Audio & Subtitle Tracks
Overview
Movies and TV episodes often include multiple audio tracks and subtitle tracks. These can include different languages, commentary, descriptive audio, full subtitles, forced subtitles, and accessibility subtitles.
Norri detects available tracks during library scanning and gives you two places to select them: the detail page before you press play, and the player controls during playback.
Audio Tracks
What Norri Detects
For each media file, Norri identifies every audio track and records its language, codec, channel layout, and any flags set by the file creator. Common flags include:
- Default, the track the file creator intended as the primary audio
- Commentary, director or cast commentary
- Descriptive Audio (AD), an audio description track for visually impaired viewers
Selecting an Audio Track
From the detail page: If a movie has more than one audio track, a dropdown appears in the file information section below the title. It shows each track’s language, codec, and channel count (for example, “English AAC 5.1”). Select a track before pressing play and Norri starts playback with that track.
During playback: Open the settings menu (gear icon in the player controls), then select Audio. The submenu lists all available tracks with badges for Default, Commentary, and AD where applicable. Selecting a track takes effect immediately. If the stream needs to restart to switch tracks, it does so automatically at your current position.
Track Labels
Norri displays the track title embedded in the file. Most files use straightforward labels like “English” or “5.1 Surround.” Some files use titles in other languages (for example, a French-authored file might label the English track as “anglais”). This reflects the original file metadata and is not something Norri changes.
Subtitle Tracks
Types of Subtitles
Media files can contain three distinct types of subtitle track. The label shown in Norri comes directly from the file, so the exact wording varies, but the types fall into these categories:
| Type | What it contains | Typical labels |
|---|---|---|
| Full dialogue | All spoken words, translated into the subtitle language. Use these when watching content in a language you don’t speak. | ”English”, “French”, “Spanish” |
| Forced / Forced Narrative | On-screen text that needs translating (signs, location cards, title screens) and brief moments of foreign dialogue within an otherwise same-language film. These are the subtitles that should appear even when you understand the main audio language. | ”English (Forced Narrative)”, “English (Forced)“ |
| CC / SDH | Dialogue plus descriptions of sound effects, music, and speaker identification. Intended for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. | ”English (CC)”, “English (SDH)” |
Tip
If you see two “English” subtitle tracks and aren’t sure which is which, check the detail page dropdown. Norri shows the track’s full title from the file, which usually includes “(Forced Narrative)”, “(CC)”, or similar.
Selecting Subtitles
From the detail page: A subtitle dropdown appears below the title when subtitle tracks are available. Select a track and press play. The selected subtitle loads automatically.
During playback: Open the settings menu (gear icon), then select Subtitles. Choose a track to enable it, or select Off to disable subtitles. Changes take effect immediately.
Text, Styled, and Image Subtitles
Most subtitle tracks are text-based, such as SRT, ASS, SSA, and WebVTT. Norri can usually send these separately from the video.
ASS and SSA subtitles can include custom fonts, positioning, colors, and effects. By default, admins keep Burn In Styled Subtitles enabled in Settings → Transcoding so that styling is preserved. This may require transcoding because the styled subtitles are rendered into the video.
If Burn In Styled Subtitles is turned off, Norri side-loads ASS and SSA subtitles as plain WebVTT when possible. This avoids extra transcoding, but styling is lost.
Some Blu-ray and DVD rips contain image-based subtitles, such as PGS and VOBSUB. These are pictures of text rather than text files. With Subtitle Burn Mode set to Auto, Norri burns image-based subtitles into the video when needed for compatibility.
Note
Switching to a subtitle track that requires burn-in can briefly restart the stream. Norri resumes at the current position.
Embedded vs External Subtitles
Subtitles can be embedded inside the media file or stored as separate sidecar files next to it. Examples include .srt, .vtt, .ass, and .ssa files.
By default, Norri treats embedded and external subtitles as candidates during automatic selection. Admins can enable Prefer External Subtitles in Settings → Transcoding when sidecar subtitles should win over embedded tracks. This is useful when you keep corrected, re-timed, or better-labeled subtitles outside the video file.
Manual subtitle choices still take priority. If you pick a specific subtitle track before playback or during playback, Norri uses that choice for the session.
