• SubRip ( .srt)
• WebVTT ( .vtt )
• Advanced SubStation Alpha ( .ass, experimental )
• Tab-separated values ( .tsv, experimental ) - as exported by Audacity for labels. TSVs are not recognized automatically because it’s a common data format, but you can use subed-tsv-mode to turn it on in a buffer.

• Jump to next (M-n) and previous (M-p) subtitle text.
• Jump to the beginning (C-M-a) and end (C-M-e) of the current subtitle’s text.
• Merge subtitles with M-m (subed-merge-dwim) and split them with M-. (subed-split-subtitle). If the media file is playing in MPV, use the current playback position. If not, use the relative position in the subtitle text, or other functions listed in subed-split-subtitle-timestamp-functions.
• Insert subtitles evenly spaced throughout the available space (M-i) or right next to the current subtitle (C-M-i). A prefix argument controls how many subtitles to insert and whether they are inserted before or after the current subtitle.
• Kill subtitles (M-k).
• Adjust subtitle start (M-[ / M-] or C-M-[ / C-M-] if Emacs lives in a terminal) and stop (M-{ / M-}) time. A prefix argument sets the number of milliseconds for the current session (e.g. C-u 1000 M-[ M-[ M-[ decreases start time by 3 seconds).
• Move the current subtitle or all marked subtitles (subed-move-subtitles) forward (C-M-n) or backward (C-M-p) in time without changing subtitle duration. A prefix argument sets the number of milliseconds for the current session (e.g. C-u 500 C-M-n C-M-n moves the current subtitle 1 second forward).
• Shift the current subtitle together with all following subtitles using (subed-shift-subtitles), or shift them forward (C-M-f) or backward (C-M-b). This is basically a convenience shortcut for C-SPC M-> C-M-n/p. This is handy for correcting sync delays where the subtitles are correctly spaced but are offset from the audio.
• Scale all subtitles or all marked subtitles forward (C-M-x) or backward (C-M-S-x) in time without changing subtitle duration. A prefix argument sets the number of milliseconds for the current session (e.g. C-u 500 C-M-x moves the last [or last marked] subtitle forward 500ms and proportionally scales all [or all marked] subtitles based on this time extension. Similarly, C-u 500 C-M-S-x moves the last [or last marked] subtitle backward 500ms and proportionally scales all [or all marked] subtitles based on this time contraction). This can be extremely useful to correct synchronization issues in existing subtitle files. First, adjust the starting time if necessary (e.g. C-M-f), then adjust the ending and scale constituent subtitles (e.g. C-M-x).
• Show CPS (characters per second) for the current subtitle.
• Insert HTML-like tags (C-c C-t C-t, with an optional attribute when prefixed by C-u), in particular italics (C-c C-t C-i) or boldface (C-c C-t C-b).
• SRT: Sort and re-number subtitles and remove any extra spaces and newlines (M-s). This is done automatically every time the buffer is saved.
• Trim subtitle overlaps with M-x subed-trim-overlaps. By default, this adjusts the stop time of overlapping subtitles to subed-subtitle-spacing milliseconds before the next subtitle starts. Use M-x customize-group subed to configure trimming to happen automatically when buffers are loaded or saved, which time is adjusted, and how much time to leave between subtitles.
• Convert between formats with M-x subed-convert.
• Show the waveform (M-x subed-waveform-minor-mode, off by default) extracted from the media file using ffmpeg with the start/stop positions of the current subtitle and the current position in MPV marked along with the subtitle. Change the “volume” of the waveform (i.e., the visible amplitude) with C-c C-- and C-c C-=. Redisplay the waveform with C-c |. Left/right-click on the waveform to set the start/stop timestamps. If you would like to display the waveform automatically when you open a file, you can add (add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-waveform-minor-mode) to your configuration.
• Load word timing data (ex: SRV2) using M-x subed-word-data-load-from-file. This will be used for splitting words at timestamps when available.
• Use M-x subed-align and aeneas to align your text or subtitles with an audio file in order to get timestamps.

Using network sockets to control MPV works on Linux and on Mac OS X, but not on Microsoft Windows due to the lack of Unix-style sockets. On Microsoft Windows, you will not be able to synchronize with MPV.

