How to Adjust the timing on a Subtitle SRT file using Subtitle Workshop 4

In a previous post, I discussed ways to find subtitles to add to your AVI movies and I also looked at using Google Translate to modify them if they weren't in English (or your chosen language).

Note: All of the software mentioned here is free.

See: Finding and Adjusting Subtitles on AVI Files.

In this post I want to look at how to change the timing on subtitles.

Why would you need to do this?
Movies have different frame rates depending upon the country that they are shown in and the system they are shown on.  Common frame rates are 23, 25 and 29 frames per second.  You'd be surprised how quickly subtitles can get out of whack if they're designed for the wrong frame rate.

Find the Start and End of the Dialogue.
Open your movie in a player, like the excellent VideoLAN (VLC Media Player) and locate the first and last sentences in the movie.  You'll find the time in the bottom right hand corner of the player - make a note of it.

Adjusting the Subtitle File
Open the Subtitle File in Subtitle Workshop 4 and check the first and last line in the file. They should be the same lines as in the movie. Sometimes the author of the subtitle will put their name in the file as the first or last entry - if this is the case, you'll have to remove those lines or they'll upset the timing.

1. From the menu, choose Edit, Select all (or Ctrl + A)
2. the Edit, Timings, Adjust Subtitles (Ctrl + B)
3. You'll be presented with a dialog box.
4. Choose the simple tab and adjust the timings on the first and last line to what you wrote down earlier.
5. Click the button marked Adjust.

That's it.  It's that easy.

Just save your subtitle file (Ctrl + S) and then exit subtitle workshop.