How to Add Subtitles (.srt/.ass) to MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI and Others?

Looking to add subtitles to movies or convert video with subtitles? Here's a complete guide for you to add subtitles to MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, and other formats. Specifically, you'll learn how to:

• permanently merge subtitles with videos (so they are always visible),
• embed one or multiple soft subtitle tracks (allowing you to toggle subtitles on/off or select your preferred language),
• and preserve the desired subtitles when converting videos to another format.

Additional tips, like loading SRT files directly in media players like VLC and adding subtitles with open-source tools, are also provided at the end of this article.

Adding subtitles to a video is actually very simple. You only need one tool, and you can download the recommended video subtitle joiner to get started right away: https://www.videoconverterfactory.com/download/hd-video-converter-pro.exe hd-video-converter-pro.exe

📌 If you know nothing about subtitles, it's recommended to read this section before trying the methods.

In works such as movies, TV shows, video games, and music videos, subtitles are always displayed as dialogue text at the bottom or top of the video. Most subtitles consist only of text characters because text is the easiest data type to store and compress. Common subtitle formats include SRT, ASS, SSA, IDX, and SUB, among which SRT and ASS are probably the most popular.

If you have .SRT or .ASS subtitle files, you can add these external subtitles to your video to make them display correctly. But before that, you should understand that there are two ways subtitles are displayed: hard subtitles and soft subtitles.

Hard subtitles (Burned-in) mean they are a permanent part of the video image and cannot be turned off or removed. You can only add one hard subtitle track to a video at a time. The good news is that all video formats support hard subtitles. In other words, you can merge hard subtitles with any video you want and play it on devices without compatibility issues.

Soft subtitles (Closed Captions) are saved as separate streams, like SRT or ASS files, and can exist outside the video or within the video container. They allow you to turn subtitles on or off and attach multiple subtitles to a video so you can select the viewing language as needed. But only a few video formats, such as MKV, MP4, and MOV, support soft subtitles.

Now you should have a basic idea of the type of subtitles you want. Let's move on to learn in detail how to add subtitles to MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI and other videos.

Using the right video subtitle joiner is essential.

On Windows, WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro is the perfect subtitle tool that can help you easily add external SRT and SSA subtitles to any video, including MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, and more. It supports adding hard subtitles as well as attaching soft subtitles to your movies. It can also convert videos with existing subtitles and let you keep your preferred subtitle tracks. The entire process is simple and requires only a few clicks.

Without further ado, let's free download free download the software and see how to add subtitles into videos below:

• 👉 How to Add Subtitles to MP4, MKV, MOV, or AVI Permanently?
• 👉 How to Attach Subtitles to MP4, MKV, and MOV as Soft Subtitles?
• 👉 How to Convert Videos without Losing Subtitles?

Before starting, download and install download and install the recommended subtitle tool on your PC.

Before starting, download and install download and install the recommended subtitle tool on your PC.

If your movie already comes with embedded subtitles and you want to convert the format while still keeping the subtitles, here are the steps.

Before starting, download and install download and install the recommended subtitle tool on your PC.

Launch the software and select the Converter program. Click Add Files at the upper left to import your video into the conversion list.

Click the format image on the right to open the output format list. Go to the Video section and choose your preferred video format. For instance, you may choose MKV, MP4, or MOV to convert videos with soft subs or multiple subtitles.

At the bottom of the converter, click the ▼ button to set an output folder. Finally, click Run to convert the video with desired subtitles at once.

Some video players, such as VLC, PotPlayer, and GOM Player, can auto-load external subtitles when playing videos, so you don't really need to manually add soft subtitles to your MP4 or other videos. Here are the general steps to make your subtitles show in the video:

That said, this method is not guaranteed to work for every case, especially if your media player does not have a subtitle option. It's still recommended to embed subtitles into your video permanently for error-free playback.

Using a dedicated video subtitle merger like WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro is no doubt the easiest method to add subtitles to videos without hassles. But if you prefer some open-source alternatives, here are three popular options to try: VLC, XMedia Recode, and Avidemux.

As mentioned in the last part, VLC can directly play your movies with subtitles and it's very convenient. If you want to permanently embed the subtitles into the video, VLC can also help you achieve that. While the process is not intuitive, it's still quite easy to follow the steps:

⚠️ Note: VLC processing can be slow and error-prone, such as audio out-of-sync, especially on large files.

