ffmpeg set subtitles track as default

Question

By adding an .ass subtitles track to an mkv video with ffmpeg, it isn\'t set as default track, so on playback you have to manually turn on subtitles. Is it possible to set t

Answer 1

You can use 'forced' instead of default to force vlc to play it

ffmpeg -f mp4 -i outfile.mp4 -f srt -i VTS_07_0.EnglishV2.srt -c:v copy -c:a copy -metadata:s:a:0 language=Japanese -c:s mov_text -metadata:s:s:0 language=English -disposition:s:s:0 forced mix.mp4

Answer 2

I think as per this patch this is now possible. At least for me it works with:

ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -i in.srt -c copy -disposition:s:0 default out.mkv

Note s in -disposition:s:0 in this case stands for subtitle and not stream. To select the second steam by index use -disposition:1.