Computer Tips From A Computer Guy

How to use subtitle (SRT) files with Gom Media Player

Posted: 17 May 2009 03:34 AM PDT

Sometimes we download movies with a foreign audio track that we can't understand. Recently I just downloaded Ip Man, a movie about the Wing Chun grandmaster that taught Bruce Lee, because I couldn’t wait for the mail-in DVD purchase to come.

I got the AVI file from torrent, but it didn't have the subtitles embedded in the video. Well I can’t understand Cantonese, so I Googled up Ip Man subtitles and after a few clicks I got an SRT file that matches my film. An SRT file is a subtitle file that you can use with the media player like VLC or GOM.

To use subtitle files you need to open it during the movie's playback. To open the movie file and the subtitle file at the same time, rename the SRT file to match the movie's file name.

For example, if the movie is called "ip.man.2008.avi" rename the SRT file to "ip.man2008.srt" This way when you open the AVI file the SRT files gets automatically loaded. If you don't do this you will need to open the SRT file separately after opening the movie file.

In some cases, the subtitles in the SRT files are not in sync with the audio of the movie – they are either delayed or advanced. To fix this click the options button on Gom then choose the Subtitle tab.

vClick the Back 0.5 seconds or Forward 0.5 seconds button to delay or advance the subtitle. This way you can synch the voice dub with the subtitle lines. There is no automatic way to do this so keep pushing buttons until they synch.

If the subtitles are too small for you – you can increase the size of the font by pressing ALT-Page Up. Alt-Page down will decrease the font size.

There are other options you can do by accessing the subtitles option menu. to access the subtitles options, right click the video then choose the subtitles menu.

This menu will allow you to resize, or move the position of the subtitles as they display in the screen. Character spacing is also customizable so you can easily adjust as you prefer.

I can't wait for my DVD purchase to come. For now, this lower quality AVI and subtitle file will do. With the help of Gom Media Player's subtitle options, I can enjoy my foreign language movie with no hassles.