Subtitles for different videos are loaded during playback

[big-curled]

I play videos by directly accessing a local SMB share. I have one .ass subtitle file for each video file, like this

\\WWWWWWWWWW.LOCAL\HHHHH\0.INBOX\CONAN\DETECTIVE CONAN REMASTERED 219-262 10BIT
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 219 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 219 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 220 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 220 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 221 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 221 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 222 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 222 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 223 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 223 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4
│   [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 224 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass

Normally, when I play xxx.mp4, its sub xxx.ass is loaded for that playback, and I’m happy. However, this time subtitles for all the episodes in this directory are loaded during playback, like this:

This would not be a problem if it still picks the right sub, but it does not. It seems to pick the first sub in an alphabetically order, so, if it is playing episode 221, it loads sub 219 by default.

I tested on both my Apple TV and my iPad, and find out that they both have the same problem. On my iPad Pro:

Hardware and app info:

• Apple TV model A1842, tvOS 18.3 [22K557], Infuse 8.1.2 (5120)
• iPad Pro model MXDC2LL/A, iPadOS 18.3.2, Infuse 8.1.2 (5120)

---

I did some investigation.

I think it may be because the file names/paths are too long, but I have no issue playing it
on my Windows PC and with another video player on Apple TV.

I tried to reduce the number of files involved, and found out that this issue still exists if there are only two files in a directory.

This issue is so weird that it only happens for some of my files. Other similarly named episodes under the same parent directory all have the same problem, e.g., files in CONAN\DETECTIVE CONAN REMASTERED 304-344 WEB-DL 10bit. However, files with more different names under the same parent directory do not have this problem, e.g. files in CONAN\[Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan Remastered 0174-0218

I suspect that this is related to filenames, so I tried to rename the files and, surprisingly, it works. After I rename the directory to:

\\WWWWWWWWWW.LOCAL\HHHHH\0.INBOX\CONAN\DETECTIVE CONAN REMASTERED 304-344 WEB-DL 10bit
    [Shiniori-Raws] Ddddddddd Ccccc Rrrrrrrrrr - 308 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass
    [Shiniori-Raws] Ddddddddd Ccccc Rrrrrrrrrr - 307 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4
    [Shiniori-Raws] Ddddddddd Ccccc Rrrrrrrrrr - 308 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4
    [Shiniori-Raws] Ddddddddd Ccccc Rrrrrrrrrr - 307 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass

Subs are loaded normally.

[big-curled]

more screenshot: iPad version has the same issue

[big-curled]

After renaming, the player loads sub normally:

[james]

Infuse includes a bit of fuzzy logic to bring in subtitles which contain extra info in the file (such as language info).

For TV shows such as this you may try using one of the support naming styles as described in this guide. Specifically, this means including both the season and episode number in the filename.

It seems like this series may only have a single season so using a format like this should work.

Detective Conan - S01 E219.mp4

[big-curled]

If I understand correctly, this “parsing filename” logic should not happen as I play my videos directly from my SMB share.

I may not state it clear: I play the said videos from the file manager UI (enter my share in Favorites and select a file from the file list), not from UI generated by parsing file metadata (like clicking a cover image of a series in the home page).

In the file manager, I expect the player to load subs in a simple fashion: load a sub with the same name as the video file I select to play.

[big-curled]

Also I should add that I’ve turned off “Metadata Fetching” option in the settings.

[NC_Bullseye]

It’s not about the fetching, the naming structure helps Infuse match the subtitle files with the video. Without the S0x0x format the episode numbers could be a language code for different languages for a single video.

@james

Infuse includes a bit of fuzzy logic to bring in subtitles which contain extra info in the file (such as language info).

Try adding the S0xE0x to both the video and sub file names and see if that doesn’t help.

[big-curled]

Let me add some background. I’ve used Infuse like this as a ‘barebone file manager’ since the beginning. I basically never used it to parse metadata from my files, and never touched fetched series covers. And it’s been fine these many years. I’ve watched many episodes with subs without any issue, until I played the videos mentioned.

I am probably fine by getting around with it by renaming the files, and it may only happen for these files. But I just want to report it because it is annoying.

---

For the suggestion of renaming files to include series info, I think it is only a workaround not a solution. I’ve already found a workaround in the post: by renaming files to sth like [Shiniori-Raws] Ddddddddd Ccccc Rrrrrrrrrr - 308 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC). This workaround already works (one sub is loaded for one video), where the filenames even do not have series info.

