Moof666

Q: How to use SRT file with MP4

I want to use soft subtitles with video so I still have the option to play them without subtitles if I wish. How can I enable QuickTime Player to play MP4 with soft subtitles SRT extension? I can play AVI with subtitles in QuickTime (QT doesn't have codecs for AVI, duh, but I installed Perian to overcome that weakness). I can export the MP4 as AVI, but when I do, the result looks terrible. It seems QuickTime cannot correctly export MP4 to AVI. I can play MP4 with SRT subtitles in VLC Player, but the subtitles don't have decent shading to make them readable, like they do in QuickTime Player. Because of that, I want to find a solution for using MP4 with SRT in QuickTime Player. Any suggestions?

three Macs, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Aug 14, 2009 8:03 AM

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Q: How to use SRT file with MP4

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  • by stephendgreat,

    stephendgreat stephendgreat May 6, 2012 9:40 AM in response to dcocharro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 6, 2012 9:40 AM in response to dcocharro

    Use MPlayerX to play .MP4 file with .SRT subtitle. Work like a charm!

     

    Make sure the file name is identical and maybe it'll better for you to install Perian on your Mac.

     

    Cheers!!!

  • by cjrclcjrcl,

    cjrclcjrcl cjrclcjrcl Jul 31, 2012 3:40 AM in response to Justin_Graham
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 3:40 AM in response to Justin_Graham

    Works gracefully! I am using Leopard which is alienated by Subler and iSubtitle that both have a minimal requirement of Snow Leopard so Metadata Hootenanny is my only choice.

     

    BTW I found that Metadata Hootenanny is very powerful which can even create DVD-like menus.

  • by Harpo Marx,

    Harpo Marx Harpo Marx Jan 23, 2013 2:20 AM in response to Moof666
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 23, 2013 2:20 AM in response to Moof666

    What you can do:

     

    (1) Go to / get HandBrake

     

    (2) Choose your video file

     

    (3) Select m4v for file output (in preferences: 'Output Files' - 'Default MP4 extension:' - choose 'm4v')

     

    (4) In 'Subtitles': Choose 'Add external SRT' - check 'Default', else leave unchecked

     

    [5] [optional] 'Video' - Choose 'Constant Quality' RF 0.00 to bypass another video compression of your assumedly already compressed video and thus preventing quality loss of the video layer. May increase file size though (not tested yet).

     

    GO!

     

    In Quicktime you will than be able to turn on / off your previously added Subtitles.

     

    Tested with Mountain Lion - latest Quicktime - VLC - HandBrake (needs VLC installed) - NO Perian - NO divX

  • by AppleTosh,

    AppleTosh AppleTosh Jan 25, 2013 2:09 PM in response to Harpo Marx
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 25, 2013 2:09 PM in response to Harpo Marx

    Harpo Marx...

    Your above instruction resulted to the subtitle option in Quicktime...View>Subtitles>English

     

    Although, when clicking "Eng", it does not show the subtitle. Is there another step I'm missing?

     

    any thoughts?

     

    Thanks

  • by Singhor,

    Singhor Singhor Jan 27, 2013 7:16 PM in response to Moof666
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 27, 2013 7:16 PM in response to Moof666

    I use QUICKTIME X 10, it supports subtitles and is really fast when encoding, it adds complete metadata with video cover, everything is conviniently automated. It's a good guide to Play Video on Mac.

  • by Harpo Marx,

    Harpo Marx Harpo Marx Jan 31, 2013 2:43 AM in response to AppleTosh
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 31, 2013 2:43 AM in response to AppleTosh

    AppleTosh,

     

    since you are seeing "View>Subtitles>English" in Quicktime I would say you have followed my steps as advised; which points to the Subtitles that are possibly faulty.

     

    However I posted a question about quality loss to the HandBrake community and re-thought my steps above. HandBrake was never designed for subtitles muxing. Reencoding will be a quality loss or leads to uncomfortable file sizes (RF 0.00) and it's so time consuming.

     

    If you like follow in my next post what i have finally come to in terms of repacking / converting for Quicktime!

  • by Harpo Marx,

    Harpo Marx Harpo Marx Jan 31, 2013 2:52 AM in response to Harpo Marx
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 31, 2013 2:52 AM in response to Harpo Marx

    Step-by-step Guideline how to convert / repack MKV and AVI Video Containers into MP4 / MV4 and then adding Soft Subtitles - all playable with (also Moutain Lion) Quicktime / iTunes:   

     

    1a) Install latest Subler (adding Subtitles from e.g. subscene.com) here

     

    1b) Install latest MetaZ (iTunes friendly, cool looking Meta-Tags) here

     

    1c) Install latest Perian (for MKV repacking support in Subler) here

     

    1d) Install latest Miro Video Converter (for dealing with .AVI only) here

     

    - All applications are 100% free and legal and run smoothly on Mountain Lion with the one exception of Perian where you have to replace a AC3 codec if you like to play AC3 Audio in Quicktime follow here -

     

    2) Repacking .MKV for Quicktime with SUBLER:

     

    If the Video Layer in your MKV file is already Quicktime friendly (mp4, x264) you can and should avoid reencoding of the Video Layer, otherwise you loose video quality.