• Launch the VLC media player. Click Media and select Stream from the drop-down menu.
• Click +Add in the pop-up window and choose the video you want to play.
• Check the Use a subtitle file option and click Browse to add the subtitle. VLC supports many subtitle file formats, including .srt, .ass, .ssa, .txt, .vtt, .sub, and more. Then, click Stream and Next.
• Press Add to specify a new destination. Hit the Browse button to select a folder and name the output file. Make sure the file extension is .mp4 or any other supported format. Then, click Save and Next.
• Check the Active Transcoding option.
• Select an output profile from the drop-down list. Hit the "wrench" icon and go to the Subtitles tab to check Subtitles and Overlay subtitles on the video. Then, click Save and Next.
• Finally, click the Stream button to add subtitles to video VLC permanently. Once the process is complete, your video with subtitles will be saved to the folder you selected before.

XMedia Recode is a versatile video converter for Windows with some editing capabilities that can handle both soft and hard subtitles. With it, you can either add subtitles as separate tracks or burn them directly into the video. But the process for each is different. Below, I'll take adding soft subtitles using XMedia Recode as an example.

• To start, open XMedia Recode. Click Open File to import the video you want to add subtitles to. Once loaded, choose an output format under the Format tab. For soft subtitles, you can select MP4 (.mp4) or Matroska (.mkv).
• Switch to the Subtitle tab. Click on the Import button to select the subtitle file (e.g., an .srt, .ssa, or .ass file) from your local drive.
• After importing your subtitle file, select it in the Source section. Adjust other settings, including Track Name, Mode, Codec, Language, and more as needed.
• Once configured, click the arrow to add the subtitle file from the Source to the Output section.
• At the bottom of the screen, specify the output path where you want to save the video with the subtitles. Finally, click Add to Queue and then hit the Encode button to begin the process.

XMedia Recode will now add the soft subtitles to your video, and the output file will be ready once encoding is complete.

Avidemux is a non-linear video editing app, but it can do more than just basic editing like cutting and encoding. It's also capable of filtering subtitles, letting you insert subtitles into your video as hard subs. Still, it's not very straightforward (rather complex) to add subtitles to videos with Avidemux.

🔔 Note: Avidemux does not support adding soft subtitles.

• Open Avidemux. Click File > Open, and select a video.
• In the Video Output section on the left, select an output encoding method. Mpeg4 AVC (x264) is recommended to achieve universal compatibility.
• Click the Filters option below. Then select the Subtitles option. Double-click on the SSA/ASS/SRT filter.
• Click Open to add an external subtitle file. The subtitle file can be an ASS or SSA file. (If it's an SRT file, you'll be asked to convert it to the SSA format when you click the OK button.) Then adjust the subtitle style and position as you see fit. Then close the filter window.
• In the Output Format section on the left, select an output container.
• Finally, click the Save button at the top, select the destination folder, and then start exporting the video with the desired subtitles.

It's worth mentioning that hardcoding subtitles is time-consuming, depending on the video size and length. Don't close the program until the process is complete.

If you need to find external subtitle files to add subtitles to your videos, here are 5 of the most popular subtitle websites where you can download SRT format subtitles for free.

Website: https://www.opensubtitles.org/

OpenSubtitles is an open multi-language subtitle database. It is one of the best and most-visited subtitle websites. Advanced search enables you to find what you need much faster.

Website: https://yts-subs.com/

YIFY Subtitles can also help you quickly find and download the subtitles in languages you need, without popups or sign in.

Website: http://www.moviesubtitles.org/

On Moviesubtitles, you can find subtitles for the most popular movies and TV films. Subtitles are available in multiple languages and packed with WinZip.

Website: https://www.addic7ed.com/

Addic7ed is one of the popular sites where TV shows and movies subtitles can be downloaded for free. They aim to provide fast and quality subtitles for hot TV shows and movies.

Website: https://subdl.com/

Subdl is a popular subtitle platform that provides multi-language subtitles for movies, TV series, and anime, and offers direct download links.

Subtitles are increasingly important for videos today because they can not only help hard-of-hearing people understand the content of the video, but also build a bridge between non-native speakers and native speakers, thus reducing communication costs.

Soft subtitles are added as a separate track within the video file, allowing you to turn them on or off. Hard-coded (or burned-in) subtitles are permanently embedded into the video, becoming a part of the image itself.

You need to add subtitles to videos as hard subtitles so they become visible permanently. You can do it easily with WonderFox HD Video Converter Factory Pro. Check out the detailed steps >>

You can use the program introduced in this article to insert SRT files into MP4 videos effectively. Detailed steps are outlined above.

Yes, MKV, MP4, and MOV support multiple subtitle tracks, and you can add multiple external subtitle tracks to these format videos with the steps outlined above.

You can add subtitles to MP4 without re-encoding by inserting soft subtitles.

Adding soft subtitles will not re-encode or affect the video quality in any way since subtitles are just an additional text track synced to the video. However, hard-coding subtitles will re-encode the video, slightly altering the quality during the encoding process.