Settings Subtitles

Settings: Subtitles

⋯ → Settings → Subtitles (Ctrl+P; the header reads Subtitle Defaults). The subtitle languages and their encoding, the subtitle files VLC loads by itself, how subtitles look, their timing, the messages VLC shows on the video, and the second language and the online search. These are the defaults of every video; for the video playing now (another track, a subtitle found online, the timing, the size and the position), use the player's languages and tracks panel: see Subtitles. See how the Settings window works.

The picture was taken before 0.3.1, when Font was a text field; it is now a list of the installed fonts.

Tracks & Languages

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Enable subtitles	Toggle. Default: on.	Off: VLC turns off all subtitle and sub-picture processing, so no subtitle track or file is shown.	spu
Preferred language	The language list of the design: a field showing the language (and its own name, Deutsch for German) that opens every language with a Search a language field (it finds a language by its English or its own name). Default: the language of Windows; English when the list does not have it.	Your default subtitle language: VLC shows a video's subtitles in this language by itself, and the online search looks for it first. The installer and the welcome setup ask for it. Picking the language set as the second one clears the second one. Changed in 0.3.0: this row picks it (before, a "Default language" row at the top of the page did).	sub-language (written with the second and the learned language, see Good to know)
Text encoding	Dropdown: Automatic, System codeset, Universal (UTF-8), Universal (UTF-16), Universal (big endian UTF-16), Universal (little endian UTF-16), Universal, Chinese (GB18030), then the regional encodings (Western and Eastern European, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Turkish, Thai, Baltic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese…, in their ISO 8859 and Windows code pages). Default: Automatic.	The character set of text subtitle files (SRT and the like) that do not state theirs. Automatic recognises UTF-8 files by itself and reads the others in the legacy code page of the interface language (Windows-1252 for English, Windows-1255 for Hebrew, Windows-1251 for Russian…). Choose the right one when the letters come out as nonsense.	subsdec-encoding (Automatic = empty)

Loading Subtitles

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Load subtitle files automatically	Toggle. Default: on.	When a video opens, VLC also loads the subtitle files whose name matches it, from the video's folder and from the folders of Load subtitles from these folders (Advanced Options).	sub-autodetect-file
File name matching	Dropdown: Off / Any title / Contains title / Title with extra characters / Exact title match. Default: Title with extra characters.	How closely a subtitle file's name must match the video's: Any title, any subtitle file of the folder; Contains title, a name that contains the video's name; Title with extra characters, the video's name followed by more characters (Film.en.srt for Film.mkv); Exact title match, the same name (Film.srt); Off, no file is loaded by itself.	sub-autodetect-fuzzy (0 to 4)

Appearance

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Font	Dropdown: System, sans-serif, then the font families installed on the computer (without the vertical-writing @ families). Default: Arial.	The font of the subtitle text. System, sans-serif leaves the choice to VLC, which uses Arial on Windows. A font set another way that is not installed stays in the list. Changed in 0.3.1: a list of the installed fonts (before: a field to type the name in).	freetype-font
Size values	Segmented: Relative / Pixels. Default: Relative (Pixels when a size in pixels is already set).	Whether the next row gives the size by name, relative to the picture, or in pixels. Switching puts the size of the other kind back to its default, as VLC applies both together.	redesign/subtitle-size-mode (interface setting)
Font size (Relative)	Dropdown: Smaller / Small / Automatic / Large / Larger / Largest (50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 / 200 %). Default: Automatic (100 %).	The size of the subtitles relative to the height of the picture. A scale set another way shows as a percentage.	sub-text-scale
Font size (Pixels)	Number field, in px, 0 to 4096. Default: 0, shown as Automatic.	The height of the text in pixels of the picture (not of the screen); 0 sizes it from the picture. A size in pixels puts the relative size back to 100 %.	freetype-fontsize
Bold	Toggle. Default: off.	Draws all subtitle text in bold.	freetype-bold
Text color	Colour field: the hex value (type one, #FFFF00) and a swatch that opens the colour picker. Default: #FFFFFF (white).	The colour of the text.	freetype-color
Text opacity	Slider, 0 % to 100 %, ticks every 10 %. Default: 100 %.	0 % is invisible.	freetype-opacity (0 to 255)
Outline thickness	Dropdown: None / Thin / Normal / Thick. Default: Normal.	The outline around the letters, which keeps them readable on a bright picture.	freetype-outline-thickness (0 / 2 / 4 / 6)
Outline color	Colour field. Default: #000000 (black).	The colour of the outline.	freetype-outline-color
Shadow	Toggle. Default: on.	Draws a shadow behind the text. Off sets the shadow's opacity to 0; on gives it back (128 of 255 unless it was set another way).	through freetype-shadow-opacity
Shadow color	Colour field. Default: #000000 (black).	The colour of the shadow.	freetype-shadow-color
Shadow distance	Dropdown: Small / Medium / Large. Default: Medium.	How far the shadow is offset. A distance set another way shows as its number.	freetype-shadow-distance (0.03 / 0.06 / 0.1)
Background	Dropdown: None / Box. Default: None.	Box draws a box behind the subtitles, in the colour and opacity of the next two rows.	through freetype-background-opacity (None = 0)
Background color	Colour field. Default: #000000 (black).	The colour of the box.	freetype-background-color
Background opacity	Slider, 0 % to 100 %, ticks every 10 %. Default: 50 %.	How opaque the box is. Kept while Background is None, used again when it is Box.	redesign/subtitle-background-opacity (interface setting, copied to freetype-background-opacity while Background is Box)
Vertical position	Slider from Lower (−20 %) through Usual (0) to Higher (60 %), 1 % steps, ticks every 10 %. Default: Usual.	How high the subtitles are, in percent of the picture's height above their usual place (below it when negative): the same on any screen and at any window size. The subtitles on the video move as you drag; discarding the change puts them back. While playing, Shift+↑ / Shift+↓ move them too.	sub-position

