Even though Windows 10 comes with a brand-new video player programme called Movies & TV from Microsoft, Windows Media Player is still available. Given that a lot of people still favour the Windows Media Player’s simplicity, it’s a smart choice. Although Windows Media Player excels at performing basic media playing duties, the likelihood is that you are here because you are unable to add external subtitles to videos in the programme.
The majority of the solutions that claim to address subtitle insertion in Windows Media Player that you will find online, in our experience, don’t actually work. The good news is that after experimenting with several options, we were able to add subtitles to Windows Media Player. Here is how to add subtitles in Windows Media Player without further ado:
1. The first step is to confirm that the name of the video clip and its subtitle file match exactly. Subtitles cannot be manually added to Windows Media Player, and it only recognises them when they share the same name as the video.
2. After completing the steps above, launch Windows Media Player and select the Library Mode. Click on Play->Lyrics, Captions, and Subtitles and select On if available. By performing a right-click on the top, you may also access this option in the Now Playing Mode.
3. Next, download and install the DirectVobSub (VSFilter) codec on your computer. Both 32-bit and 64-bit computers can use it. There is nothing to adjust; you only need to install the codec. Make sure you download the codec from the official website because downloading it from an other source has been documented to contain viruses.
Note: You should play a video and check if subtitles are working in Windows Media Player because some people claim that after completing these steps, subtitles began to function. If not, just adhere to the guidelines below.
4. After completing the above steps, you must download and install Shark007’s Advanced codec for Windows Media Player. Open the 64bit Settings Application or 32bit Settings Application (Yes, that’s what it’s called) depending on your PC after it has been installed. You must run it as an administrator by selecting Run as Administrator from the context menu when you right-click the application.
5. When the programme launches, select the tab for the various video file types and select the option to “disable Media Foundation for MP4”, “AVI,” “MKV,” etc. Go to the Swaptab and tick the box to disable Windows Media Foundation as well.
After completing the aforementioned steps, you can simply open a video file in Windows Media Player and the subtitles should playback without any issues. If the problem persists, there may be an issue with the subtitle file. Try renaming the file from.srt to.sub in that scenario. We have tested the procedure, thus we are certain in its effectiveness.
SEE ALSO: 2 Best Android Apps For Adding Subtitles To A Movie
Ready to watch videos with subtitles in Windows Media Player?
So that’s how Windows Media Player subtitles are added. Microsoft should have improved the external subtitle functionality in Windows Media Player, in our opinion, but we don’t see that happening. Fortunately, the method described above for adding subtitles in Windows Media Player is faultless on both Windows 10 and earlier versions of Windows. Try it out on your Windows laptop or computer and let us know if you run into any difficulties. Comment here and share your thoughts.