How to get Bink Subtitles to work?

I have this bink video and these subtitle files in my Movie folder in UE5.3.2. The video plays just fine, but I can’t seem to get the subtitles to work for either language. We are using Set Culture to change between our translations in the rest of the game, but neither culture ever shows in bink.

I see that this is supposed to be working since 5.1, but I can’t seem to get it to work. I see some people have said they got it working, but I can’t seem to figure it out. Any ideas what I missed?

Greetings @mclark4386! Let’s try to figure this one out!

Since the video is playing as intended, but the subtitles are not showing up, there may be an issue with the naming or location of the subtitle file.

Please take the following steps:

  • Double-check that the subtitle file is in the same folder as the video file
  • Ensure the subtitle file has the same name as the video file (e.g. “video.bik” and “video.srt”)
  • Check the Bink Media Player settings in Unreal Engine to ensure that subtitles are enabled and the correct subtitle file is selected.
  • If the issue persists, test a different format for subtitles, like .vtt

Additionally, check the UE documentation for Bink Video for further data. Hope this helps!

The screenshot in my OP shows the folder/files in question, for reference. I have “Subtitles Enabled” checked in the Engine - General Settings of the Project, what other settings do I need to check? I don’t see anything about “subtitles” in the Bink settings.

Thank you for the clarification. Since the naming conventions are correct, the subtitles options are enabled in-engine, and you have the Bink plugin working in your project, your setup is correct. Subtitles should be working, yet the issue persists.

The next step is to check up your local setup. Please make sure you have the latest updates for Windows and nVidia. As for UE, considering you have tested multiple versions, I would suggest a clean reinstall, via removing all versions of UE from your PC, then deleting the Epic Games folder from the Progam files folder. After that, please test with UE 5.1 first, as it has shown the most resolved cases in the community.

If the problem continues after that, we will investigate further.

I’ve heard rumor that this may have something to do with a z conflict, but I set my UMG widget I was playing the bink video on to -1 Z and I still couldn’t see the subtitles. So I had to go the more manual route and use C++ to tap into the SubtitleManager’s OnSetSubtitleText so for testing my UMG widget’s code looked like this:

void UBinkPlayerUMGWidget::NativeConstruct()
{
    Super::NativeConstruct();

    FSubtitleManager* SubtitleManager = FSubtitleManager::GetSubtitleManager();
    if (SubtitleManager != nullptr) {
        SubtitleManager->OnSetSubtitleText().AddUFunction(this, FName("UpdateSubtitleText"));
    }
}

void UBinkPlayerUMGWidget::UpdateSubtitleText(const FText& subtitle){
    double debug_delay = 10.0;
    FString sub = subtitle.ToString();
    UE_LOG(LogTemp, Warning, TEXT("New Subtitle: %s"), *sub);
    GEngine->AddOnScreenDebugMessage(-1, debug_delay, FColor::Green, FString::Printf(TEXT("New Subtitle: %s"),*sub));
}