     

    Then there is the Audio Layer. If it is Quicktime / iTunes friendly too (AAC), you won't even need to install Perian. Simply use Subler to repack both Video and Audio Layer into the new MP4 / M4V container.

     

    If the Audio Layer is Quicktime / iTunes unfriendly (AC3, DTS, etc.) you will have to convert the Audio Layer. If Perian is installed Subler is able to do exactly that. Subler leaves the Video Layer untouched and only converts the Audio Layer! This is a great, fast method, saving video quality.

     

    In either case you can add external Subtitles to your MP4 / M4V container which will be read by Quicktime and can be turned On or OFF (soft subtitles)!

     

    3) Converting .AVI files to MP4 / MV4 for Quicktime with Miro Video Converter: Simply do this with Miro Video Converter. It's a straight forward, easy-to-use and reliable application. After this step you can also add soft subtitles with Subler.

     

    4) If you like to view your Movies with iTunes instead of Quicktime: MetaZ is a great application to add iTunes friendly Metadata. It searches by title through a web movie database and adds actors, directors, plot summary, art work, etc. When done you can import your Movie into iTunes and it will look really cool and thanks to the Meta data it can be sorted ways better.

     

     

    - tested on Moutain Lion with Quicktime 10 -

  • by kalaratri,

    kalaratri kalaratri Mar 4, 2013 4:11 PM in response to Harpo Marx
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2013 4:11 PM in response to Harpo Marx

    just use VLC

  • by Goyaleme,

    Goyaleme Goyaleme Mar 4, 2013 9:57 PM in response to Moof666
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2013 9:57 PM in response to Moof666

    Well, if you can't get it to work with VLC, you could try AVS Media Player, which has support for .sub and .idx. Although as the other poster said, I belive VLC does support them, it may just need it in a different location or something like that.

  • by tomasb2012,

    tomasb2012 tomasb2012 Sep 3, 2013 10:13 AM in response to Justin_Graham
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 3, 2013 10:13 AM in response to Justin_Graham

    Dear Justin Graham,

     

    Your advice is from two years ago, but I am very grateful, BECAUSE IT WORKS!

     

    Many thanks!

     

    Regards,

    Thomas Belyea

    Amsterdam

  • by alex emila,

    alex emila alex emila Jun 23, 2014 7:15 PM in response to tomasb2012
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 23, 2014 7:15 PM in response to tomasb2012

    There is a App subtitle writer on store. Write SRT files to quicktime mov and use quicktime player x to toggle subtitle on or off. but it's not a free app.

  • by Morphews666,

    Morphews666 Morphews666 Feb 26, 2015 2:27 AM in response to alex emila
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 26, 2015 2:27 AM in response to alex emila

    Hy fellows, I did not read all posts... but, it seems to be a great idea to use http://www.iskysoft.com.

  • by chuckbuck90,

    chuckbuck90 chuckbuck90 Mar 19, 2015 3:15 PM in response to stephendgreat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 19, 2015 3:15 PM in response to stephendgreat

    i had the same problem until i read your comment

  • by jojjeee,

    jojjeee jojjeee Jun 25, 2015 11:14 PM in response to Moof666
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 25, 2015 11:14 PM in response to Moof666

    I realize this post is ancient, but apparently people still find it relevant.

    The easiest approach imo. is to use ffmpeg, which you can install via homebrew (brew install ffmpeg) or through some other means.

     

    To embed a srt ("softsub") file into an mp4 container so that QuickTime Player can use it, run the following command:

    ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i sub.srt -c:v copy -c:a copy -c:s mov_text -metadata:s:s:0 language=eng out.mp4

     

    video.mp4 is your source video clip.

    sub.srt is your subrip subtitle file.

    eng is the language the subtitle will be tagged with, and consequently listed as in Quicktime's subtitle menu. If the sub is in another language, specify that language instead (e.g. fra, ger, rus ..)

    out.mp4 is the name of the target file that will contain the combined three streams (video, audio and subtitle).

     

    This procedure is completely lossless, so you retain full quality of all three streams.

  • by Kimi_4,

    Kimi_4 Kimi_4 Jul 3, 2015 2:55 AM in response to Moof666
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2015 2:55 AM in response to Moof666

    How about converting MP4 to AVI with high quality with third party program? I think you can try Bigasoft Total Video Converter for Mac or QuickTime Converter for Mac.  The conversion is fast and output quality is good enough. I have used the tools to convert my files to QuickTime player.

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