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Olga Weis
Nov 29, 2022
Subtitles make a massive difference in how people enjoy movies and videos, that’s why having a media player with subtitle support is crucial. With that in mind, we’ve collected the best players that offer subtitle support. In this article, you’ll also find how to use a media player for Mac and add subtitles.
One of the most famous video players in the market is Elmedia Player. It can play all video and audio formats such as FLV, MP4, AVI, SWF, MOV, WMV, DAT, MP3, FLAC, MPG, M4V, MKV, and DivX, and provides a flawless HD experience as well. At the same time, you get high-definition content without lags, sync issues, or disconnections.
Even more, Elmedia Player is a great video player with subtitle support for Mac. It offers support for internal and external embedded subtitles and provides a large number of features for working with subtitles. This will be discussed in detail below.
Another great benefit of Elmedia Player is that you have the option to change the playback speed while the video is playing, set subtitles or delay audio if you want to fix any desync issues. What's more, you can customize the font, background, size, and color of your preferred subtitles as you wish. It will give you an exceptional watching experience.
Supported OS: macOS
Price: free to use, PRO upgrade priced at $19.99
Pros:
Cons:
Download Elmedia Player from the official website or App Store and run it.
Be sure that you have included the subtitle file in the same file as the video.
Sometimes you may experience some issues with subtitles. Let’s consider the common ones:
Subtitles are not displayed correctly. If the subtitles encoding is chosen incorrectly, you will only see wrong characters or no subtitles at all. Also, the font may cause subtitles to display incorrectly. The default font is Arial, and although it renders most subtitles properly, problems can sometimes occur. Go to "Preferences" and set another font, then restart playback.
Subtitles are not loaded automatically. Try the following:
Since Elmedia Player has limited access to the file system, in the Mac App Store versions of the application subtitles may not be loaded automatically. In this case, go to "Preferences" and select the “General” > “Movies folder” option to specify the path to your videos, or drag the appropriate directory onto the Elmedia’s icon in the Dock. For more information, visit this site.
Forget about searching for hours until you find suitable subtitles. Thanks to Elmedia Player’s alignment with OpenSubtitles.org platform, you can find and add appropriate subtitles to your movie in a matter of minutes. You don’t need to hassle and get frustrated because you can’t find subtitles that don’t work or aren’t aligned with the plot.
As soon as you open a video, Elmedia Player will start searching subtitles on the website mentioned above (OpenSubtitles.org) automatically. Elmedia will display a list of suitable subtitles by going to Subtitles -> Download from OpenSubtitles.org. When you select the subtitle you find suitable, it gets downloaded and integrated into the video at once. The benefit of registering on OpenSubtitles.org is that you receive unlimited access to the subtitles files.
In case the search didn’t deliver you the expected results then you can choose a different kind of subtitles enquiry. Please you one of the kinds mentioned below:
Another benefit is that you can receive a set of 3 kinds of subtitle languages. As soon as you choose your desired language, Elmedia Player will enquire for other subtitles in other languages.
Elmedia, Mac video player with subtitles, uses 3 methods for streaming:
1. External subtitles are stored separate from the video files and transferred directly to the receiving device. This method is the most efficient as it doesn't require any processing from Elmedia Player.
Note: If your device does not support external subtitles, you need to embed them in the video.
2. Media files with subtitles included in the file are referred to as embedded subtitles. If the file is fully compatible with the receiving device, Elmedia Player sends it to the device.
A list of all embedded subtitles is usually displayed on the device’s screen. You can easily select the ones you wish, as well as choose your preferred subtitle language, using the device remote control.
But still, there are devices that don’t offer support for embedded subtitles. For example, Chromecast devices can only display pre-made subtitles delivered as a text file. To stream such text subtitles, Elmedia Player extracts them from the video file.
Note: Large files or files on remote drives can take a long time to complete.
