Buzz
Video subtitles are designed to display dialogues and audio as on-screen text, aiding those with hearing impairments or requiring translations. Subtitles are saved as separate files, with the SRT (Subrip Subtitle) format being the most common. You can manually create these files using text editors like Notepad or TextEdit, or generate them using subtitle creation tools such as Aegisub. Many media players allow you to select or automatically recognize SRT files, displaying subtitles during video playback. These subtitles only appear if the SRT file is selected. To permanently embed subtitles into a video, you need video encoding tools like Handbrake. You can also upload SRT files to YouTube videos.
Steps
Embedding Subtitles into a Video
Download and Install Handbrake. Handbrake is a free video encoding tool that supports embedding subtitles into videos. You can download Handbrake from https://handbrake.fr/downloads.php.
- To embed subtitles into a video, you need an external SRT file containing the subtitles. If you don’t have an SRT file, you can create one using the free Aegisub application, or manually code it using Notepad or TextEdit.
Launch Handbrake. After downloading and installing Handbrake, you can open the tool from the Start menu on Windows or the Applications folder on Mac.
Click on File. This is the second option in the menu on the left. This step opens the file selection dialog.
- Alternatively, you can drag and drop the video you want to add subtitles to into the box on the right.
Select the video you want to add subtitles to and click Open. This step loads the video into Handbrake.
Click on Subtitles. This is one of the tabs located in the middle of the screen, below the video source information.
Click on Import Subtitle. This button is located at the top of the box under the "Subtitles" tab.
Select the corresponding SRT file for the video and click Open. This step imports the SRT file into Handbrake.
Click on Browse. This gray button is located at the bottom-right corner.
Enter a name for the new file and click Save. This step creates the file and saves the video with embedded subtitles.
Click on Start Encode. This button is located at the top of Handbrake, next to the green triangular Play icon. This step encodes the video with embedded subtitles. You can enable subtitles in your media player by selecting the subtitle menu and turning them on.
Upload Subtitles to a YouTube Video (Using Classic Creator Studio)
Access https://www.youtube.com using a web browser. You can use any web browser on your PC or Mac.
- If you are not logged into your YouTube account, click Sign In at the top-right corner, then log in using the email and password associated with your YouTube account.
- To upload subtitles to a YouTube video, you need an SRT file containing the subtitles. If you don’t have an SRT file, you can create one using the free Aegisub application, or manually code it using Notepad or TextEdit.
Upload a video to YouTube. If you haven’t done this yet, use the standard method to upload your video from your computer to YouTube.
Click on your user icon. This is the circular icon containing your profile picture located at the top-right corner. This step opens your account menu.
- If you haven’t set a profile picture, YouTube will display a colored circle with the first letter of your name.
Click on Creator Studio. It is located in the dropdown menu that appears when you click your profile picture.
- If you see "YouTube Studio" instead of "Creator Studio," you can refer to the next method for uploading subtitles in YouTube Studio. Alternatively, click YouTube Studio and then Creator Studio Classic in the left sidebar to switch back to the classic Creator Studio.
Click on Video Manager. This video manager is located in the left sidebar. This step displays a list of all the videos you have uploaded to YouTube.
Click on Edit next to the video you want to add subtitles to. This step opens the dropdown menu for the video.
Click on Subtitles/CC. This button is located near the bottom of the dropdown menu that appears when you click Edit.
Select the language and click Set Language. If you haven’t done this yet, use the dropdown menu to choose the video’s language. Then click the blue button labeled Set Language.
Click on Add new subtitles or CC. This blue button is located on the right side of the video.
Choose the language. If you are adding more than one language to the video, select the language corresponding to the subtitle file. Otherwise, simply click on the default selected language.
Click on Upload a file. This is the first option on the right.
- If you don’t have a subtitle file, you can choose one of the other options to create subtitles within YouTube Creator Studio.
Select "Subtitle file" and click Choose file. Click the circle next to "Subtitle file" and then click Choose file. This step opens the file browser for you to select the subtitle file.
Select the subtitle file and click Open. Use the file browser to locate the SRT file. Click to select it, then click Open to upload the file.
Click on Upload. This blue button is located at the bottom-left corner. This step uploads the subtitle file to your video. You can preview the subtitles in the video on the left.
Click on Save Changes. This blue button is located above the video preview on the right. This step encodes the video with subtitles permanently embedded into the video file.
Upload Subtitles to a YouTube Video (Using YouTube Studio)
Access https://www.youtube.com using a web browser. You can use any web browser on your PC or Mac.
