlePath.AsSpan());
+                var isGraphicalBurnIn = ShouldEncodeSubtitle(state) && !state.SubtitleStream.IsTextSubtitleStream;
 
-                // dvdsub/vobsub graphical subtitles use .sub+.idx pairs
-                if (subtitleExtension.Equals(".sub", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
+                if (isGraphicalBurnIn)
                 {
-                    var idxFile = Path.ChangeExtension(subtitlePath, ".idx");
-                    if (File.Exists(idxFile))
+                    var subtitleExtension = Path.GetExtension(subtitlePath.AsSpan());
+
+                    // dvdsub/vobsub graphical subtitles use .sub+.idx pairs
+                    if (subtitleExtension.Equals(".sub", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
                     {
-                        subtitlePath = idxFile;
+                        var idxFile = Path.ChangeExtension(subtitlePath, ".idx");
+                        if (File.Exists(idxFile))
+                        {
+                            subtitlePath = idxFile;
+                        }
                     }
                 }
 
@@ -1307,7 +1308,7 @@ namespace MediaBrowser.Controller.MediaEncoding
                     arg.Append(' ').Append(seekSubParam);
                 }
 
-                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(canvasArgs))
+                if (isGraphicalBurnIn && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(canvasArgs))
                 {
                     arg.Append(canvasArgs);
                 }
@@ -3072,11 +3073,8 @@ namespace MediaBrowser.Controller.MediaEncoding
                 int audioStreamIndex = FindIndex(state.MediaSource.MediaStreams, state.AudioStream);
                 if (state.AudioStream.IsExternal)
                 {
-                    bool hasExternalGraphicsSubs = state.SubtitleStream is not null
-                        && ShouldEncodeSubtitle(state)
-                        && state.SubtitleStream.IsExternal
-                        && !state.SubtitleStream.IsTextSubtitleStream;
-                    int externalAudioMapIndex = hasExternalGraphicsSubs ? 2 : 1;
+                    bool hasExternalSubAsInput = NeedsExternalSubtitleMuxing(state);
+                    int externalAudioMapIndex = hasExternalSubAsInput ? 2 : 1;
 
                     args += string.Format(
                         CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
@@ -3104,12 +3102,20 @@ namespace MediaBrowser.Controller.MediaEncoding
             }
             else if (subtitleMethod == SubtitleDeliveryMethod.Embed)
             {
-                int subtitleStreamIndex = FindIndex(state.MediaSource.MediaStreams, state.SubtitleStream);
+                if (state.SubtitleStream.IsExternal)
+                {
+                    // External subtitle file is added as second FFmpeg input
+                    args += " -map 1:0";
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    int subtitleStreamIndex = FindIndex(state.MediaSource.MediaStreams, state.SubtitleStream);
 
-                args += string.Format(
-                    CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
-                    " -map 0:{0}",
-                    subtitleStreamIndex);
+                    args += string.Format(
+                        CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
+                        " -map 0:{0}",
+                        subtitleStreamIndex);
+                }
             }
             else if (state.SubtitleStream.IsExternal && !state.SubtitleStream.IsTextSubtitleStream)
             {
@@ -7886,6 +7892,14 @@ namespace MediaBrowser.Controller.MediaEncoding
                    || (state.BaseRequest.AlwaysBurnInSubtitleWhenTranscoding && !IsCopyCodec(state.OutputVideoCodec));
         }
 
+        private static bool NeedsExternalSubtitleMuxing(EncodingJobInfo state)
+        {
+            return state.SubtitleStream is not null
+                && state.SubtitleStream.IsExternal
+                && (state.SubtitleDeliveryMethod == SubtitleDeliveryMethod.Embed
+                    || (ShouldEncodeSubtitle(state) && !state.SubtitleStream.IsTextSubtitleStream));
+        }
+
         public static string GetVideoSyncOption(string videoSync, Version encoderVersion)
         {
             if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(videoSync))
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