• Automatically open the associated media file in MPV based on the filename, open a media file manually with C-c C-v (subed-mpv-play-from-file), or play media directly from a URL with C-c C-u (subed-mpv-play-from-url) . You can customize the automatic detection of files by changing subed-video-extensions and subed-audio-extensions.
• Pause and resume playback without leaving Emacs (M-SPC).
• Jump to the current subtitle in the MPV player with M-j (subed-mpv-jump-to-current-subtitle). Toggle looping over the current subtitle with C-c C-l (subed-toggle-loop-over-current-subtitle). Control how many seconds to loop before or after the current subtitles by customizing subed-loop-seconds-before and subed-loop-seconds-after.
• Use C-c . (subed-toggle-sync-point-to-player) to toggle whether the point should move to the currently playing subtitle.
• Use C-c , (subed-toggle-sync-player-to-point) to toggle whether mpv should seek to the position of the current subtitle when the point moves between subtitles.
• Subtitles are automatically reloaded in mpv when the buffer is saved.
• Copy the current playback position as start (C-c [) or stop (C-c ]) time of the current subtitle.
• Playback is paused or slowed down when a subtitle’s text is edited (C-c C-p, subed-toggle-pause-while-typing).
• Loop over the current subtitle in mpv (C-c C-l).
• When a subtitle’s start or stop time changes, mpv seeks to the subtitle’s start time (C-c C-r, subed-toggle-replay-adjusted-subtitle).
• Move one frame forward or backward (C-c C-f . and C-c C-f ,; pressing , or . afterwards moves by frames until any other key is pressed).

To install it on Emacs 27 or earlier, add the following to your Emacs configuration file:

(with-eval-after-load 'package (add-to-list 'package-archives '("nongnu" . "https://elpa.nongnu.org/nongnu/")))

Use M-x eval-buffer to run the code, use M-x package-refresh-contents to load the package archives, and then use M-x package-install subed.

Sample configuration:

(with-eval-after-load 'subed-mode
	;; Remember cursor position between sessions
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'save-place-local-mode)
	;; Break lines automatically while typing
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
	;; Break lines at 40 characters
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook (lambda () (setq-local fill-column 40)))
	;; Some reasonable defaults
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-pause-while-typing)
	;; As the player moves, update the point to show the current subtitle
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-sync-point-to-player)
	;; As your point moves in Emacs, update the player to start at the current subtitle
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-sync-player-to-point)
	;; Replay subtitles as you adjust their start or stop time with M-[, M-], M-{, or M-}
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-replay-adjusted-subtitle)
	;; Loop over subtitles
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-loop-over-current-subtitle)
	;; Show characters per second
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-show-cps))

If that doesn’t work, you can install it manually. To install from the main branch:

git clone https://github.com/sachac/subed.git

This will create a subed directory with the code.

If you have the make utility, you can regenerate the autoload definitions with

make autoloads

If you don’t have make installed, you can generate the autoloads with:

emacs --quick --batch --eval "(progn (setq generated-autoload-file (expand-file-name \"subed-autoloads.el\" \"subed\") backup-inhibited t) \
	(update-directory-autoloads \"./subed\"))"

Then you can add the following to your Emacs configuration (typically ~/.config/emacs/init.el, ~/.emacs.d/init.el, or ~/.emacs; you can create this file if it doesn’t exist yet). Here’s a configuration example:

;; Note the reference to the subed subdirectory, instead of the one at the root of the checkout
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/subed/subed")
(require 'subed-autoloads)

(with-eval-after-load 'subed-mode
	;; Remember cursor position between sessions
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'save-place-local-mode)
	;; Break lines automatically while typing
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
	;; Break lines at 40 characters
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook (lambda () (setq-local fill-column 40)))
	;; Some reasonable defaults
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-pause-while-typing)
	;; As the player moves, update the point to show the current subtitle
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-sync-point-to-player)
	;; As your point moves in Emacs, update the player to start at the current subtitle
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-sync-player-to-point)
	;; Replay subtitles as you adjust their start or stop time with M-[, M-], M-{, or M-}
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-replay-adjusted-subtitle)
	;; Loop over subtitles
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-loop-over-current-subtitle)
	;; Show characters per second
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-show-cps))

You can reload your configuration with M-x eval-buffer or restart Emacs.

If you want to try a branch (ex: derived-mode), you can use the following command inside the subed directory:

git checkout branchname

Here’s an example setup if you use use-package:

(use-package subed
	:ensure t
	:config
	;; Remember cursor position between sessions
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'save-place-local-mode)
	;; Break lines automatically while typing
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
	;; Break lines at 40 characters
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook (lambda () (setq-local fill-column 40)))
	;; Some reasonable defaults
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-pause-while-typing)
	;; As the player moves, update the point to show the current subtitle
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-sync-point-to-player)
	;; As your point moves in Emacs, update the player to start at the current subtitle
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-sync-player-to-point)
	;; Replay subtitles as you adjust their start or stop time with M-[, M-], M-{, or M-}
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-replay-adjusted-subtitle)
	;; Loop over subtitles
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-loop-over-current-subtitle)
	;; Show characters per second
	(add-hook 'subed-mode-hook 'subed-enable-show-cps)
	)

If you use straight.el, you can install subed with the following recipe:

(straight-use-package '(subed :type git :host github :repo "sachac/subed" :files ("subed/*.el")))

C-h f subed-mode should get you started. This is the parent mode for subed-srt-mode, subed-vtt-mode, and subed-ass-mode. When manually loading a mode, use those specific format modes instead of subed-mode.

