Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
General
What is Subtitle Edit?
Subtitle Edit is a free, open-source subtitle editor. It supports 300+ subtitle formats and provides tools for creating, editing, synchronizing, translating, and converting subtitles.
Is Subtitle Edit free?
Yes. Subtitle Edit is released under the MIT license. It is completely free with no ads or limitations.
Subtitle Edit 5 is built with Avalonia UI and runs on:
- Windows 10 and later
- Linux
- macOS (Apple Silicon / arm64)
Where is my data stored?
Subtitle Edit stores settings and data in a platform-specific data folder. You can open it via File → Open data folder or the keyboard shortcut.
How do I report a bug or request a feature?
Please open an issue on the GitHub repository.
File Operations
Subtitle Edit supports over 300 subtitle formats including SubRip (.srt), WebVTT (.vtt), Advanced SubStation Alpha (.ass), SubStation Alpha (.ssa), MicroDVD, SAMI, and many more. See Supported Formats for the full list.
- Open the subtitle file via File → Open
- Choose a new format from the format dropdown
- Save via File → Save as…
For batch conversion, use Tools → Batch convert….
How do I import image-based subtitles?
Use File → Import image subtitle for OCR… to import Blu-ray SUP, VobSub, or other image-based subtitles and convert them to text using OCR.
You can use File → Import image subtitle for edit… to work/export the images.
Video
What video players are supported?
Subtitle Edit supports:
- libmpv — High-quality, wide format support
- VLC - Popular player, limited support in SE
Configure the video player in Options → Settings → Video Player.
If you have problems with a video, try Video → More → Re-encode video for better subtitling.
Open a video file, and Subtitle Edit will generate a waveform automatically if FFmpeg is installed.
To generate enable spectrogram go to Options → Settings.
Where do I get FFmpeg?
Some functions in Subtitle Edit will prompt for downloading FFmpeg.
You can also download FFmpeg in Options → Settings.
Speech to Text
What speech-to-text engines are supported?
Subtitle Edit supports several Whisper-based engines:
- Whisper.cpp — Cross-platform, CPU-based
- Whisper.cpp (cuBLAS) — GPU-accelerated (Windows, NVIDIA)
- Whisper.cpp (Vulkan) — GPU-accelerated via Vulkan (Windows)
- Purfview’s Faster Whisper XXL — Fast GPU/CPU-based (Windows, Linux)
- CTranslate2 — Fast CPU/GPU-based
- Const-me’s Whisper — DirectX-based (Windows)
- OpenAI Whisper — Original Python implementation
- Chat LLM cpp — LLM-based transcription (Windows, Linux)
How do I use Speech to Text?
- Open a video file
- Go to Video → Speech to text…
- Choose an engine and model (download if needed)
- Select the language
- Click Transcribe
See Speech to Text for details.
Synchronization
How do I fix subtitle timing that is off by a constant amount?
Use Sync → Adjust all times… and enter the offset in milliseconds.
How do I sync subtitles that drift over time?
Use Sync → Visual sync… or Sync → Point sync… to synchronize at multiple points.
How do I convert subtitles between different frame rates?
Use Sync → Change frame rate… and select the source and target frame rates.
OCR
What OCR engines are available?
- Tesseract — Open-source OCR engine with language packs
- nOCR — Nikse’s built-in OCR with trainable databases
- Binary OCR — For binary image comparison
- Google Lens OCR — Cloud-based
- Google Vision OCR — Cloud-based
- Ollama OCR — Local LLM-based
- Mistral OCR — Cloud-based
- PaddleOCR — Local OCR
How do I OCR Blu-ray subtitles?
- Open the
.sup file via File → Open
- The OCR window will open automatically
- Choose an OCR engine (Tesseract or nOCR recommended)
- Start the OCR process
Spell Check
How do I install spell check dictionaries?
Go to Spell check → Get dictionaries… and download the dictionary for your language. Dictionaries are based on Hunspell/OpenOffice format.
How do I add words to the dictionary?
During spell check, click Add to dictionary to add a word. You can also manage custom words in Options → Word lists.
ASSA / Styling
What is ASSA?
ASSA (Advanced SubStation Alpha) is a subtitle format that supports rich styling including fonts, colors, positioning, animations, and more. It is widely used in anime fansubbing and professional workflows.
How do I edit ASSA styles?
Go to ASSA → Styles… to create and edit subtitle styles with fonts, colors, borders, shadows, and alignment.
Keyboard Shortcuts
How do I customize keyboard shortcuts?
Go to Options → Shortcuts… to view and customize all keyboard shortcuts.
What are the default shortcuts?
See the Keyboard Shortcuts Reference for the complete default shortcut list.
Troubleshooting
Subtitle Edit won’t play video
- Ensure you have a video player installed (libmpv or VLC)
- Check that the video player path is correctly set in Options → Settings → Video Player
- Try to re-encode the video for better compatibility via Video → More → Re-encode video for better subtitling
- Ensure FFmpeg is installed and the path is set in settings
Speech to Text fails
- Ensure the Whisper engine is downloaded (it will prompt you)
- Ensure the model is downloaded
- Check the console log in the Speech to Text window for error details
- Try a smaller model if you run out of GPU memory