Do you need to download subtitles? Do you want to learn how to make subtitles? Or are you looking for someone to make subtitles for you? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, you are in the right place! This is the definitive guide to understanding everything about subtitles.
Before we get started, if you are looking for a subtitling company to create, transcribe, translate, burn, or correct subtitles for audiovisual content, don’t hesitate to contact us!
Best Sites to Download Subtitles
Let’s say you downloaded a movie in its original language and you realize it doesn’t have subtitles. In that case, you probably want to download English subtitles, right? But where can you do that?
Many people turn to SubDivX, a subtitles page. But that’s not the only online subtitle site; there are plenty of alternative pages to SubDivX. These are the sites we recommend to download English subtitles for movies and TV shows for free:
The Most Common Subtitle File Formats
There are many different subtitle file formats. Below there’s a list of the most common formats and some more information about each:
- .srt
- .ass
- .mks
- .txt
Subtitles in .SRT Format
The SubRip type of file (better known by its extension, .srt) is the most common of all. It’s flexible and easy to edit, it’s not heavy, and it’s the most compatible with video players for computers: it should work with almost any media player, like VLC or Microsoft Movies & TV. It should also work with TV video players.
Subtitles in .ASS Format
Advanced SubStation Alpha (better known by its extension, .ass) is the most complex type of subtitle file, because it offers more control over the appearance of the subtitles. It came to replace its predecessor, .ssa (SubStation Alpha), originally created to be edited with the software offered by its creators.
This format allows you to create animations with precise timestamps and particular transitions, add effects and apply the color and font of your preference, even when the device that reproduces the file doesn’t have those fonts installed. In a way, you could say that it’s “the .pdf of subtitles”. You can also decide the location and orientation of each subtitle line separately. Some of the negative aspects are that they have less compatibility (only computer video players like VLC will show them), they are heavier and they are difficult to edit.
Subtitles in .MKS Format
.mks format subtitles are the subtitle of the container file type Matroska, which is usually known for its similarity to another file type, the .mkv. They are very similar to the .srt file type, but they are less compatible. VLC and other computer video players are compatible, but they require that the subtitle track is added manually.
Subtitles in .TXT Format
.srt files, which we discussed above, are nothing other than .txt text files formatted with a particular text template. We can work on subtitles directly from a plain .txt file. If it is properly formatted, many programs will read this text as a subtitle. VLC will do it, for example, but you have to add the subtitle track manually.
Hire Subtitling Services
If you lack the technical knowledge, subtitling is not an easy task. So, you may be looking to hire subtitling services. In this section, we’ll tell you what you need to know if you want to get in touch with professionals who can make subtitles for your videos.
At editorial agency Palabra, we have professionals dedicated to captioning, specially trained in translation and creation of subtitles, who are ready for any job you need to be done and who follow the highest standards in the industry. If you are looking for an online subtitle translator to create and translate your subtitles, then feel free to contact us!
What Do We Subtitle and What Does Each Service Include?
Our subtitling service specializes in social media content, whether it’s Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, TikTok, Twitter, or Facebook videos. We offer the following subtitling services:
- YouTube
- Burned-in subtitles
- Subtitles edited from the platform
- Subtitles for YouTube Shorts
- Instagram
- Subtitles for stories
- Subtitles for reels
- Tik Tok
- Subtitles with attractive designs
- Movies and Series
- Transcription
- Translation
- Spotting
- Subtitle generation
- End-result:
- Burned-in subtitles
- Subtitle file in the required extension
Types of Subtitles
Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing
Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, also known as SDH, contain textual descriptions of sounds other than conversation, allowing the person watching the content to better understand what’s happening. When there’s dialogue, many times the subtitles are placed on top of the character who’s speaking. In other cases, the name of the speaker is shown before the dialogue.
Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing are a standard in English: SDH are available for the vast majority of films and shows produced in the United States. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Spanish and other languages. SDH should be a standard in all languages for all public audiovisual content.
CC Subtitles
What are CC subtitles and what’s their difference with SDH? SDH should not be confused with automatic closed captions or CC, which are subtitles generated by speech recognition software.
CC subtitles are essential because they can make any content more accessible with very little delay and without the need for long work by a subtitling specialist, although the result won’t be perfect. Fortunately, technological advances are allowing artificial intelligences behind these softwares to improve daily.
