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I'm told it's possible to embed subtitles (.srt) into video files (.avi) using ffmpeg, but I can't find any mention of it in the man page. Is this possible? What command do I use?

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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From Pier's link, specifically:

ffmpeg -i video.avi -vf subtitles=subtitle.srt out.avi

This creates a hard-sub ("burns" the subtitles into the video images) so you can't hide the subtitles and the change is irreversible!

I've used this successfully with the current static git ffmpeg release.

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  • Doesn't work. "Output file #0 does not contain any stream"
    – Rubi Shnol
    Apr 8, 2018 at 9:53
  • This filter requires ffmpeg to be compiled with --enable-libass, according documentation.
    – Nakamoto
    Mar 26, 2021 at 2:33
  • Thx, resulting subtitles was smaller than i am used to, i would increase 50%. Someone mention: subtitles=subtitle.srt:force_style='Fontsize=20' ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-all.html
    – 16851556
    Jan 14, 2022 at 16:24
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From man ffmpeg:

Subtitle options:

-scodec codec Force subtitle codec ('copy' to copy stream).

-newsubtitle Add a new subtitle stream to the current output stream.

-slang code Set the ISO 639 language code (3 letters) of the current subtitle stream.

So: ffmpeg -newsubtitle subtitles.srv -i video.avi ...

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  • If I use instead of ... result.avi this command does not work At least one output file must be specified
    – xralf
    Oct 27, 2011 at 11:01
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    Of course, ... means "and whatever other options you need".
    – Shawn J. Goff
    Oct 27, 2011 at 11:09
  • Sufficient is ffmpeg -newsubtitle subtitles.srt -i video.avi result.avi but this ends with the message above. I hoped that result.avi is output file. I tried it with -o result.avi too but without success.
    – xralf
    Oct 27, 2011 at 11:22
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    I don't know why this didn't work for me (maybe wrong file or problem with ffmpeg). I tried this command instead mencoder movie.avi -sub movie.srt -o movie.hardsubs.avi -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vbitrate=1200
    – xralf
    Nov 8, 2011 at 10:07
  • @ShawnJ.Goff: This did not work for me either. What version of ffmpeg are you using, and what OS?
    – Faheem Mitha
    Apr 7, 2012 at 20:52
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ffmpeg developers are working with subtitle support, but as far as I know it's only working in the latest ffmpeg. mencoder will burn subtitles instantly, if you want to try that instead.

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