Subtitles for dummies
Internal Subtitles
Start the video file then right click on the on the video and select Subtitles then select your language.
External Subtitles
1. Open VLC
2. From the "File" tab select Open file
3. At the end of the "Open:" dialog bar press "Browse"
4. Select the drive and directory of your file and then select the file you want to play then press "Open"
5. Check the box that says "Use a subtitles file" If the subtitles have the same name as the video file and exist in the same directory, you can press "Open" If not go to 6.
6. At the end of the "File:" dialog bar select "Browse"
7. Select the drive and directory of the subtitle that belongs to the video file you want to play and then select the file. If there is both a .idx and a .sub file in the directory, select the .idx file then press "Open"
8. Now you should see information in both the "Open:" and "File:" dialog bars. If not, you didn't do one of the above steps correctly, so go back to the beginning. Assuming you do see the information, press "OK"
If for some reason the subtitles do not show up on screen, or do not show up in your language, right click on the player and select "Subtitles Track" and select your language.
If the subtitles do not have a FPS specification they will drift over time or the subtitles were not made for the version of the movie you are trying to watch or you may be trying to use external subtitles with MPEG files that really don't work well as this format was designed for internal subtitles. There is provision within VLC to try to re-sync the subs. The hot keys are "ctrl h" Subtitles delay up and "ctrl j" Subtitles delay down.
If you are still having problems with Subtitles I'm assuming your problem is with external subs. The most common problem is not getting them to sync with the video because they probably were not made for the video, sometimes this can disrupt the timing for a file type that is marginal in being able to play without subs or in the case of transposing subs and not including the FPS to match the video file. MPEG-TS was designed to allow for subs to be encoded within the file.
If the subs timing drifts with the video file there is a provision within VLC to allow you to adjust it. This works if the subs file was not made for the video file but are close. There are many other options that can make subs more friendly.
Starting with 0.8.5 the Subtitles text encoding may not be correct for your language. When choosing an external sub form the file menu go to the advanced menu and select the Subtitle text encoding. Most common for most western European countries is ISO-8859-1 but still you may need to refer to the following depending on your preferred language:
http://alis.isoc.org/codage/iso8859/jeuxiso.en.htm
ISO Standard for various characters sets
Once you find the character set in may be entered in Preferences, Input / Codecs, Other codecs, Subtitles under Subtitles text encoding.
For some languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese or Japanese you may need to select a Unicode font for the freetype 2 font renderer. Preferences, Video, Subtitles/OSD, Text Renderer under Font. Be aware that this may be a cut and paste operation as Windows will not allow you to select the font directly from the Windows\Fonts directory.
Always don't forget to Save your preferences and restart VLC for the changes to take effect.
These may seem like some strange questions at this point, but:
1. Did you look to see is the sub you are trying to get to work is supported?
2. Did you check Messages without subs to see if there is a problem with the file?
3. If the subs were not designed for the Video file (obtained from a second source) did you try adjusting then to match the video file?
4. If you are transposing subtitle formats and making them fit to your video file did you tell the program the frame rate of the video file?
This is the generic answer. I realize you said the subs are in English and this should make the issue eaiser than for some. Perhaps the biggest mistake is that the external sub should be in the same directory as the video and it should have the same name as the video. I keep video and sub in a directory named for the video. Then the sub in most cases will auto load. But I have seen subs that were not made for the video and subs that were really not subs at all. Most of the formats are readable with a text editor and you can check this out yourself. I personally don't believe the subtitle issues will go away untill:
1. All players and specifications agree that the FPS must be the video's frame rate. Seems very unlikely at this juncture.
2. External subs are not supprted by any player. It is easier to remux the video than rebuild the sub file. Or transpose the sub into something else and then remux the file. Also seems unlikely that prople will learn even though these utilities exist and there is really no need for external sub support thus doing away with a lot of headaches for both the end user and the developer. But of coarse this is my opinion.
