How to Insert SRT/ASS/SSA Subtitles to MP4 Video?

Monica Pavtube

Aug 19, 2014 08:32 am / Posted by Monica Pavtube

In most cases, you may find that MP4 videos downloaded from website or from other channels are without subtitles or with subtitles in a foreign language, which causes great trouble to you, for subtitle really plays an important role during video enjoyment. Sometimes a lack of subtitle will cause misunderstanding of what the actors are saying, and you will find that when the video finishes, you don't get the theme and essence.

To fix the problem, you can insert external subtitle to your MP4 video. You can go and find the proper subtitle from some subtitle download sites. Here are several famous and reliable subtitle websites for you to get the subtitles you want for your MP4 videos.

http://www.moviesubtitles.org/
http://subscene.com/
http://www.subtitles.hr/

After you downloaded the subtitle, you can start to add the external subtitle to MP4 video following the methods below.

Method 1: Insert Subtitle to MP4 video with VLC

There are two ways to add subtitles to MP4 video with VLC. VLC Media Media player supports tons of subtitle formats. The following list of external subtitle extensions (formats) is supported by VLC Media Player:

  • *.aqt (AQTitle)
  • *.cvd (Chaoji VCD)
  • *.dks (DKS)
  • *.jss (JACOSub)
  • *.sub (MicroDVD/MPSub/SubViewer/VOBSub)
  • *.smi (SAMI)
  • *.ssf (Structured Subtitle FOrmat)
  • *.ttxt (MPEG-4 Timed Text)
  • *.mpl (ML2)
  • *.txt (ML2/VPlayer)
  • *.pjs (Phoenix Subtitle)
  • *.psb (PowerDivX)
  • *.srt (SubRip)
  • *.ssa (Sub Station Alpha)

When you make sure your subtitle format is supported by VLC, you can start to insert the external subtitle to MP4 video with VLC.

Method 1

  1. 1. Open up your video and make sure it begins playing.
  2. 2. From VLC the menu bar, click on Subtitle > Add Subtitle File
    add subtitle to mp4 with vlc
  3. 3. Browse to the location where you subtitle file is present and hit open
    add subtitle to mp4 with vlc

Method 2

  1. 1. Put your movie file and subtitle file in the same folder.
  2. 2. Give both those files the same file name. Only the extension will be different.
  3. 3. For example:
    The Movie file => Movie.name.mp4
    The Subtitle file => Movie.name.srt
    add subtitle to mp4 with vlc
    For multiple subtitles for more than one languages use the format movie.name.lang.srt (example: movie.name.en.srt or movie.name.ru.srt)
  4. 4. Open up the movie file and the subtitle will load automatically from the beginning.

Method 2: Add Subtitle to MP4 video with Handbrake

Handbrake comes with a feature called soft subtitles. This ability allows users to add subtitles as a part of the MP4 movie with the option to turn the subtitle on and off. If you already have both the movie file and the subtitle file, you can start adding soft subtitles to your movie.

Step 1: Download your favorite .srt or .sub subtitle file from the Internet.

Tips: Handbrake only supports to input .srt format subtitle file.

Step 2: Launch "Handbrake", click top-left "Source" button to import the video you would like to add soft subtitle.

Step 3: Click the "Subtitle" tabs on the main interface, then press "Import SRT" button to embed external srt file to the movie file. You can add more than one soft subtitles to the movies by repeating the above process. Then select an output format from the right side window and click the top-left "Start" button to start the subtitle adding process.

Add soft subtitles

When the conversion is finished, you can enjoy the mp4 movie with your desired subtitles on VLC Player as your like.

Method 3: Insert External to MP4 videos with Video Converter

The last way to insert external subtitle to MP4 video is to use Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate for Windows/Mac. This software supports SRT/ASS/SSA subtitle format and can add the external SRT/ASS/SSA subtitle to MP4, MKV, AVI, WMV, MOV, VOB, even Blu-ray and DVD video. The subtitle will be hard burn to the video as hard subtitle. Then when you play movies on TV, PS4 Pro and other multimedia devices, your devices don't need to read two video and subtitle files seperately.

Just several simple and clear steps will allow you to enjoy MP4 videos with subtitles:

Step 1. Import MP4 videos

Run Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate and import your MP4 videos to it by clicking the "Add video" icon to import MP4 video.  

add mp4 video

Step 2. Add subtitles to MP4 videos

Click "Edit" or the pencil icon edit-mp4-video to switch to the editing interface, where you can find multiple editing functions and "Subtitle" is just one of them. Click the "Subtitle" tab and check the "Enable" box to allow you to add SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles to MP4 videos. Then Click "Browse" to find and import the downloaded SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles.

how to add srt ass ssa subtitles to mp4 video

Kindly note: Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate only supports SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles, and make sure that the subtitle file and your MP4 video files are kept in the same folder sharing the same name.

Step 3. Start inserting subtitles to MP4 video

Go back to the main UI and click "Convert" to start inserting SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles to your MP4 videos. If you don't want to keep the original MP4 format, just click the format bar to choose the output video format you want before conversion.

After the conversion is finished, you can then enjoy the MP4 movie using any kind of media player with subtitles.


Any Product-related questions? Contact us:support@pavtube.com

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