Embedding Subtitles in MP4 files with FFMPEG

Embedding subtitles is an easy process. Assuming you have a .SRT file prepared and ffmpeg installed, embedding can be accomplished with a single command in the terminal.

ffmpeg -i inputfile.mp4 -i subtitlefile.srt -map 0:v -map 0:a -c copy -map 1 -c:s:0 movtext -metadata:s:s:0 language=[language_code] output_file.mp4

See the FFMPEG subtitle options wiki for more details.

Don’t have ffmpeg installed? No problem. You can download ffmpeg binaries directly from ffmpeg.org or better yet, install ffmpeg with the help of Homebrew, a package manager for macOS.

brew install ffmpeg