Automatic Subtitle Selection
Norri starts playback with the subtitle selected by your detail-page choice, sticky selection, or language preferences. A file’s internal default subtitle flag does not override the track Norri selected for your session.
Forced subtitles in the audio language can auto-select when your subtitle mode allows it. For example, if you watch English audio and the file includes an English forced track for signs or foreign dialogue, Norri can select that forced track without turning on full dialogue subtitles.
Language Preferences
Go to Settings → Playback (under the Web Client section) to configure your preferences. These apply automatically whenever you play something new.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Preferred Audio Language | Norri selects the audio track matching this language when you press play. Falls back to the file’s default track, then the first available track. |
| Preferred Subtitle Language | When subtitles are enabled (see Subtitle Mode below), Norri selects a track in this language. |
| Subtitle Mode | Controls when subtitles appear automatically. See below. |
| Prefer SDH | When enabled, Norri prefers CC/SDH subtitle tracks over standard tracks in the same language. |
| Audio Output | Controls which audio track is preferred based on your speaker setup (Stereo, 5.1, 7.1). Norri auto-detects your output, but you can override it if the detection is wrong. |
Setting Inheritance
Your server administrator can set server-wide defaults for these preferences. If you haven’t customized a setting, you inherit the server default. The Playback page shows where each setting comes from, for example: “Inherited from server: English.” Select any value from the dropdown to override it, or select the inherited option to go back to the server default.
Subtitle Modes
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Off | No subtitles selected automatically. You can still turn them on manually during playback. |
| Auto | The recommended default. Shows forced/narrative subtitles (on-screen text translations) when the audio is in your preferred language. Shows full dialogue subtitles when the audio is in a different language. |
| Foreign audio only | Shows full subtitles only when the audio language does not match your preferred language. Forced subtitles are always shown regardless. |
| Always on | Always shows subtitles in your preferred subtitle language, no matter what audio language is playing. |
Note
The Auto and Foreign audio only modes both show forced subtitles when the audio matches your language. The difference is subtle: Auto is slightly more conservative in its selection logic, while Foreign audio only guarantees full subtitles whenever the audio is foreign.
Sticky Selections
When you manually change the audio or subtitle track for a specific movie or episode, Norri remembers that choice. The next time you play the same item, your previous selection is applied automatically instead of the default language preferences.
This is useful for content you always want to watch a certain way. For example, if you switch a particular anime film to Japanese audio with English subtitles, Norri remembers that combination for that film. Your global preferences still apply to everything else.
Sticky selections are per-user. Other users on the same server have their own independent preferences and selections.
Troubleshooting
Subtitles not appearing
- Check that a subtitle track is actually selected in the player settings menu, under Subtitles.
- If you expected subtitles to appear automatically, check your subtitle mode in Settings → Playback. The default mode is Auto, which only shows full subtitles when the audio language differs from your preferred language.
- Some scenes genuinely have no subtitled dialogue. Gaps of a minute or more are common in action sequences
Two tracks with the same language name
This usually means the file contains both a full dialogue track and a forced/narrative track (or a CC/SDH track) in the same language. The detail page dropdown shows the track title which should distinguish them. In the player settings menu, the subtitle submenu also uses the full track title.
Styled subtitles appear plain
Ask an admin to check Settings → Transcoding → Burn In Styled Subtitles. When this setting is off, ASS and SSA subtitles are converted to plain WebVTT where possible, so fonts, colors, positioning, and effects are not preserved.
External subtitles are not selected automatically
Ask an admin to check Settings → Transcoding → Prefer External Subtitles. When this setting is off, Norri may select an embedded subtitle track first if it is the best language and mode match.
Audio track in the wrong language
Check your preferred audio language in Settings → Playback (Web Client section). Norri selects the best available track matching that language, preferring tracks your device can play natively (to avoid unnecessary transcoding) and tracks with an appropriate channel count for your audio output.
Audio playing in stereo when 5.1 is available
Check the Audio Output setting in Settings → Playback. If it shows Stereo, either the auto-detection determined your output is stereo, or a previous override is in effect. Change it to 5.1 Surround if you have a surround sound setup.