Subtitles are chosen per file under This file, beside the preview: Off, or any text track the file carries. A newly added file picks a sensible default, a sidecar beside the video or a track in the language you last chose, and the choice is then yours and is remembered with the entry. The same film can appear twice in a playlist with different subtitles each time.
Three sources:
- A file beside the video:
film.vtt,film.srt, or a language-suffixedfilm.en.srt, found and offered by itself. - A file you choose, from anywhere on the disk, with Choose subtitle file at the bottom of the picker. Films often arrive with their subtitles as a separate download.
- A track inside the file. SubRip and ASS are both read. Several tracks are listed by language, and two of one language are numbered.
The text is lifted into a WebVTT file first and cached, about a second on a feature-length film, then nothing. The choice can be changed while a clip is on the wall; the track swaps without interrupting playback. Subtitles show on the wall and in the preview, so they can be checked before being taken.
What needs ffmpeg
Reading a track out of a container uses the ffmpeg on this Mac, and Sialk Player carries none. On a Mac without one, Settings says so and names the command, every subtitle file keeps working, and only tracks buried inside a container are lost.
Bitmap subtitles cannot be shown. PGS and VobSub tracks, common in Blu-ray rips, are pictures rather than text. They are left out of the list rather than offered and then failing. What it plays has the one command that burns them in.