Subtitles are a very important part of distribution, and it is too common for them to be embedded or “burned-in” to the video image. However, this means further compressing the video and forces us to have a copy for each language. Therefore, this is not the current trend, and it is preferable to have a video clean of subtitles and add the subtitles on separate tracks.
There would be two options to avoid embedding subtitles: on the one hand, having an MKV file with included and selectable subtitles, and on the other, something as simple as renaming the video and subtitle files with the same name, and that’s it—the player detects the subtitles and includes them in the video. This works with all players I have used, from VLC on the computer to multimedia hard drives.
It’s that easy: if I have a video called TITLE.mov and a subtitle list in SRT (the most popular subtitle format) called TITLE.srt, when I play them, I will see the subtitles included in the video. This allows festivals to easily translate subtitle text files and include them in their own language, without the need for editing software, just by changing the file names—it’s that simple.
Furthermore, another advantage for screenings is the ability to change the subtitle format, making them larger or smaller, changing the color and font, etc. (VLC and many media players allow this), so that the subtitle can be adapted to the projection dimensions, and all subtitles have the same format.
Example of SRT subtitles with VLC
