Audio, subtitles, quality and HDR
Configure audio tracks, text and image subtitles, quality limits, direct-play preferences and HDR-to-SDR playback in Finetic.
Audio selection#
Available tracks come from the source probe. A selection identifies the real stream, language, codec and channel layout. Changing audio can keep Direct Play, trigger audio-only conversion or require a new HLS session.
Track preferences are user-scoped. Finetic should not label an und stream as English without metadata evidence.
Text subtitles#
Embedded SRT, WebVTT and compatible text streams can be indexed by source fingerprint, extracted on demand and cached. Turning subtitles off disables the active text track and must not leave a previous burn-in session running.
Styled and image subtitles#
ASS can contain positioning, fonts and effects that WebVTT cannot preserve. PGS is image based. When faithful client rendering is unavailable, Finetic may burn subtitles into video. That requires a video transcode and materially increases startup cost.
The plan and player should state when subtitle choice caused burn-in.
Forced subtitles#
A forced flag alone is insufficient. Automatic selection also considers the user's language and the selected audio language. A Swedish forced track must not be enabled for an English viewer merely because the file marks it default.
HDR#
The source probe records transfer characteristics, colour primaries, matrix, mastering metadata and bit depth. The client reports supported HDR formats. When an HDR source is presented to an SDR-only client, Finetic uses hardware tone mapping when verified and software fallback when permitted.
Ten-bit video is not automatically HDR. BT.709 ten-bit sources remain SDR.
Quality limits#
Administrators and users can set bitrate or resolution preferences. The resulting plan must honour both without exceeding source dimensions. Adaptive ladders contain only useful renditions beneath the source and configured caps.
Troubleshooting a track change#
If playback does not resume after selecting a track, copy the diagnostic and verify selectedAudioId, selectedSubtitleId, the plan reason codes and the generated session. Do not repeatedly toggle tracks while a previous transcode is still being cancelled.