You can use subed-mpv-jump-to-current-subtitle (M-j) to play the current subtitle and use subed-mpv-toggle-pause (M-SPC) to stop at the right time. Use subed-toggle-loop-over-current-subtitle (C-c C-l) if you want to keep looping automatically.

If you have wdiff installed, you can use subed-wdiff-subtitle-text-with-file to compare the subtitle text with a script or another subtitle file.

One way is to start with one big subtitle that covers the whole media file. You can create this manually by using the media file duration or a very large ending timestamp (ex: 24:00:000), or you can use M-x subed-insert-subtitle-for-whole-file. Use C-c C-p (subed-toggle-pause-while-typing) to enable pausing while typing. Start playback with M-SPC (subed-mpv-toggle-pause), type as you listen, and split using using subed-split-subtitle (M-.).

Another way is to type as much of the text as you can without worrying about timestamps, putting each caption on a separate line. Then you can use subed-align to convert it into timestamped captions.

To download autogenerated captions for one of the videos you’ve uploaded to YouTube:

1. Go to https://studio.youtube.com
2. Click on Content in the left-side menu, find your video, and edit it. Clicok on Subtitles in the left menu. If automatic subtitles are available, you will see them in the Subtitles column in the middle.
   • If you don’t see automatic subtitles, set your video’s language in the Details tab, wait a while, and check again.
3. Hover over the “Published” label and use the three-dot menu to download the SRT. (The VTT file has a lot of extra mark-up.)
4. Open the SRT file. subed can synchronize playback as you edit the subtitle file. If the media has the same base filename as the subtitle file, it will be opened automatically. If not, use subed-mpv-play-from-file (C-c C-v) or subed-mpv-play-from-url (C-c C-u).

You may want to use M-x subed-trim-overlaps to remove the overlaps between subtitles.

If you download the VTT from YouTube, you can load the word timing data from it with M-x subed-word-data-load-from-file. Then those times will be used when splitting subtitles with subed-split-subtitle..

If you want to work in the VTT format so you can use comments, convert the SRT with M-x subed-convert.

To upload edited subtitles:

1. Edit your video’s details. Click on Subtitles on the right side.
2. Click on the three-dot menu.
3. Click on “Upload file”, choose “With timing”, and click on “Continue”.
4. Select your file.

You may want to use set-fill-column and display-fill-column-indicator-mode to show the target number of characters.

Use subed-split-subtitle (M-.), subed-merge-dwim (M-b), and subed-merge-with-previous (M-M) to split lines.

Splitting will use the current MPV position if available. If not, it will guess where to split based on the the number of characters in the subtitle. You can use subed-mpv-jump-to-current-subtitle (M-j) to play the current subtitle manually and use subed-mpv-toggle-pause (M-SPC) to stop at the right time. Use subed-toggle-loop-over-current-subtitle (C-c C-l) if you want to keep looping. subed-waveform-show-current can help you fine-tune the split.

You can use subed-mpv-jump-to-current-subtitle (M-j) to play the current subtitle manually. Use subed-mpv-jump-to-current-subtitle-near-end (M-J) to jump to near the end of the subtitle in order to test it. Use subed-toggle-loop-over-current-subtitle (C-c C-l) if you want to keep looping automatically. Use subed-mpv-toggle-pause (M-SPC) to stop at the right time.

You can also manually adjust

• subtitle start: M-[ / M-]
• subtitle stop: (M-{ / M-})

A prefix argument sets the number of milliseconds (e.g. C-u 1000 M-[ M-[ M-[ decreases start time by 3 seconds).

Rodrigo Morales also has some functions for playing part of the subtitles and changing them by a little bit.

You can shift subtitles to start at a specific timestamp with subed-shift-subtitles-to-start-at-timestamp . To use a millisecond offset instead, use subed-shift-subtitles.

Use subed-waveform-show-current or subed-waveform-show-all together with FFmpeg to display waveforms for subtitles.

Use subed-waveform-set-start (mouse-1, which is left click) or subed-waveform-set-stop (mouse-3, which is right-click) to adjust only the current subtitle’s timestamps, or use subed-waveform-set-start-and-copy-to-previous (S-mouse-1 or M-mouse-1) or subed-waveform-set-stop-and-copy-to-next (S-mouse-3 or M-mouse-3) to adjust adjacent subtitles as well.

You can use M-mouse-2 (Meta-middle-click, subed-waveform-shift-subtitles) to shift the current subtitle and succeeding subtitles so that they start at the position you clicked on.

You can use subed-retime-subtitles to set new times for subtitles by pressing SPC when the current subtitle should stop. It will start with the current subtitle and then continue until you press a key that is not in the temporary keymap.

