No matter what language you speak, everyone enjoys movies. The problem is that most movies don't have the budget to afford a translation to multiple languages, which means that depending on your location, you may not be able to understand the movie. Whether you want to add subtitles to your favorite movies or subtitle a movie yourself, translating a movie is not very difficult, but it does take time and patience. This article is about adding subtitles to a movie. If you want to enable movie subtitles while watching a movie, click here.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Download new subtitles
Step #1. Know that you can only add subtitles to movies on your computer
If your current DVD doesn't have certain subtitles (found under 'Settings' or 'Language' on the DVD menu), you won't be able to add them without advanced software and equipment. DVDs are protected and cannot be overwritten, and your DVD player will not be able to add new languages. However, a computer is something completely different, and you can add new subtitles you've found to a movie on your computer.
If you're playing the movie on a DVD player, try the 'titles' or 'subtitles' button on the remote
Step 2. Find the movie you want to subtitle on your computer and put it in a separate folder
Locate the folder or movie file in Finder on your Mac or in Windows Explorer. It will most likely be a.mov,.avi, or.mp4 file. Fortunately, you don't have to modify the movie file at all, but you will have to find it and link it to a new subtitle file. Subtitle files usually end with a.srt extension, and are simply the words and duration of each subtitle during the movie.
- The movie must be a file, combined with the.srt file and placed in a folder, in order to see the subtitles.
- Some older subtitle files may have a.sub extension.
Step 3. Search online for 'your movie + language + movie subtitles' to find the right file
Use your favorite search engine and find the subtitles in your language. For example, if you want to find the desired Dutch subtitles for X-Men: First Class, search for 'X-Men: First Class Dutch subtitles'. The first site you find is probably good enough, and if these files are small then they are unlikely to contain viruses.
Step 4. Search for the desired subtitle and download the.srt file
Download a.srt file from a website such as Subscene, MovieSubtitles, or YiFiSubtitles. Make sure you try to avoid popups and only download.srt or.sub files. If a site makes you feel unsafe, get away from it and find another.
Step 5. Give the subtitle file the name of the movie file
If the movie is named BestMovieEver.avi, then the subtitle should be named BestMovieEver.srt. Find the recently downloaded file on your computer (often in the "Downloads" folder) and make sure you spell the name correctly. The file name of the subtitle file must have the same name as that of the movie.
Step 6. Place the.srt file in the folder of the movie
Create a new folder just for your movie, if it isn't already there. Place the.srt file in the same folder as the movie. This will automatically link it to the movie in most media players.
The easiest media player is the free VLC player, which can also handle most file formats
Step 7. Add.srt files to your YouTube videos by clicking 'Subtitles' while uploading them
After clicking Subtitles, click "Add Subtitles" and locate the.srt file. Make sure you have 'Subtitles' turned on and not 'Automatic translation'. Click the 'Subtitles' button while watching your video to see subtitles.
Method 2 of 2: Create your own subtitles (three ways)
Step 1. Understand the purpose of subtitles
Subtitles are translations, and as anyone who has ever used Google Translate can tell you, translations are both an art and a science. If you're going to caption a scene yourself, there are several tradeoffs to make with each line:
- What is the purpose of the dialogue? Regardless of the words used, what kind of feeling is the character trying to convey? This is your guideline when translating.
- How can you make the words of the subtitles fit within the time the character speaks? Some writers show a few lines of dialogue at once, starting a little early and ending later, to give viewers a chance to read it all.
- How do you deal with slang and expressions? You can often not just translate them, so you will have to replace them with slang or expressions in your own language. However, this requires that you look up the meaning of foreign expressions and slang.
Step 2. Use a subtitle website to efficiently add subtitles to a movie file
Sites like DotSub, Amara, and Universal Subtitler let you watch the movie while you write the subtitles, eventually creating a.srt file to match the movie. While all caption sites work differently, they all follow a similar format:
- Choose when the subtitle starts.
- Write the subtitle.
- Choose when the title disappears.
- Repeat for the rest of the movie, and indicate when you're done.
- Download the.srt file and place it in the same folder as your movie.
Step 3. Create your own subtitles in Notepad
You can handwrite subtitles if you want, although the process is a lot faster with a program. To do this, open a text editor such as Notepad or Apple's TextEdit (both free and included with the operating system), and make sure you're using the correct caption format. Before you begin, click "Save As" and use the title of your movie as the name for the.srt file. Then set the encoding to 'ANSI' for English subtitles and 'UTF-8' for other subtitles. Then you write out the subtitles. Each of the following will have its own line, so press Enter after each:
- The number of a subtitle. 1 then becomes the first title, 2 the second, etc.
-
The duration of the subtitle. This follows the format hours:minutes:seconds:milliseconds hours:minutes:seconds:milliseconds
Example: 00:01:20:003 00:01:27:592
-
The text of the subtitle:
This is just the dialogue.
- An empty line. Place one blank line before the number of the next title.
Step 4. Create subtitles in your favorite movie editor to avoid creating.srt files
This method allows you to view the titles as you add them, and manually adjust their placement, color, and style. Open the movie file in your favorite movie editor, such as Premier, iMovie, or Windows Movie Maker, and pull the movie into the timeline (the work area). From this point, click on the program's subtitle menu and choose a style of your liking. Write out the title and drag it onto the correct part of the film, and repeat the procedure.
- You can right-click on a subtitle and copy and paste it to use the same settings for each subtitle, saving you a lot of time.
- The only downside to this format is that the movie must be saved as a separate file. You won't be able to turn off the subtitles as they are now part of the movie.