How to Add Subtitles to AVI: Step-by-Step Guide

Method 3: Using Any Video Converter Free version

Any Video Converter is another free program that can easily convert an AVI file to AVI + subtitles as well as being able to burn the result straight to DVD.

1. Download Any Video Converter Free and install it, watch for the adware. Then run the program.

2. Click on the Add Video button and find your AVI video file. Then click on “No Subtitle” on the video entry in the window, select Add and find the subtitle file.

add video button

3. The good thing about Any Video Converter is there are loads of preset profiles for mobile phones, tablets, MP4 players, consoles and DVD. Click on the Output Preset button or the drop down menu to its right and find what matches the output you want. If you’re converting back to AVI some settings such as resolution and bitrate can be configured from the bottom right in the main window, and aspect ratio for DVD. Select Original settings where possible to output a file close to the original AVI.

choose output

4. Then simply click on the button to convert. If you have selected the “Burning to DVD” output preset, when the encoding has completed there will be a disc burning dialog where you insert the DVD, select the speed and label, then write the disc.

Any Video Converter Free has some configuration settings for subtitles in its Options window (small cog wheel top left) which will allow you to change the default encoding for foreign languages, change the font and its size on screen, and also the ability to move the default subtitle position on the screen up or down.

Method 4: Using VirtualDub and VobSub

This method is a little more manual than the above one, but users who have played around with video editing before will likely know VirtualDub and VobSub quite well.

1. Download VirtualDub and VobSub.

2. Extract the VirtualDub zip to C:\VirtualDub.

3. During the install of VobSub, expand Plugins and select “VobSub for VirtualDub” and “TextSub for VirtualDub and Avisynth”.

Install Vobsub for subtitle

4. When asked to select the directory where VirtualDub is installed at, browse to C:\VirtualDub.

Burn subtitle to AVI

5. After you finish installing VobSub, run VirtualDub.exe from C:\VirtualDub

6. Go to File -> Open Video File and select the AVI.

7. Go to Video on menu bar, select Filters (or press Control+F)

8. Click the Add button, select TextSub 2.23 and click OK.

TextSub subtitle in AVI

9. In TextSub settings, click the Open button and look for the SRT or SUB subtitle file. In the file dialog there are two options that need setting; Character set can be used if you are trying to embed non English characters such as Chinese or Russian etc. Set the FPS to match that of your video file. Click OK and OK.

play avi with subtitle in DVD player

10. Go to Video on the menu bar and make sure that Full processing mode is selected. In the same menu select Compression (or press Control+P) and choose the video compression that you’d like to use, use DivX or xVid.

Video Compression for AVI

12. Finally, click File and select Save as AVI (or press F7), and wait for it to compress.

You will then have a new AVI file with subtitles embedded into it. Burn it to VCD or DVD using your favorite disc burning software such as Nero. If you have a DVD player that can support DivX, you can directly burn the AVI file to the disc without converting it to DVD or VCD format. That’s the advantage of using DivX/xVid as video compression.

It looks like a lot of steps but it’s actually quite easy when you’ve got used to it. Do be aware that because the AVI format is lossy meaning the quality of the video degrades through compression, a re-encoded video’s quality might be slightly less than the original. You can counteract this somewhat and make sure the difference is as small as possible by selecting a high quality preset of the output file, or a target size of around the same or slightly larger than the original.

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