Quick Guide: Mastering the Art of Time Alignment for Videos and Captions in VLC Media Player

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VLC Subtitle Delay Fixed - How to Adjust/Sync Subtitles with Video in VLC

This guide will give you the detailed tips to sync subtitles with video in VLC and also share you the bestVLC alternative to solve the subtitle sync issue, considering VLC delays or speeds up subtitles temporarily.

By Candice Liu ｜Last updated on Jan 8, 2024

When I play a movie with subtitles on VLC, the text is often displayed too soon or too late, I wonder if there is a way to fix the VLC player subtitle delay or any software which could do this?

There are loads of chances when the subtitles are either lagging behind or leading ahead a movie in VLC media player , which drives you in a miff in particular you are watching a foreign film. Luckily, this player offers a nifty feature that lets you fix VLC subtitle track delay issue. Use the guide below to fix the issue.

Part 1: How to Sync/Adjust Subtitles Delay in VLC

There are generally 2 ways to adjust/sync VLC subtitle delay on Windows or Mac. Let’s get started with how to fixed subtitles that are not synchronized with movie or video using the player. See how to sync audio with video in VLC >>

[Solution 1]:
1. Open the VLC, click on Tools > Track Synchronization. Here You’ll find the Subtitles/Video section after hitting on the Synchronization tab.

2. Now just sync subtitles in VLC with the video. If you are watching a movie with the subs showing 3 seconds after the scene, it means the subtitles display 3 seconds behind the movie. All you have to do is to put a negative value -3.000 s in Advance of subtitles over video. On the contrary, if the subtitles are appearing 3 seconds before the video, you can input a positive value 3.000 s here, as it indicates the subs are leading ahead the file by 3 seconds.

Note:
You shall be aware of the extract number of seconds they lag behind or lead ahead. And adjustment of tenths does the job in most cases, despite you can adjust the sync time up to a thousandth of a second.

3. Click the Refresh button at the top right corner of the window, which allow you to see the VLC audio delay changes instantly.

Free time to time, users will suffer from DVD rip errors and get messages like DVDRead could not open the disk, you can check the complete DVD ripper guide to ensure a smooth DVD rips on Mac and PC.

[Solution 2]:
There is another easier way to fix the delayed subtitles in VLC easily, by taking advantages of keyboard shortcuts H and G, to adjust subtitle delay during playback.

1. To delay a subtitle: Press G on your keyboard if the subtitle is ahead of the sound. You can delay a subtitle by 50 ms (millisecond) each. So if you want to slow the subtitle down by 0.5 seconds, hit G ten times.
2. To speed up a subtitle: Use the key H to speed up the subtitle by 50 ms for every click. Press repeatedly or long press to advance the subtitle according to your needs.

Note: Generally, the subtitles sync well with the movie. But in rare cases, you run up against the VLC subtitle delay issue. If the subtitles perfect sync with the video in the beginning but go out-of-sync gradually or wrap up faster or slower than the video, the Speed of the subtitles option will be helpful. You can adjust the fps (frames per second) value to increase or decrease the subtitle appearing speed. For instance, for fast subtitles, decrease the fps value to keep pace with the video.

[Solution 3]:
If you still fail to solve the VLC subtitle out of sync error with the above-mentioned solutions, please have a try of other alternatives like 5KPlayer. This is an all-in-one free video player , video downloader and airplay sender, which has been widely acclaimed among users and rated as 5-star by many tech giants.

Part 2: Fix VLC Subtitle Delay Permanently

The VLC feature is a life-saver for video buffs in case the subtitles and videos are out of sync. But remember that the above mentioned changes are temporary. As long as you close the video and restart it, you have to repeat the procedure again to the same video. Thus, to permanently sync the subtitle delay in VLC, you will need an alternative to enjoy the video at the best.

MacX Video Converter Pro is the best VLC assistant, which is able to convert videos to be playable on VLC. With 370 video/audio codec supported, it manages to convert MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV, FLV, MTS, AVCHD, HEVC (H265), 4K 4096p, 8K 7680p and more to 180+ video and 14+ audio formats at world’s No.1 fast video conversion speed. It enables you to free download videos from over 300 online video sites, covering Facebook, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Instagram, etc with subtitles perfectly sync with video when playing in VLC media player. You can also freely remove the wrong subtitles from video and add correct srt to MP4 , MKV, AVI, HEVC, etc. after you download subtitles. Thus, you resolve the VLC player subtitle delay issue fundamentally.

Download for Mac Download for PC

Prior to the subtitle adding step, you need to download subtitles of a movie or video you want from the sites such as MovieSubtitles.org, with movie title plus the language you prefer as the search keywords. Make sure the downloaded subs have the same name as the movie file.

1. Free download, install and run the movie subtitle software , import the movie by hitting the Add File button.

2. Choose the output format as you like. For instance, if you want to make the subtitles sync with movie in MKV, just choose the MKV as the output format from the drop down window.

3. Hit Edit > Subtitle button from the pop up window. Press Enable subtitle > External Subtitle File. Hit Add button and move the mouse to Done button to add SRT subtitles to MKV .

4. Hit the RUN button to start sync subtitles with movie on your computer. After a couple of seconds, you can easily finish the VLC subtitle delay problem perfectly.

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Quick Guide: Mastering the Art of Time Alignment for Videos and Captions in VLC Media Player