For quite some time I've been watching movies with downloaded subtitles, which are more readily available on the Internet than I had cared to know about. I had the need for subtitles when I got my hands on some good Latin American movies. Being not-so-proficient in Spanish, I set about looking for subtitles which were easy enough to find from the plethora of dedicated websites available.
What I came across next was even more interesting.... a program called Vobsub. It is capable of opening subtitle files in real time as the movie is being played. All you have to do is name the subtitle file (usually .srt) with the same filename as your movie (usually .avi for me) and keep both in the same directory. When you play the movie in your own usual way (for me it's on WinAmp), the susbtitles appear on the movie in real time.
Now that's something really amazing for me.... the movie and the subtitle files are separate. The subtitle files are in fact simple text files with timings written before every line to be displayed. For the subtitles to be played in real time, .... the way i understand it .... each frame of the movie would have to be separated, the text encoded onto the frame, then the all frames put back into the original video format. Seems like a hell lot of work to me .... I wonder how Vobsub manages to do it in real time. Maybe there is a simpler way to it.
Whatever the technology behind the scene, I thoroughly enjoy my movies more. Now I am downloading subtitles not only for foreign language movies but also for English movies ... it's specially useful when those Irish accents are so heavy you have keep stopping and thinking back what was just said even as the movie has moved ahead. Great work there ... Vobsub. One of the most useful freewares I have come across.