How to Permanently Add Subtitles To a Video or Movie Using VLC

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In this video, I’ll show you how you can permanently add subtitles to a video or movie using VLC.

In this video, I use VLC 3.0.8 and an Alpha SubStation (.ass) subtitle file but it also works with SubRip or .srt subtitles.

You also need the video and respective subtitle file(s).

How to Permanently Add Subtitles To a Video or Movie Using VLC Transcript

In this video, I’m going to show you how you can permanently add subtitles to your videos or movies using VLC.

[00:00:08] Hi, my name is David from freelancerinsights.com where we believe you should never stop learning.

[00:00:14] In a previous video, I showed you how can do this using Handbrake.

[00:00:18] Now let’s look at what you need.

[00:00:20] You need VLC, which is a free media player that is available for Windows, Linux, macOS, Unix, iOS, and Android.

[00:00:29] For this tutorial, I’m going to be doing this process using VLC for Windows.

[00:00:34] You also need a your video file – that is the video file you want to embed or permanently burn the subtitles to.

[00:00:42] And I have a couple of subtitles here.

[00:00:44] .ass, which is an alpha substation subtitle file, and an SRT file- different languages for this one, and the last one, they both ASS, but different styles and backgrounds.

[00:00:57] So what we’re going to do is you’re going to fire up VLC.

[00:01:01] Just open up VLC.

[00:01:03] So VLC is open up and all you need to do is just click on Media and then go to convert or save.

[00:01:10] And once the open media dialogue opens, you’ll need to add a video.

[00:01:14] And the video we want to add is the one from the previous page that I just showed you, and it’s in my folder – add subtitles to video using VLC. And the video, just select it and click on open. It’s going to populate here and then tick, use a subtitle and then click on browse.

[00:01:33] And the subtitle I’m going to use is the ass subtitle.

[00:01:37] And I’ll just click on it and click on open.

[00:01:40] Once I do that, I’ll need to select the dropdown here and select on convert or you can also click on Alt + O.

[00:01:48] And once you’re on the new page, the convert page, you’ll need to ensure that the settings are okay, so you need to ensure the profile for the video is set to your preference.

[00:01:58] I’m going to go with the h.264.

[00:02:01] And then click on this settings icon to ensure that the subtitles are ticked and the overlay and we’re going to use the codec that is the DVB subtitle, and then click on save.

[00:02:14] Once you’ve done that, just click on browse and then rename you video the way you want it to appear.

[00:02:22]This one, I think it’s the Arabic file and then click on save.

[00:02:27] Once I click on save, I’ll click on start.

[00:02:30] But what happens is that the progress by the bottom here is where the action happens, that is where the subtitle is permanently burnt into the video and depending on the length of your video, it may take, a long time.

[00:02:42] So you may decide to opt to use Handbrake but if you just have a short video and don’t have handbrake in hand, you can use VLC to do this.

[00:02:51] And it’s, as I’ve said, you can do this on a Mac, Linux, Unix, you name it.

[00:02:56] And then I’ll just click on start and the screen will appear like it has disappeared but if I just minimize this, or if I can refresh this, you’ll see there’s a new video that pops up there.

[00:03:08] And if I minimize it, you will see from bottom here that there’s some progress, of something that is happening.

[00:03:14] The only downside to this process is that right to left language subtitles, for example, are Arabic, Farsi and other languages Hebrew, is that they don’t recognize the text us from right to left.

[00:03:29] So it’s still going to be appended from left to right even if you’ve created it properly, with the, right to left orientation. That’s the only downside. And sometimes it may take a long time to have this process finished, so it’s also another big, big problem.

[00:03:47] If you’re in a hurry I’d probably recommend you use Handbrake or maybe an application like SubtitleNext.

[00:03:54] Now let’s give it some time and see the progress.

[00:03:57] VLC is almost done permanently adding the subtitle to the video and the progress – as you can see on screen.

[00:04:04] And a once it’s done, we’re going to play the videos.

[00:04:07] And there we have it. It’s done. It goes back to zero.

[00:04:10] So we’re just going to close out this and then go back to a folder.

[00:04:15] In our folder, we now have two files, and if we just double click on this, this is the video without subtitles.

[00:04:24] If we look at this, subtitle, they see, you can only add, and if we, “with the recent updates on the YouTube interface, it’s now easier than…” there  is no subtitle that appears.

[00:04:35] But if I play the second file – this one.

[00:04:37] “With the recent-“. You can see the Arabic subtitles appearing down here… “update on the YouTube interface, it’s now easier than before to download.”

[00:04:48] And as I’ve mentioned, the problem is that VLC doesn’t recognize, the right to left. So the punctuation is going to be on the right, rather than on the left.

[00:04:58] So, what I’m trying to say is that it’s a good way, and the ass subtitle file, the alpha substation is what has these properties of the background, that is dark, depending on how you set it.

[00:05:11] You can also have positioning of the subtitle, and this is the styling.

[00:05:16] So basically that’s a step by step tutorial or how you can use VLC to permanently add subtitles.

[00:05:23] And what I’ve added here is an ass subtitle.

[00:05:26] You can also do that for  an SRT that is SubRip a subtitle.

[00:05:31] So basically that’s it.

[00:05:33] Thank you so much for watching and until next time, never stop learning.

Download VLC:  https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html 
Get my Captioning Course: https://bit.ly/VideoCaptioningCourse

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