There are two ways to add subtitles or captions to your video file. You can upload your subtitle files and your video files as two separate files. The other way is to combine video with SRT file yourself, merge subtitles with the video, and use it as a single file. Both of these options have their advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s dive into those and help you pick the best option for you.
Combine Video with SRT File or Use Them Separately?
Here’s the deal - it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve and which platform you’re using for your video. Let’s say you’ve decided to combine video with SRT file and upload them as one file. Here are the good sides of such a decision:
Control & Accuracy - You’ll have full control over the appearance and accuracy of your subtitle files. You get to review your subtitle file thoroughly, style it any way you like, make sure it is error-free, and all that stuff.
Once you merge subtitles with your video file, nothing can change the way they look or their timing.
Always On - If you merge subtitles into your video file, they cannot be removed. This means that they will be displayed to people even if they just scroll down their newsfeeds without real intention to watch your videos.
This might be just the trick to stop some of those thumbs with an interesting line from your subtitles. You’ve been there before. You catch a glimpse of something, and you’re instantly hooked and want to know more. Yup, captions can do that to a person.
Display Captions on No-Caption Platforms - Some of the platforms that support video files, still don’t support subtitle files. Even worse - they auto-generate captions. You..how to say this...DON’T want to leave your captions to chance and be at the mercy of auto-generated captions.
We’ll just leave this here. This guy said: “Should we get on with it? I’ll grab my stuff.”
This is precisely what you want to avoid and you can do that if you merge subtitles into your video permanently.
So, if this is such a big deal, how come people even upload no-caption videos to their platforms? The rest upload videos and SRT files as two separate files. Well, there are different reasons for this.
- SEO - Google can read subtitle file if it is uploaded as SRT or VTT files beside your video. This means that you can get some juice from Google if your SRT files contain all the right keywords. This is the biggest reason why people who otherwise know how to manage their captions upload them separately from their videos.
- Repurposing Content - Once you have a subtitle file separate from your video file you can use it to repurpose it for different content formats. You can turn it into a blog post, social media captions, and much more.
- Plain, Ol’ Forgetfulness - Some people simply forget to upload their caption and subtitle file because they aren’t used to using them. Hopefully, this will change soon, as many organisations are taking action and trying to make this accessibility feature a legal requirement.
- Misconceptions About Time Saving - This is probably a pet peeve for us at Subly. Some people think that burning subtitles into a video file takes ages. First, they need to create the captions, and then work out the way to add them to the video.
However, this is not a long process, guys! With Subly, this is just a couple of clicks. You can combine video with SRT file in minutes. This brings us to the next reason why people don’t burn captions into video files.
Not Knowing How to Combine Video with SRT File - It happens! Some people just haven’t yet had the need to learn how to combine video with SRT files. It just wasn’t on their list. But, now, it’s on the list and they need to learn it fast! Or not. Seriously - this is also an option because Subly can do that for you. Let’s dig into that for a second.
How to Combine Video with SRT File?
The fastest way to do this is to use Subly to add SRT subtitles to video files. Here’s how and then we’ll get into why this makes perfect sense for anybody who needs to do this a lot - which, in today's world means - everyone who wants to create stunning videos that people actually enjoy.
This takes just a couple of steps, and here they are presented in a video. Now, we improve Subly all the time, so don’t be surprised if the dashboard doesn’t look precisely the same. The functions are all there, we promise:
- Video upload - as you upload it, you get to choose the language spoken in the video and Subly transcribes it automatically.
- Subtitle editing - Subly is super accurate, but you should always check for capitalisation, punctuation, and the occasional error.
- Subtitle styling - use our online video editor to pick your subtitle fonts, colours, and positions
- Download your video - now, be careful here. When you try and download your video, you’ll get a pop-up that gives you the option to tick off different options for subtitle formats. If you DON’T tick any of them off, Subly will merge SRT with your video file and add subtitles permanently. If you tick any of them, you will download your subtitles as separate files.
Now that you know how, here’s the main reason why using Subly is a good idea. Have you noticed, from watching the video above, how easy it is to export your videos into different ratios and formats?
That is a HUGE time-saver. You don’t upload your video, add subtitles, and merge SRT to the video permanently, every time you want to use it for a different platform. You only do it once. After that, you just pick a ratio and export as many times as you like, and your SRT subtitles are already burnt in.
