Files that contain the file extension .SRT are those associated with subtitles which are used when viewing movies and videos. The purpose of the file is to translate the dialogue in the video to another language or display the same language as used in the video for the hearing impaired.
SRT files contain the information needed to display subtitles on the screen during a video. The files can be obtained from a variety of subtitle websites online where translators create subtitles as free downloads for use with a variety of programs. You simply search for subtitles that also contain the name of the video to access a list of sites which offer subtitles in different languages.
SRT file extension is typically displayed to indicate the language being used such as videotitle.eng.srt. The first part of the extension tells you the name of the video, the second part indicates the language, and the last part displays the file type.
How to Open SRT Files
To open SRT files successfully, you must have a multimedia player that supports the use of this technology. Additionally, with some multimedia programs such as Windows Media Player the subtitles are not used by default, and you must configure the program to accept SRT files.
If you use Windows Media Player, you can open SRT files and play subtitles by installing the DirectVobSub codec which you can obtain from any trustworthy website that offers free codecs for download. After you download the codec, you can use Media Player to open SRT files.
If you do not use Media Player with Windows, you can open SRT files using VideoLAN VLC Media Player, CyberLink PowerDVD 12, MPlayer, or Aegisub. If you just want to view the contents of an SRT file, you can open it using a text editor such as Notepad by right clicking the file, choosing Open With from the drop-down menu, and then selecting Notepad from the list or by clicking on Browse.
For Mac OS X you can open SRT files using ObjectifMac D-Subtitler, VideoLAN VLC Media Player, and SubCleaner. You can also open and view SRT files by using TextEdit for Mac. Simply locate and click on the SRT file to open it in the TextEdit program.
To read SRT files in the Linux operating system, you can use VideoLAN VLC Media Player, MPlayer, or Aegisub in addition to any type of text editing program.
SRT files originate from SubRip which is a Windows software program that is capable of extracting video subtitles along with the timings and converting them to a text file.
