How to Toggle Subtitles in ffplay

Toggling between different subtitle tracks in ffplay during live playback is a simple process handled via built-in keyboard controls. This guide explains the exact key binding required to cycle through active subtitle tracks, how to disable them, and how to select a default track from the command line before playback starts.

The Keyboard Shortcut

To switch subtitle streams while a video is playing in ffplay, press the t key on your keyboard:

• Press t: Cycles to the next available subtitle stream.
• Turn off subtitles: Continue pressing t until the player cycles past the last stream. The on-screen display will show that subtitles are disabled before looping back to the first track.

Selecting a Subtitle Stream on Launch

If you want to specify a subtitle stream before playback begins rather than cycling manually, use the -sst (subtitle stream) option followed by the stream index:

ffplay -sst 0 video.mkv

To launch ffplay with subtitles completely disabled from the start, use the -sn flag:

ffplay -sn video.mkv

Viewing Available Subtitle Tracks

If you need to check which subtitle tracks are present in the media file along with their language tags, use ffprobe in your terminal:

ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=index:stream_tags=language -select_streams s video.mkv

This command outputs a list of all subtitle streams and their corresponding indices, allowing you to identify the specific track index you wish to target.