When converting a movie from a DVD to the AVI(DivX/XviD) format, the subtitles can be included in the output file by selecting appropriate settings from the conversion software(AutoGK, SimpleDivX, #1 DVD Ripper). Some applications hardcode the subtitles in the output file whereas some also allow external subtitle files to be created. But if you have obtained the AVI files from a different source than a DVD(a friend, Internet etc) then you have to search for suitable subtitles for the movie on the Internet and use a media player that supports displaying the subtitles from external files to play it. VLC Media Player is one such application that supports displaying subtitles in various formats(SRT, SUB etc). One usage scenario is described below:

  1. You own the DVD of a film but don’t have the patience to use a software to convert it, along with the subtitles, to the compressed AVI format. Or perhaps the DVD doesn’t include the subtitles for the language of your preference at all. In such cases, you can search and download the subtitle files for the film from the Internet. Here are some options to search for the subtitles in various languages:
    http://www.divxsubtitles.net/
    http://www.opensubtitles.org/
    http://subscene.com/
  2. Now you can view the film with the subtitles that you have downloaded using a media player like VLC Media Player or Windows Media Player. Keep the AVI file and the subtitle file(s) in the same folder and give them the same base file name(they will have different file extensions). If you run the AVI file now, the subtitles will automatically be displayed. You can also manually load a subtitle in VLC Media Player from the ‘Open File’ dialog box.
    Open Media with Subtitles in VLC Player
  3. The above method works fine as long as you play the movies on your computer using a decent media player. If you would rather watch it on your favourite handheld device(iPod, Creative Vision:M, Nokia N800, Sony PSP, etc), its media player may not support displaying subtitles from external files. In that case, the only option you have is to hardcode the subtitles in the AVI file itself. To do this, I use the Free software AviRecomp, and the procedure to merge/hardcode the subtitles with the AVI file using it is given below. Once the subtitles are thus merged, the resultant AVI file can then be converted to the native formats of different handheld devices(topic of next post).

Merging Subtitles with AVI Files Using AviRecomp

  1. This is how the example video looks before it is merged with the subtitles(English). We will see the result of the merge process at the end of the procedure to see the difference.
    Video without Subtitles
  2. After installing AviRecomp on the computer, start it from the Start menu. The main window of the application looks like this.
    Main Window of AviRecomp
  3. In the “Source & Output” tab, click the “Open AVI” button and select the AVI file you want to merge the subtitles with. Then click the “Save AVI” button and select a folder where you want to store the output file. Finally, select the size of the output file(if you don’t want to recompress/resize, specify the same size as that of the original file – this will be faster) in “New AVI Size” drop-down box.
    Select Output Path and Size in AviRecomp
  4. Go to the next tab by clicking on “Additions” button and check the “Enable/Disable” checkbox in the “Subtitles” panel. Then click the “Load Subtitles” button and select the subtitle file that you have downloaded from the Internet(see Step 2 at the top of the post).
    Load Subtitles in AviRecomp
  5. In the “Settings” tab, you can specify various settings such as the priority with which AviRecomp should be run, if the temporary files or the source file should be deleted at the end etc.
    Set Process Priority of AviRecomp
  6. Go to the last tab by clicking the “Queue” button and click the button “Add to Queue” to add this job the to queue. The above steps can now be repeated with more AVI files and added to the queue if multiple merge operations are needed to be performed.
    Multple jobs can be added in AviRecomp
  7. When ready, click the “Start” button to start the merge process. The status will change from “Waiting…” to “Running…” state as a result.
    Subtitle Merge Job Running in AviRecomp
    To see the % progress of the merge process, look at the title bar of AviRecomp in the Windows taskbar.
    Job Progress in AviRecomp
  8. After the merge process is finished, go to the folder where the output file is created(as selected in Step 3) and play the file. The subtitles should now be hardcoded into the file. This file can now be converted to the native formats of different handheld devices to enjoy viewing them along with the subtitles.
    Video after Merging Subtitles using AviRecomp

You can search for a different application that is specifically made for merging the subtitles with the video files but AviRecomp can be used for purposes other than mere subtitle merging. It also allows adding black borders to the movie and place the subtitles on them. It also installs many other useful video related software like VirtualDub, AviSynth, VobSub etc, that it uses for doing its own job, making it unnecessary to download and install these software separately. AviRecomp is a very useful Free software to have on one’s computer.