Forced Subtitles: What Are They?
If you’re wondering what forced subtitles are and what they are for, keep on reading. In films and series dubbed into English, there might be some content other than dialogue that also needs to be translated (for example, a sign on the street).
Sometimes, this is solved with the inclusion of a voice that reads the text out loud in Spanish, although that’s not always possible. In these cases, forced subtitles are needed.
To sum up, we are talking about subtitles that only appear when there’s text on screen in another language.
Automatic Subtitles
Automatic speech-to-text software has advanced by leaps and bounds since they were launched, and that same technology is used to create automatic subtitles. However, these automatic software still have problems interpreting proper names correctly.
On platforms like YouTube, there is an automatic captioning tool, with varied results depending on the language. In English, the results are pretty good, but in other languages, they are not. These subtitles not only make your videos more inclusive without much effort; they also allow YouTube to get more metadata, which in turn makes your video rank higher in searches.
In 2022, Adobe launched its own add-on for Premiere, which allows you to make automatic transcriptions in several languages of everything said in a video with very good results. For the first time and locally, in a program used by many professionals, we can now obtain cutting-edge results and streamline the process of subtitling.
Subtitle Translation
As you already know, subtitles are usually used to help understand content that is originally in another language. Therefore, behind subtitles, there’s usually a professional translator who’s responsible for converting subtitles from any language to English.
As is the case when translating a book, good subtitles are translated by professionals. Nowadays, there are machine translation tools, but they don’t have the creativity, precision, and cultural knowledge that a human translator has.
Subtitle translators don’t do literal translations of the dialogues. They find an equivalent of meaning, creatively translating jokes and puns, and fitting the texts within the time frames of the dialogues, among other things.
How to Activate Subtitles in Different Media Player Software
In most media player softwares, you can activate the subtitles by using the same name for the subtitle file and the video file, and saving them in the same directory. We can even use a suffix to indicate the language. For example, if we have the files “FilmName.mp4” and “FilmName.spa.srt” in a directory, when opening the video file, the software will detect that there are Spanish subtitles for that film. Sometimes, there are several subtitle files for the same video file. In those cases, the way to choose the subtitle varies from software to software.
How to Activate Subtitles in VLC
VLC is a free video and movie player, which you can download easily and quickly from their website.
To add subtitles to a video or movie in VLC, simply select “Subtitle” from the top bar, and then select the track you want. You will see the subtitle tracks that come with the video file or the ones from an external subtitle file the program has detected. You can also click on “Add Subtitle File…” to add a new track with the file you choose.
Maybe you’ve been able to add the subtitles, but now you are wondering how to delay or speed up subtitles in VLC. To delay subtitles or speed up subtitles in VLC, you can use keys H and G on your keyboard.
Finally, many people have trouble streaming subtitles from VLC to a Chromecast. To stream subtitles to a Chromecast or any device that allows it on the same network from VLC, simply go to the top bar and select: “Video”, “Renderer”, and select the device you want.
How to Add Subtitles to YouTube
Do you want to know how to add subtitles on YouTube? To add subtitles to YouTube simply go to “Creator Studio” and select “Subtitles”. There, you have to choose the video you want to caption and the language those subtitles will be in. Then, you have to click on “Add”. Finally, you have to choose one of the four options available:
Option 1: Upload a file to create YouTube subtitles
You can see the many supported formats in the help section. It’s the most accurate way to display subtitles on YouTube.
Option 2: Automatically sync YouTube subtitles
To automatically sync subtitles, simply copy and paste a finished transcript of the video. YouTube will then try to detect when each sentence starts and ends.
Option 3: Manually write YouTube subtitles
If you want to manually write the subtitles, simply transcribe or translate the text as you watch the video.
Option 4: Automatically translated YouTube subtitles
To create English YouTube subtitles automatically, another option is for YouTube to create the subtitles automatically by translating some other subtitles already available. However, automatic YouTube subtitles are not available for auto-generated subtitles.
Hire a Subtitling Company
We hope you enjoyed this guide! In case you need professional help from a subtitling specialist or a subtitling company to create, transcribe, translate, burn, or correct subtitles for your audiovisual content, do not hesitate to contact us!
Translated by: @florabosch
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