Is it safe to ignore the error "Invalid UTF-8 in decoded subtitles text; maybe missing -sub_charenc option Error while decoding stream"?

Question

I was encoding a video with subtitles and I got the error, "Invalid UTF-8 in decoded subtitles text; maybe missing -sub_charenc option. Error while decoding stream" but the video encoded anyway. What are the consequences of ignoring this error? A google search showed a result of one guy saying it skips that sub so the resulting video will have missing subs. Can someone confirm this?

I know how to fix it but I have already converted 50+ videos with subtitles and I'm fairly certain that a few of them had this error. I just want someone to tell me that it's okay to ignore so I don't have to watch 200 hours of videos.

Solution for fixing subtitle errors:

Create a batch file and edit with the following:

for %%a in ("*.srt") do ffmpeg -v 9 -loglevel 99 -sub_charenc CP1252 -i "%%a" "newfiles\%%~na.srt"
pause

Answer 1

I'm afraid you are likely having videos with missing subtitle lines. But, to relieve your pain, you can try to "transcode" only the subs:

ffmpeg -i input.srt -c:s ass -f null -

This will run really fast. Run all the already-processed srt files, and look for which files produces the text encoding error. Then re-transcode those with the errors with the right setting.