Timing

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Subtitle delay	Slider, −5 s to +5 s in 0.1 s steps, labels −5 s, 0 s, +5 s. Default: 0 s.	Shows every subtitle later (positive) or earlier (negative) in every video. For one video, use the player's subtitle timing (Subtitles).	sub-delay (tenths of a second)

On-Screen Messages

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Show feedback for shortcuts	Toggle. Default: on.	Shows VLC's messages on the video (OSD): the volume, a seek, the speed, a snapshot taken…	osd
Show feedback for	Slider, 0.5 s to 5 s in 0.5 s steps. Default: 1 s.	How long those messages stay.	osd-duration (ms)
Show filename when a video starts	Toggle. Default: on.	Shows the title of the media on the video when it starts.	video-title-show
Show filename for	Slider, 1 s to 10 s in 0.1 s steps, ticks every second. Default: 5 s.	How long the title stays.	video-title-timeout (ms)

Second Language & Online Subtitles

(Not in the design: after its sections. Changed in 0.3.0: this block came first on the page before.) These are interface settings, saved with the rest of the page.

Option	Choices / default	What it does
Second language (when there are none in the preferred one)	The same language list, with None first. Default: English, or None when the preferred language is English.	The subtitles VLC takes when a video has none in the preferred language. Choosing the preferred language here sets None.
Find subtitles online when a video has none in these languages	Toggle. Default: on (the installer and the welcome setup ask).	When a video opens with no subtitles in the preferred or the second language, VLC asks the services below and loads the best result. Off, the player's panel searches only when you click its search button.
Show both languages at once (dual subtitles)	Toggle. Default: off.	Shows the subtitles of both languages together. Dimmed, and turned off, while the second language is None.
Subtitle services	A toggle per service, all on: OpenSubtitles (all languages, movies and series, finds those made for your file), Wizdom (Hebrew, movies and series), Addic7ed (series, many languages), YIFY Subtitles (movies, many languages).	The services asked. The note under them: "To find subtitles, the services turned on get the video's title, its IMDb id, its file name and hash (made from a part of the file), and nothing else."

Advanced Options

Option	Choices / default	What it does	VLC option
Load subtitles from these folders	Text field, folders separated by commas. Default: .\subtitles, .\subs.	More folders where VLC looks for matching subtitle files. A folder that starts with a dot is relative to the video's folder; any other path is used as it is (D:\Subtitles).	sub-autodetect-path
Outline opacity (Developer mode)	Slider, 0 % to 100 %. Default: 100 %.	The opacity of the outline.	freetype-outline-opacity
Shadow opacity (Developer mode)	Slider, 0 % to 100 %. Default: 50 % (128 of 255).	The opacity of the shadow.	freetype-shadow-opacity
Shadow angle	Number field, in degrees, −360 to 360. Default: −45 (down and to the right).	The direction of the shadow.	freetype-shadow-angle
Text direction	Dropdown: Left to right / Right to left / Automatic. Default: Automatic.	The base direction of a paragraph for the Unicode bidirectional algorithm. Automatic follows the first strong letter, so Hebrew and Arabic lines read right to left; force one if punctuation lands at the wrong end of a line. Needs FriBidi support in the text renderer.	freetype-text-direction (0 / 1 / 2)
Monospace font	Dropdown: System monospace, then the font families installed. Default: Courier New.	The font of subtitle text that asks for a fixed-width font.	freetype-monofont
Visualization size	The row of the Advanced Options of Audio, repeated here.	Changing it here changes it there.	effect-width, effect-height
Text alignment (Developer mode)	Dropdown: Auto / Center / Left / Right. Default: Auto.	The justification of the lines of text subtitles.	subsdec-align (−1 / 0 / 1 / 2)
Position of the filename (Developer mode)	Dropdown: Center, Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Top-Left, Top-Right, Bottom-Left, Bottom-Right. Default: Top.	Where Show filename when a video starts shows the title. VLC Redesign moved it to the top: at the bottom it covered the first subtitle.	video-title-position

Good to know

• VLC learns your languages (new in 0.3.1). Each subtitle language you pick by hand in the player counts once per video, and older picks fade (at every new pick, each earlier one keeps 0.9 of its weight). A language with a score of 1.5 or more is marked Often used in the player's list; at 2.5 or more (about three picks) it becomes the learned language, the third one VLC shows by itself after the preferred and the second language. This page does not show it: it is written into VLC's sub-language, which holds the languages in order as ISO 639-2 codes (heb,eng,deu). See Subtitles: Learning your languages.
• Before you choose a language, VLC already shows a video's own subtitle track in the language of Windows (unless Windows is in English, or every English film would show its English subtitles). Nothing is saved until you choose.
• The installer (since 0.3.1) asks for the default subtitle language on its Languages page (the interface language until you pick another one) and for the online search on its Privacy page; a silent install takes /SUBLANG= and /NOONLINESUBS (Install and update).
• Letters come out wrong (é, boxes, question marks): set Text encoding to the file's encoding, for example Hebrew (Windows-1255) or Cyrillic (Windows-1251).
• Subtitles too small on a big screen? Keep Size values on Relative: the size follows the height of the picture, whatever the screen or the window.
• ASS/SSA subtitles keep their own fonts, colours and positions; the Appearance rows apply to plain text subtitles (SRT and the like).

Related pages: Subtitles · Languages · Install and update · Keyboard shortcuts

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