How to Add External SRT Subtitles to Video?

Date July 21, 2017 Author Catherine Category Subtitles Tips

Nobody can ignore the the importance of subtitles in a video which can make the movie content easier to understand, subtitles make the video accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, offers an alternative to posting lyrics alongside the video of a music video, if you get a foreign video, subtitles provides your familiar language for better watching.

When you get a video without any subtitles, you can download the subtitles from online and add the subtitles to video. Sometimes, you record a video by camera or other devices, you want to add the subtitles to video for sharing with friends or upload to Youtube, Facebook, how to do? This post will tell yopu how to download the SRT subtitles you want, or create your own SRT subtitles, then show you to add the SRT subtitles to video easily.

Preparatory Work – Download SRT Subtitles from Famous Subtitles Websites

When you want to add the subtitles to video and want to download the subtitles from online, you can choose one from the top 5 famous subtitles websites

1. OpenSubtitles: OpenSubtitles is an open multi-language subtitle database. It is one of the best and certainly the most visited subtitle website. Advanced search enables you to find what you need much faster.

2. Moviesubtitles.org:You can find subtitles for the most popular movies and TV films. Subtitles are available in multiple languages. All subtitles here are packed with WinZip.

3. Subscene: It is an international subtitle site for films and TV series. Just type the right name and title, you can get many search results with multiple languages.

4. SubsMax: SubsMax aims to help you find and download the subtitles you need quickly

Preparatory Work – Edit SRT Subtitles by Yourself

When you want to create your own SRT file from scratch. Depending on the operating system you use (Mac or Windows PC), the instructions are slightly different. Following will show you how to create the SRT subtitles on Windows and Mac.

Create SRT Subtitles on Windows

1. Open a new file on Notepad.
2. To begin, type a “1” to indicate the first caption sequence, then press “enter.”
3. Enter the beginning and end timecode using the following format: hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds – –> hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds, like: 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:04,440, Then press “enter.”
4. In the next line, begin your captions. Try to keep a 32-character limit, with 2 lines per caption so that the viewer doesn’t have to read too much.
5. After the last text line in the sequence, press “enter” twice. Make sure to leave a blank line to indicate a new caption sequence.
6. Below the blank line, type “2” and begin your second caption sequence following the SRT captioning format.
7. Repeat the steps until you have a completed transcript.
8. To save, go to File → Save. Under “File Name,” type the name of your transcript using “.srt” at the end.
9. Under “Save as type:” select “All Files.”, then hit save.

Create SRT Subtitles on Mac

1. Open a new file in TextEdit.
2. To begin, type a “1” to indicate the first caption sequence, then press “enter.”
3. Enter the beginning and end timecode using the following format: hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds – –> hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds, like: 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:04,440, Then press “enter.”
4. In the next line, begin your captions. Try to keep a 32-character limit, with 2 lines per caption so that the viewer doesn’t have to read too much.
5. After the last text line in the sequence, press “enter” twice. Make sure to leave a blank line to indicate a new caption sequence.
6. Below the blank line, type “2” and begin your second caption sequence following the SRT captioning format.
7. Repeat the steps until you have a completed transcript.
8. To save your file as an .srt, first go to Format → Make Plain Text, or use the keyboard shortcut: Shift + Command + T.
9. Next, go to File → Save. Under “Save As,” type the name of your file, but switch “.txt” to “.srt”
10. Uncheck both “Hide Extension” on the bottom left hand side of the menu, and “If no extension is provided, use “.txt”. Then hit save.

2 Methods for Adding SRT Subtitles to Video Easily

Method 1: Adding SRT Subtitles to Video With Professional Video Converter

After the subtitles are ready, you need a third software and add the SRT subtitles to video. Here I will highly recommend Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate – a professional all-in-one solution to take care of all your problems regarding subtitle insertion and video conversion, etc. With this smart video converter, you are allowed to add SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles to videos in different formats. Also you can choose your desired video format for various video playback ways.

Step 1. Import the video

After installing Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate on your computer, run it and click “Load from disc/file/ISO/IFO” to import the video. You also can load multiple video files with a folder, this software allows you to do batch video conversion.

Step 2. Enter Editing interface

Click the “Edit” button to change to the editing interface. Go to the point: select “subtitle” and tick off the “Enable” button import the corresponding subtitle with the form of SRT/ASS/SSA. Wanna make your favorable video? Try other editing functions on the editing interface allowing you to trim video clips, crop black bars, add text/image/video watermark to your video and adjust video effect just for your entertainment.

Step 3. Start to add SRT subtitles to video

Go back to the main interface, click the big red button “Convert” to start to add SRT subtitles to video. By the way, if you want to get other video format, you can also choose Format and select other video format you want.

Method 2: Adding SRT Subtitles to Video With VLC

You can also load subtitles via media player while playing videos. Here we take frequently-used VLC for example.

1. Play your video file with VLC.
2. Press “Subtitle” on the menu bar and choose “Add Subtitle File”.
3. Load subtitle file you’ve downloaded.

Tips: You can know more about the SRT subtitles