Keys:

The aeneas forced alignment tool (Python) can take a media file and a text file (one cue per line) or subtitle file, and create a subtitle file with the timings determined by matching synthesized speech with the waveforms.

To use Aeneas to re-time subtitles or text, install Aeneas and its prerequisites, then call M-x subed-align to align the entire buffer.

You can also select a region and then use M-x subed-align-region to recalculate the timestamps for just that region. One way to use this is:

1. Determine the last correctly-timed subtitle. We’ll call this subtitle A. Go to the beginning of subtitle A and use C-SPC (set-mark-command) to set the mark.
2. Pick a subtitle in the incorrectly-timed section. We’ll call this subtitle B. Use subed-mpv-jump-to-current-subtitle to seek to that position. Play it and listen for the words. If you can’t figure out which subtitle matches the position currently being played, choose a different subtitle starting point B until you find one that’s recognizable.
3. Reset the playback position by using subed-mpv-jump-to-current-subtitle on subtitle B.
4. Now look for the subtitle that matches the words you heard at the playback position for subtitle B. We’ll call that one subtitle D.
5. Go to the subtitle before subtitle D. We’ll call that subtitle C. Use C-c ] (subed-copy-player-pos-to-stop-time) to set the stop time of subtitle C (the one immediately before D) to the playback position, which is the same time as the incorrect starting time for subtitle B.
6. Go to the end of subtitle C.
7. Use M-x subed-align-region to recalculate the timestamps within that section.

Aeneas tends to have trouble with subtitle times where there are long silences, background noises, inaccurate transcripts (especially where the speaker has skipped or added many words), overlapping speakers, and non-English languages. It may take several tries to figure out a span of subtitles where Aeneas is more accurate. Doublechecking with the word timing data can help quickly verify if the subtitle times are reasonable.

To use word timing data from something like WhisperX, load subed-word-data.el and then use subed-word-data-load-from-file. The word times will then be used when you split subtitles with subed-split-subtitle.

You can use subed-copy-region-text to copy the text of the subtitles for pasting into another buffer. Call it with the universal prefix C-u to copy comments as well.

You can also use subed-convert to convert subtitles to a text file.

If subed-mpv-client reports (error "Service name too long"), this is probably because the path to the socket used to communicate with MPV is too long for your operating system. You can use M-x customize to set subed-mpv-socket-dir to a shorter path.

subed now uses subed-srt-mode, subed-vtt-mode, and subed-ass-mode instead of directly using subed-mode. These modes should be automatically associated with the .vtt, .srt, and .ass extensions. If the generic subed-mode is loaded instead of the format-specific mode, you may get an error such as:

Error in post-command-hook (subed--post-command-handler): (cl-no-applicable-method subed--subtitle-id)

If you set auto-mode-alist manually in your config, please make sure you associate extensions the appropriate format-specific mode instead of subed-mode. The specific backend functions (ex: subed-srt--jump-to-subtitle-id) are also deprecated in favor of using generic functions such as subed-jump-to-subtitle-id.

You’ll need to install the buttercup and package-lint Emacs packages. You’ll also need GNU Make so that you can work with Makefiles. To run the tests, use the command make test.

There’s a list of authors in the file AUTHORS.org. If you have at any point contributed to subed, you are most welcome to add your name (and email address if you like) to the list.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Here’s a post-commit hook that will make it easier to remember to tag releases:

#!/usr/bin/python

# place in .git/hooks/post-commit
# Based on https://gist.github.com/ajmirsky/1245103

import subprocess
import re

print("checking for version change...",)

output = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'diff', 'HEAD^', 'HEAD', '-U0']).decode("utf-8")

version_info = None
for d in output.split("\n"):
    rg = re.compile(r'\+(?:;;\s+)?Version:\s+(?P<major>[0-9]+)\.(?P<minor>[0-9]+)\.(?P<rev>[0-9]+)')
    m = rg.search(d)
    if m:
        version_info = m.groupdict()
        break

if version_info:
    tag = "v%s.%s.%s" % (version_info['major'], version_info['minor'], version_info['rev'])
    existing = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'tag']).decode("utf-8").split("\n")
    if tag in existing:
        print("%s is already tagged, not updating" % tag)
    else:
        result = subprocess.run(['git', 'tag', '-f', tag])
        if result.returncode:
            raise Exception('tagging not successful: %s %s' % (result.stdout, result.returncode))
        print("tagged revision: %s" % tag)
else:
    print("none found.")

• My subed customizations for editing captions of Emacsconf 2024 – Rodrigo Morales
• Sacha Chua’s subed-related blog posts
• Marcin Borkowski: 2023-09-18 Making Anki flashcards from subtitles
• sachac/subed-record: Record audio in segments and compile it into a file
• EmacsConf - Captioning tips