Mux subtitle

One of the common format for movies and tv series nowadays is mkv. This type of file has some special characteristic regarding the subtitle. It's subtitle some kind of half soft and half hard-subbed. If you're using Media Player Classic (just like me), you still can turn on and off the subtitle but you can't find the subtitle file (eg srt, sub etc.) That's why I said half soft and hard-subbed. Normally, for avi file, if you have soft-subbed file, you can turn on and off the subtitle but for hard-subbed avi file, you can't. So if you have hard-subbed file with foreign language which you don't understand, you have to bear with it (it's some sort of annoying).
For mkv files, the half soft and hard-subbed is called MUX. The uploader muxing the subtitle during the convertion process from any type of file (normally avi) to mkv. You don't have to download another subtitle file but you still can turn it on and off. I can say it's quite convenient if you have downloaded movie with subtitle in foreign language because you can still turn it off. And still, you can find another subtitle that you can understand and play the mkv movie with it.
How do you turn it on and off? I guess I'll tell you later in my next post.

Playing movies with subtitle

By now you should have known what is the different between hard-subbed and soft-subbed. So here comes the part that I should share how to watch movies with subtitles. I guess I'll just tell you regarding soft-subbed, since you won't get any problem with hard-subbed.

Basically it just so simple, almost just like the hard-subbed one. The things you should have are suitable player, the movie file (.avi, .rmvb, .mkv, .mpeg etc) and the subtitle file (.srt, .sub etc). As for me, I would prefer Media Player Classic, since it's a freeware software and can be used to play almost all video files including .3gp with the subtitle (of course you need the right codec for all of these). I've used K-Lite Mega Codec Pack plus real alternative for rmvb files.

Both files (video and subtitle files) should have the same name, not even differ in a single character except for the extension (.avi and .srt). Take a look at the screenshot:
The name for both files are exactly the same, except for the extension. If your files comply to this, just play the movie file and the subtitle will appear. Try it first, and I'll tell you more about things related to subtitles later.

Hard-subbed and soft-subbed

How to watch movies with subtitle? First, you should know what is the different between hard-subbed and soft-subbed. Most of the movies from the internet didn't embedded with the subtitle. This is what we called "soft-sub" so that the "hard-subbed" should be the movies with embedded subtitle.

The soft-subbed needs another subtitle file, in order for the subtitle to appear when watching the movie. The most common format for subtitle is .srt but sometimes you can find .sub format. As for me, I prefer the .srt one.

For the hard-subbed, because the subtitle is already embedded in the movie file, you don't need another subtitle file. The disadvantages of hard-subbed is you cannot turn the subtitle off. Why do you need to turn it off? Sometimes, you'll find some movies with foreign subtitle language, and you can't understand. So it's better if you watch the movies without the subtitle. For soft-subbed, you can find the right subtitle (the language that you understand). And if you still can't find it, just delete the subtitle file (.srt format) and watch it without the subtitle.

Why do people need the subtitle? Because they can't understand the spoken language of the movies. I found its quite often for people to download English subtitles for English movies. This is because they can understand the language better when they read it rather than just hear it. That's why they need the subtitle.

I'll tell you how to watch movie with subtitle later...