- If you are not logged into your YouTube account, click Sign In at the top-right corner, then log in using the email and password associated with your YouTube account.
- To upload subtitles to a YouTube video, you need an SRT file containing the subtitles. If you don’t have an SRT file, you can create one using the free Aegisub application, or manually code it using Notepad or TextEdit.
Upload a video to YouTube. If you haven’t done this yet, use the standard method to upload your video from your computer to YouTube.
Click on your user icon. This is the circular icon containing your profile picture located at the top-right corner. This step opens your account menu.
- If you haven’t set a profile picture, YouTube will display a colored circle with the first letter of your name.
Click on YouTube Studio. It is located in the dropdown menu that appears when you click your profile picture.
- If you see "Creator Studio" instead of YouTube Studio, you can refer to Method 2 for uploading subtitles in the classic Creator Studio. Alternatively, click Creator Studio and then Try Studio (Beta) to switch to YouTube Studio.
Click on Videos (Content). It is located in the left sidebar. This step displays all the videos uploaded to YouTube.
Click on the video you want to add subtitles to. You can click on the thumbnail or the title of the video. This step opens the page where you can edit the video details.
Click on Advanced (Show more). This is the second tab at the top of the page (or at the bottom).
Select the language for the video. If you haven’t done this yet, use the "Video Language" dropdown menu to choose the video’s language. You won’t be able to upload subtitle files until the language is selected.
Click on Upload Subtitles/CC. This blue link is located below the Video Language dropdown menu.
Select "With Timing" and click Continue. Since the SRT file contains timing information for the subtitles, click the circle next to "With Timing," then click Continue at the bottom-right corner of the window.
Select the SRT file and click Open. Use the file browser to locate the SRT file for your video. Click to select it, then click Open at the bottom-right corner. This step uploads the file to YouTube.
Click on Save. This step saves the video with the uploaded subtitles.
- When playing the video, you can enable subtitles by clicking the gear icon at the bottom of the video, then clicking Subtitles/CC. Next, select the subtitle language.
Create Subtitle Files Using Aegisub
Visit http://www.aegisub.org using a web browser. This is the website where you can download Aegisub, a free application for creating video subtitles. If the site is unavailable, visit https://github.com/Aegisub/Aegisub/releases/tag/v3.2.2.
- If you prefer to manually type subtitles, refer to the method Create Subtitle Files Manually.
Click on Full Install next to "Windows" or "OS X 10.7+". If you are using Windows, click Full Install next to Windows to download the installation file for Windows. If you are using Mac, click Full Install next to "OS X 10.7+" to download the installation file for Mac.
Double-click the installation file, then follow the instructions. By default, your downloaded file will be in the "Downloads" folder on both Mac and Windows. The installation file for Windows is usually named "Aegisub-3.2.2-32.exe". The installation file for Mac is usually named "Aegisub-3.2.2.dmg".
Open Aegisub. The application has an icon that looks like an eye and an X on a red background. Aegisub is typically located in the Start menu on Windows or in the Applications folder on Mac.
Click on Video. It is located in the menu bar at the top of the screen. This step opens the Video dropdown menu.
Click on Open Video. This is the first option in the dropdown menu under "Video".
Select the video and click Open. Locate the video you want to add subtitles to and click to select it. Then click Open to load the video into Aegisub. You will see the video preview on the left. On the right is the audio panel, which displays the audio waveform. Below the audio panel, you will find a text box for entering subtitles. At the bottom, you will see a list of subtitles and related information.
Click and drag to highlight the audio section you want to subtitle. Use the audio panel on the right to highlight the portion of the audio you want to subtitle. You can adjust the highlighted section by clicking and dragging the red and blue lines on either side. You can also manually type the start and end times in the time boxes below the audio panel.
- You can also click the icon that looks like a sound wave below the audio panel. This switches to Spectrum Analyzer mode, allowing you to view the waveform in more detail and easily identify the start and end of dialogue.
Type the subtitle into the text box. Use the text box below the audio panel to enter subtitles for the highlighted audio section.
Click the checkmark icon. This green checkmark icon is located above the text box. This step saves the subtitle and creates a new entry for the next subtitle.
Repeat the steps above for all remaining subtitles. You can add as many subtitles as needed by clicking the checkmark icon. You can edit subtitles by clicking on them in the subtitle list at the bottom, then adjusting the text or start and end times.
