I never liked dubbed films, but in many languages that is the only option if you don't understand the native language. That's why I'll watch most of my films at my computer (that and the option to stop to go for popcorn or to the bathroom).

Nevertheless, looking for subtitles has always been a big pain, mostly because you have to hunt for them in different services, download them, and try to see if they are the correct ones. With so many videos and multiple versions (DVD, BluRay, 1080, 720) you will find many different possibilities for subtitles, and the syncing will never be perfect.

To avoid all these problems, and basically make life easy, you can use some software that does the job for you.

Download Subtitles

• SubsMarine (Mac): is a beautifully designed software that uses several services to look for subtitles. You can drag-and-drop videos into the window, scan the files, find subtitles, select the one you want, filtered by languages, and download to the same folder where the file is located so you won't lose it.
• Subdownloader (multiplatform) is an open source program for automatically downloading subtitles that supports different platforms. Although it doesn't accept the drag-and-drop options, it lets you navigate to any folder in your computer and search all the videos in that folder. It also automatically searches for all the subtitles according to the languages you selected. Apparently you could launch the video directly from this program selecting the application you want to use, but I didn’t manage to do it. The program also lets you upload subtitles.
• Sublight (Windows) is a free and powerful program to download subtitles. It has a nice user interface that can look overwhelming for inexperienced users but it has many nice options like Preview subtitle and subtitle rating. The newest update added the capability to edit and subtitle and it has a synchronization option.
• SPlayer: This is primarily a player, but it lets you download subtitles. I've tried it a couple times, and although it does detect the subtitle and automatically downloads it if found, there's a lack of options to search further if it doesn't find it.
• VLC: Since the last version of VLC, and now with the VLC 2.0, it is possible to install extensions that will work with the player. One of those extensions is Subtitle Finder a nice option to download subtitles directly from your player.

Further work with subtitles

But sometimes you need (or want) to do more with subtitles than just using them in your films. You may want to edit a faulty one, or perhaps create your own version, language or syncing of a subtitle. There are many programs that let you work with that, but just a couple are used by the subtitle creators that manage to create a subtitle of your favourite show in just a couple of hours:

• Subtitle Workshop is the most complete, efficient and convenient subtitle editing tool. It’s interface is intuitive and it has easy menus and advanced functions. It includes a spell check and an advanced video preview feature.
• Submagic is another powerful tool that allows you to convert, edit, translate, synchronize or create movie subtitles supporting several subtitle formats. DirectX 9.0c is needed for video playback.
• Subtitle Editor Subtitle Editor is an open source editor to create new subtitles or transform, edit, correct or refine existing subtitles in a video file. Synchronization of subtitles to voices becomes easy with this free subtitle editor software as it shows sound waves.

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