You can add subtitle tracks to your videos by using third-party software. This is different than imprinting a bottom-third title on to your video. Subtitle tracks can be turned on and off in QuickTime Player, iOS, Apple TV and elsewhere. You can also add more than one language. All you need to do is to create a simple text file with the subtitle information and then use the software to import it and add it to your video.
Comments: 5 Responses to “Adding Subtitle Tracks To Videos”
Steve Maynard
9 years ago
After doing this, if I insert the Quick Time movie into a Keynote presentation file, will the subtitles appear when the movie is played during the actual Keynote presentation?
I'm pretty sure no. This is for media players where you can choose a subtitle.
Chris
9 years ago
Hi Gary, thanks for the lesson.
2 questions:
1)Is there a way to format the text, ie italics, bold, font style or color or is that not available since the file is plain text?
2)Near the end you stated you can choose a choose to render it however we want that is appropriate for the device. If we have a video that may be played on a PC when someone is on youtube, or streamed from itunes to my appletv, would I need different rending for each situation? Thank you
The file is plain text because subtitles are plain text. The way they are presented depends on the player software. If you want styles you'll need to use regular titles, but those are part of the video and can't be turned off and on like subtitles.
For instance, try looking at subtitles on a commercial DVD on different DVD players. They may look different because each DVD player takes the text and displays it a different way. The same is true for cable boxes and even televisions. The same concept applies here.
The devices chooses how to render it. All you do is provide the text.
Frank
9 years ago
Two questions:
(1) Can videos be exported as MP4 files?
(2) I use Handbrake to merge the files for me, but one video has Spanish subtitles. Attempts to use accents get shown as weird characters in Quicktime. Any suggestions on how to fix?
After doing this, if I insert the Quick Time movie into a Keynote presentation file, will the subtitles appear when the movie is played during the actual Keynote presentation?
I'm pretty sure no. This is for media players where you can choose a subtitle.
Hi Gary, thanks for the lesson.
2 questions:
1)Is there a way to format the text, ie italics, bold, font style or color or is that not available since the file is plain text?
2)Near the end you stated you can choose a choose to render it however we want that is appropriate for the device. If we have a video that may be played on a PC when someone is on youtube, or streamed from itunes to my appletv, would I need different rending for each situation? Thank you
The file is plain text because subtitles are plain text. The way they are presented depends on the player software. If you want styles you'll need to use regular titles, but those are part of the video and can't be turned off and on like subtitles.
For instance, try looking at subtitles on a commercial DVD on different DVD players. They may look different because each DVD player takes the text and displays it a different way. The same is true for cable boxes and even televisions. The same concept applies here.
The devices chooses how to render it. All you do is provide the text.
Two questions:
(1) Can videos be exported as MP4 files?
(2) I use Handbrake to merge the files for me, but one video has Spanish subtitles. Attempts to use accents get shown as weird characters in Quicktime. Any suggestions on how to fix?
Thanks