3. Burned-in subtitles are written over the video frames and cannot be turned off by the viewer. Elmedia Player burns image-based subtitles like DVD VOBSUB and Bluray PGS to video during on-the-fly transcoding. To burn text subtitles, go to “Preferences” > “Streaming” > “General” and turn on the "Burn subtitles into video" option. If your receiving device does not support external and embedded subtitles, this method is worth a try.
VLC Media Player is a free and open source cross-platform media player. With support for various subtitles formats (.srt, .sub, .ssa and more), it allows users to add subtitles to videos and movies. There are two ways you can use to add subtitles in VLC Player: you can either embed subtitles in your video, or open an external subtitle file along with your video file.
In order for subtitles to be displayed, you need to enable them in VLC Media Player. On your Mac, go to VLC > Preferences > Subtitles/OSD and check "Enable OSD".
Supported OS: macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
Price: free and open-source, offers in-app purchases
User review:
“It is one of the best audio-video players. Besides, it is very easy to use and so user-friendly.”— Chestmeto, mac.update.com
Penguin Subtitle Player is another subtitle player Mac users can try. It’s open-source, standalone and compatible across multiple platforms. What’s more, you don't need to install the player on your computer. You just need to download and unzip the archive and then run the executable.
The player supports .srt, .ssa, .ass, .vtt file formats and works as follows: you download the subtitles file from a website and load it into the player, or drag and drop it onto the main window. Furthermore, you can customize subtitles to your liking by changing the color, size, style and font. The background can also be adjusted.
Supported OS: macOS, Windows, Linux
Price: free and open-source
Movist is a simple yet powerful player based on Quicktime and FFMPEG. The app can handle almost all video formats, even HD formats like MKV and H.264. Movist has all the basic features that a video player should have: it comes with full-screen support and offers audio and video options. Among other things, Movist is a great Mac subtitle player. It allows you to view subtitles in multiple languages at the same time, supports subtitles listening, and can display subtitles in the letterbox space.
Supported OS: macOS
Price: free, PRO version costs $4.99
“Movist has all the basic features that you can expect to see in a video player. There is full-screen support, audio and video options, subtitle support, etc. Movist does have some problems, though. In all my time with it, I noticed that some subtitle formats fail to open. Also, sometimes some files play without audio, when they play fine on VLC. Those little issues aside, Movist still is my favorite player these days. It is simple and it works great.”— José Fernández, mac.informer
There are a few file subtitle formats in the market. As we mentioned before, Elmedia is compatible with almost all of them. Below you will discover all the types of subtitles and their details. The three most common ones are SRT, SSA and ASS.
SRT
The full name of SRT is SubRip Text. It is the simplest text subtitle format. It includes the time, a number counter and the subtitle text itself.
SSA
SSA is the abbreviation of SubStation Alpha. What makes this better than SRT is its power. It features multiple fonts, colours, and other special effects.
ASS
ASS stands for Advanced SubStation Alpha. It contains the same features extensions as SSA subtitles. It’s created based on the basic features of SSA.
That wraps up everything you need to know about the best video player for Mac with subtitles. We’ve covered the most effective players and hope you have chosen the one that fits your needs best. If you’re interested in a versatile video player with subtitles on Mac, Elmedia Player is worth trying. It supports most formats, comes with online search and streaming options, and lets you change the subtitles look.
FAQ
QuickTime Player can display subtitles if only the movie contains them. If the movie doesn’t have subtitles, you’ll need a Quicktime alternative for Mac that supports subtitles.
There are plenty of dedicated players that support subtitles. You can choose one of the apps listed above in the article and easily play your favorite movies with subtitles.
To enable subtitles on a Mac, launch QuickTime and open a movie. Then go to View > Subtitles and select a language. Alternatively, you can select the Subtitles button in the playback controls. If you need to open closed captions, go to View > Show closed captioning.
You can use an MP4 player for Mac like Elmedia Player. Just run the app and play the MP4 video. If the subtitle file is included in the same file as the video, the subtitles will be inserted automatically.
If subtitles are not loaded automatically, you can try opening them manually by selecting “Subtitles” > “Subtitles Track” > “Add from File…” or dragging the subtitles file on Elmedia’s window.
