Subtitle workflow,
step by step.
Practical guides for the subtitle tasks that actually come up.
Burned-in (hardcoded) subtitles become part of the video pixels. They survive every cross-post and every download — at the cost of being un-toggleable. Here's when to use them and how to do it across SoCaptions, ffmpeg, Premiere, and CapCut.
Two cases: the video has soft subtitle tracks embedded, or the captions are burned into the pixels. Each needs a different tool.
Out-of-sync subtitles come from one of three causes: a fixed offset, a frame-rate mismatch, or progressive drift. Each has a different 5-minute fix.
AI translation is fast and free; human translation is slow and accurate. The right choice depends on your audience size, content type, and tolerance for cultural mistakes.
Hardcoding subtitles is the same as burning them in — captions become part of the video pixels permanently. Same trade-offs, same techniques. 'Open captions' is the broadcast term for the same thing.