These days most people watch English movies with subtitles to catch the faintest whisper or to figure out a sentence spoken in a thick accent. Once you get used to subtitles and closed captions, it is very difficult to do without them.
Subtitle files are usually in .SRT, .SUB, or .SBV formats. If you have downloaded a movie without subtitles, the easiest way is to get them is by watching the movie in VLC Media Player. The latest version of the player comes with the extension VLSub with which you can download subtitles on the fly. To activate it start the video and go to View-Download Subtitles. Choose the language for your subtitles and click on the button corresponding to one of the two 'research' methods provided by VLSub. It is best to 'search by hash' because you will find subtitles that are synchronised with your movie.
If you have a spot of bad luck then you will have to 'search by name'. For example, for a TV series provide the season and the episode number. You will be presented by a selection of subtitles for both types of search. Choose one from the search results and hit 'download'. Just remember that existing subtitles are overwritten without you being asked.
Sometimes VLC may not load the subtitle automatically, especially if you are watching a movie with an MKV extension. The subtitle then has a .SUB and .IDX extension. IDX files are used by DVD playback applications to display subtitles. If you are missing a subtitle in VLC just click on Subtitle-Add Subtitle, point it to the IDX file and you will be fine.
Another option is to visit either Subscene ( www.subscene.com) or OpenSubtitles (www.opensubtitles.org) and search and download the subtitle files. Put the file in the same folder as the movie and make sure they have the same filename. The next time you launch the video, VLC will automatically detect the subtitles.
There is an even easier way to get subtitles and this comes in handy when the VLSub extension of VLC fails to connect to the FTP server to retrieve subtitles. Download the Subtitles App from www.subtitlesapp.com. This works for both Windows and the Mac. After installation just drag your movie to the app and magically the subtitle file will appear in the same folder your movie is in. The app is free to use for a month and after that you will have to buy it for around $10.
If you want to make your own subtitles for your video it is actually not too difficult. Open a new text document with Notepad and save it with the same name as the video you want to subtitle. For this go to File-Save As. For 'Save as type' choose 'all files'. For 'Encoding' choose UTF-8. Now at the end of the filename add .SRT and press enter. Keep Notepad open on one side as you play your video. According to the timing in your video write the subtitles. The first subtitle will be numbered 1 and press Enter. Then type in the format 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,000. From left to right these zeros stand for hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds. Fill in the exact time between which the subtitles should appear. In the next line write the subtitle itself. Play around with the timing till it matches the dialogue in the movie. To get a clearer idea of the format just download an .SRT file and open it with Notepad.
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