How to merge subtitles with video using mkvmerge with special characters?

When I use mkvmerge to make a hardcoded subtitle with special characters as ã, á, à, â it replaces it with "?".

I use the following command to embed subtitles:

mkvmerge -o output.mkv video.mp4 subtitles.srt

mkvmerge is very fast, so I want to keep using it, but how can I solve this problem?

1 Answer

1 - Save .srt subtitle with UTF-8 encoding:

This is step is useful to play your movie on some smartv's or DVDs.

Open subtitle with gedit> save file as... > choose UTF-8 character encoding.

2 - Discover the abreviation of your language on mkvmerge:

mkvmerge --list-languages

In my case, pt.

3 - Hardcode the subtitle

mkvmerge -o output.mkv video.mp4 subtitles.srt --chapter-language pt