- If a box in the subtitle list turns red, it likely means you have entered too many characters in one line. You can create a new line in the subtitle by typing "\N" or pressing ⇧ Shift+↵ Enter.
Click on File. It is located in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Once you finish adding subtitles, you will need to save the subtitle file.
Click on Export Subtitles. It is located in the dropdown menu under "File".
Click on Export. This button is located at the bottom-right corner of the pop-up window.
Navigate to the folder where you want to save the file. It is a good practice to save the SRT file in the same folder as the video you are subtitling.
Enter a name for the subtitle file. Use the box next to "Filename" to type a name for the subtitle file. It is recommended to name the file the same as the corresponding video. For example, if the video is named "Introduction.mp4", the SRT file should be named "Introduction.srt".
- Some media players like VLC can automatically detect and display subtitles if the SRT file is in the same folder and has the same name. Other media players like Windows Media Player will require you to load the SRT file alongside the video. This step only allows you to view subtitles; it does not embed subtitles into the video file.
Select "SubRip (*.srt)". Use the dropdown menu next to "Save as Type" to choose "SubRip" as the file type. This step saves the subtitle file in SRT format.
Click on Save. This step saves the subtitle file in SRT format. The SRT file is a plain text file that can be edited in NotePad or TextEdit on Mac.
- Aegisub does not permanently embed subtitles into the video file. It only creates external subtitle files. You can use another free application called Handbrake to embed subtitles into the video. You can also upload the SRT file to add subtitles to a video uploaded to YouTube.
Create Subtitle Files Manually
Open a text editor. The most common text editor on Windows is NotePad. On Mac, you can use TextEdit. Follow these steps to open a text editor.
-
On Windows 10:
- Click the Windows Start menu at the bottom-left corner.
- Type NotePad.
- Click the NotePad icon.
-
On Mac:
- Click the magnifying glass icon at the top-right corner.
- Type TextEdit.app and press ↵ Enter.
- Click TextEdit.app.
- Click New Document
Type the number for your first subtitle and press ↵ Enter. Each subtitle in your SRT file is numbered sequentially. Type "1" for the first subtitle, "2" for the second, and so on...
Type the start time of the subtitle. This is when the subtitle appears in the video. The start time for each subtitle should be written in the format "[hours]:[minutes]:[seconds],[milliseconds]". For example, the first subtitle appearing at the start of the video can be written as 00:00:01,000.
Type --> immediately after the start time. Type two hyphens and a greater-than symbol to separate the start and end times of the subtitle.
Type the end time of the subtitle. This is when the subtitle disappears. The end time should follow the format "[hours]:[minutes]:[seconds],[milliseconds]". The entire line containing the subtitle timing typically looks like this: 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:05,040.
Press ↵ Enter. After typing the subtitle timing, press Enter to move to a new line.
Type the subtitle. The third line contains the subtitle text displayed on the screen.
Press ↵ Enter twice. After typing the subtitle, press Enter twice to create a blank line between the current subtitle and the next one. Repeat these steps for each subtitle in the video.
Repeat the steps above for each subtitle in the video.
Click on File and then click Save as. After completing the subtitles in your text editor, save the file with a ".srt" extension. The Save option is located in the File menu at the top of the screen.
- In TextEdit on Mac, click Save instead of "Save as".
Navigate to the folder containing the video. It is recommended to save the SRT file in the same folder as the corresponding video.
Name the file the same as the video. Use the box next to "Filename" on Windows or "Save As" on Mac to type the name for the SRT file. Both the video and SRT file should have the same name. For example, if the video is named "Introduction.mp4", the SRT file should be named "Introduction.srt".
- When using VLC, you can check the subtitles if the SRT file is saved in the same location and has the same name as the video file. Click Subtitles, hover over Sub-track, and select the subtitle.
Save the text as an SRT file. Follow these steps to save the text as an SRT file.
- On Windows: When saving the file in NotePad, remove the ".txt" extension at the end of the file name and replace it with ".srt". Then click Save.
- On Mac: Click Save to save the file as a ".rtf" file. Use Finder to locate the file and click to select it. Click File and then Rename. Remove the ".rtf" extension at the end of the file name and replace it with ".srt". Click Use .srt when prompted about keeping the extension.
Below is an example of correctly formatted subtitle text in an SRT file:
1
00:00:01,001 --> 00:00:05,040
Welcome to our video tutorial.
2
00:00:07,075 --> 00:00:12,132
In this video, we will discuss subtitles.
3
00:00:14,013 --> 00:00:18,021
Let’s start by creating an SRT file.
