SOLVED: Multiple simulatenous subs (same file) not staying on playback

[tillamook]

Searched but didn't find anything. During playback of some foreign audio files with English subs, at points where there might be multiple subs on the playback simultaneously (eg, imagine in anime or a foreign film where there is dialogue but also a street sign shown, you might have the dialogue sub at the bottom and the street sign translation sub up by the sign), the first sub in order will show up as a flash and then the second one will override and be the only sub displayed. Typically the files are mkv with internal subs, but sometimes they're with external srt. 

Seems to happen on both Android and Windows app, and online app. Conversely playing with VLC plays both sub displays properly and they are on the playback simulateously.

I've tried messing with settings, hardware vs software decoding, etc. But nothing seems to get them to play correctly. 

Thoughts? Am I just missing a toggle somewhere?