Subtitle guides
Clear, practical explanations of the problems people actually have with subtitles — and how to fix them.
- How to Sync Subtitles With a VideoTell a constant subtitle delay from drift, fix it with a shift or two-point sync, handle ad breaks and different cuts, and check the result.
- SRT vs VTT vs ASS: Which Subtitle Format Should You Use?How SRT, WebVTT, ASS/SSA and plain text subtitles differ in structure, timestamps, styling and player support, and which format to pick for each job.
- SRT vs VTT: Which One Do You Need?SRT or WebVTT? A destination-by-destination answer for YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, HTML5 <track>, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, plus what breaks when you convert.
- Why Subtitles Drift: Frame Rates ExplainedWhy subtitles slowly drift out of sync: PAL speedup, 23.976 vs 25 fps, the conversion formula, how to spot the right frame rate, and a factor table.
- How to Fix Garbled Characters in SubtitlesWhy subtitles show symbols like é instead of real letters, which legacy encodings cause it, how to convert a file to UTF-8, and when a BOM helps.
- How to Add Subtitles to a VideoLoad an SRT or VTT file in VLC, mpv, Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi or on a smart TV, upload captions to YouTube, use HTML5 track, or embed subtitles with ffmpeg.
- Subtitle Timing and Readability GuidelinesPractical subtitle timing rules: characters per second, 42-character lines, minimum and maximum duration, gaps between cues, line breaks, and SDH style.