Also, I also stated in the post that similar files under the same directory has no issue, and the files don’t have series info too:

\\WWWWWWWWWW.LOCAL\HHHHH\0.INBOX\CONAN\[FABRE-RAW] DETECTIVE CONAN REMASTERED 0172-0191 [BDRIP 1080P][FLAC]
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0172 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].mkv
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0173 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].mkv
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0174 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].ass
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0174 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].mkv
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0175 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].mkv
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0176 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].ass
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0176 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].mkv
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0177 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].ass
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0177 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].mkv
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0178 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].ass
    [Fabre-RAW] Detective Conan - 0178 [BDRip 1080p][FLAC].mkv

I play one of them, and it loads normally with one sub:

[james]

The behavior you are seeing likely stems from the ‘960x720’ portion of the filename as this is a supported naming style for series (EG season 960 episode 720).

Since all videos have this in the filename Infuse is treating the subtitles as belonging to the same episode.

Removing this (or changing to something like ‘960p’) should also resolve the issue.

[big-curled]

Ahh so let me guess, even in file manager UI, Infuse still tries to parse the filenames. In the case of renaming those files to Ddddddddd Ccccc Rrrrrrrrrr, Infuse could not match them to anything in its database, so it does not move on to find episode/season info.

Looks like there is no way to disable this parsing to make it “dumb”, isn’t it? I’ve already turned off related settings I believe. I wish it could just be dumb. From my intuition, the player should just work like a file manager when I am in that UI.

[big-curled]

So I can observe that “1080p” won’t trigger this behavior, but “960x720” can. I also quickly tested files with “1280x720” in it, and they don’t have this issue. Those filenames are rare cases indeed. Yes Conan is an old series so the resolution is not that common nowadays.

[james]

The filename is used to determine if something is a movie or TV show. This is done independently of whether Metadata Fetching is enabled or not.

For example, you could have Metadata Fetching disabled and use the Edit Metadata feature to fetch metadata for specific items, leaving Infuse to use only local metadata for the remaining items.

Glad you were able to find a solution that works for you.

[big-curled]

Sorry looks like we haven’t reached the bottom of this rabbit role yet. After I remove “960x720”, “x264” and even “10bit”, and add “S01”, it is still the case. I cleared metadata cache in the settings and still.

\\WWWWWWWWWW.LOCAL\HHHHH\0.INBOX\BBBBB\DETECTIVE CONAN REMASTERED 304-344 WEB-DL 10BIT
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 307 (NF WEB-DL AAC).ass
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 308 (NF WEB-DL AAC).mp4
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 308 (NF WEB-DL AAC).ass
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 307 (NF WEB-DL AAC).mp4

[big-curled]

I have extremely similarly named files that can load subs with no problem:

\\WWWWWWWWWW.LOCAL\HHHHH\0.INBOX\CONAN\DETECTIVE CONAN REMASTERED 460-490 10BIT
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan - 460 (NF WEB-DL 1280x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan - 460 (NF WEB-DL 1280x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan - 461 (NF WEB-DL 1280x720 x264 10bit AAC).ass
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan - 461 (NF WEB-DL 1280x720 x264 10bit AAC).mp4

The only difference is “1280x720”, but I’ve already removed those numbers in the last reply. I am back to confusion. I may draw the conclusion too soon.

[james]

If you’re looking to add the season episode number you will want to add both S and E.

[Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 E308 (NF WEB-DL AAC).mp4

[big-curled]

Still.

Btw, Bbbbb is a directory created to test if there is something wrong Conan directory. Looks like it is not related

\\WWWWWWWWWW.LOCAL\HHHHH\0.INBOX\BBBBB\DETECTIVE CONAN REMASTERED 304-344 WEB-DL 10BIT
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 E307 (NF WEB-DL AAC).ass
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 E307 (NF WEB-DL AAC).mp4
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 E308 (NF WEB-DL AAC).ass
    [Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - S01 E308 (NF WEB-DL AAC).mp4

[big-curled]

After digging around, I’ve found the least amount of modification to fix the issue: remove Remastered from Detective Conan Remastered. Other parts of the filenames can be left untouched without removing resolution or adding season info, for example. Basically, changing

[Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan Remastered - 307 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC)

to

[Shiniori-Raws] Detective Conan - 307 (NF WEB-DL 960x720 x264 10bit AAC)

fixes it.

May I ask why the player could behave differently on such subtle change?

[big-curled]

@james hi, I am not satisfied with this “solution”. IMO, this is merely a workaround, and this issue should be deemed as a bug. There is something wrong with Infuse sub loading logic. If I have, as in this post, a sub file with the same name as the video file, Infuse should simply load it regardless how Infuse fetches metadata. Not to mention, I open the video file in the “file management” UI. For me, it is counterintuitive that Infuse ignores the sub laying in the same directory as the video file I select.