One of the most important aspects of video content accessibility is the subtitle. It practically converts a video to text and allows a wider audience to effectively enjoy video content, particularly those who may be hard of hearing or unable to understand the native language of the content. However, there are different subtitle formats used in video production, which can cause various problems, with compatibility being one of them.
Both SUP or “Subtitle Picture” and SRT or “SubRip Subtitle” are common formats of subtitles, although often used for different purposes. SUP subtitles are most often used for DVDs and Blu-Ray video content, but the SUP subtitle file type has its issues, such as limited edibility, compatibility, and more.
If you want your content to be viewable by a wider audience, you may need to convert .SUP to SRT. Converting an SUP file to SRT comes with many advantages, both for creating and making use of the subtitles. This process may sound intimidating, but here’s exactly how to convert SUP to SRT.
SUP or Subtitle Picture is a file type generally used for Blu-Ray disc and DVD video formats. This is a subtitle bitmap file, which means that the subtitle information is image-based rather than text-based. SUP files render the subtitles as images or pictures that are then simply overlaid onto the video content.
Each subtitle you see in this type of format is an image that matches the text or spoken dialogue that is to be displayed alongside the video content. Displaying subtitles in a multitude of languages is one of the advantages of SUP files. They’re also highly customizable in terms of position, text color, size, and font style, which is thanks to being image-based.
The main reason why .SUP formats are used in Blu-Ray and DVD video content is because they can be created using high-definition resolutions. This allows content creators to feature crisp and clear-looking subtitles along with their high-definition content. Not only is this important for aesthetic purposes, but it also allows the subtitles to be easily readable.
That said, SUP files require special software and tools to be created, generally a type of software that can convert text into bitmap images, and this editing process can be lengthy and complex. Another complex aspect of SUP files is ensuring that the images displayed on the screen are perfectly synchronized with the images being displayed.
The SUP image files contain long chains of image frames, each of which has a specific timestamp that dictates exactly where during the video playback the subtitle should appear. This synchronization, although possible, can often be challenging.
Although SUP subtitle files have their uses, they also have various issues – issues that may require you to change the format and use an SUP to SRT converter for enhanced functionality and accessibility.
The SRT or SubRip Subtitle file is a text-based file that is used for storing information about subtitles for video content, unlike SUP, which is image-based. As far as widespread use is concerned, SRT is perhaps the most commonly used subtitle format, and this is true for various reasons.
First, SRT files are very simple and generally consist of four parts: a number identifying the specific subtitle, a time code dictating when the subtitle appears and disappears in the content, the text, and a blank line that indicates the entry’s end. SRT files use very precise time codes to ensure that the text displayed on the screen is perfectly synchronized with the video content.
A defining feature of SRT subtitles is that the text is plain and unformatted. This file type does not support the formatting of text, such as changing colors or fonts.
However, a big advantage of SRT files is that editing them can be easily done using virtually any text editor, and many tools are designed to make this process even easier. The other advantage is that SRT subtitles are widely compatible with the majority of video players, video platforms, and editing software in existence today.
Due to their overall simplicity, SRT subtitles are also popular for translation purposes, such as for translating the native language of the video content into another language, which, once again, comes back to wider accessibility.
Even though SUP files are ideal for creating high-definition and editable subtitles, they do come with a set of problems.
If you have video content that contains .SUP subtitle files, there is a list of reasons why converting to SRT might be worth your time.
SUP subtitles are pretty much just bitmap images that are not easy to edit, but the plain text format of SRT files is. If you need to edit the subtitles, particularly the wording itself, then converting SUP to SRT is definitely a good idea.
Considering that SUP files consist of potentially thousands of bitmap images, they do tend to take up a lot of storage.
SUP subtitle files can be very large, which can create challenges as far as storage, transferring, and downloading are concerned.
However, if you convert the SUP to SRT, the files shrink down to just a few KBs.
The main reason why converting SUP to SRT files is beneficial is due to accessibility and compatibility. First, many online video platforms, with YouTube being the first to come to mind, require subtitles to be in a text-based format.
Any image-based subtitles, such as .SUP, cannot be used on these platforms, which greatly limits the audience any piece of video content may be exposed to.
On that note, many video players and pieces of editing software also don’t support .SUP files but do support SRT files.
Seeing as SRT files are much smaller than SUP files, as far as streaming is concerned, SRT is preferred. SUP subtitles require a lot more bandwidth when streaming, which might take a toll on your video quality.
SRT files are also preferred for translation purposes. If subtitles are in SUP format, then a standard text editor or online language translation tool won’t be able to function properly. You can’t plug bitmap images into a language-translation tool.
However, if you need to easily translate subtitles, then the SRT file format works much better. Because SRT is text-based, you can literally just feed the SRT file’s text into a translator, and you’re good to go.
Here’s a table to summarize the main differences between SUP and SRT files.
| SUP (Subtitle Picture) | SRT (SubRib Text) | |
| File Format | Bitmap image-based subtitle format. | Plain text format. |
| Compatibility | Commonly used with DVDs, Blu-ray. | Widely supported by most video players and editing software. |
| Editing | Requires specialized software to edit; more complex due to image-based nature. | Easily editable with any text editor. |
| Customization | High level of customization for font, color, and effects, as they are part of the image. | Limited customization, depends on the video player’s ability to interpret text formatting. |
| File Size | Generally larger due to image data. | Smaller file size, more efficient for storage and sharing. |
| Accuracy and Timing | Precise positioning and timing, as it’s part of the video frame. | Timing can be adjusted, but positioning is usually up to the video player. |
| Creation Process | More complex and time-consuming to create. | Simpler and quicker to create. |
| Visibility | Consistent appearance across different players. | Appearance may vary depending on the video player’s settings and capabilities. |
| Usage | Preferred for high-quality video formats where precise subtitle appearance is important. | Commonly used for online videos, streaming platforms, and user-generated content. |
Conversion from SUP to SRT online is done by using an OCR. This is a tool that can scan an image to recognize, analyze, and generate text written in an image.
OCR software allows the bitmap images or the image-based SUP files to be converted into text-based SRT files, ultimately making them easier to work with, along with all of the other advantages discussed above.
OCR SUP to SRT conversion software works by first cleaning up the image so that the text is easy to recognize accurately. The software removes any noise that may prevent it from properly identifying the text within the image. The OCR software then carefully analyzes the image.
When the OCR conversion is complete, the result is a text-based SRT subtitle file.
Let’s go over some valuable tips to make the process of converting SUP to SRT files online as easy and successful as possible.
SubtitleEdit is one of the software that is capable of converting SUP to SRT using OCR.
This process uses OCR technology, which is not perfect. Be prepared to spend some time correcting errors, especially with unusual fonts or low-quality SUP files.
Looking to convert other files to SRT? Check out some of our guides below:
While there are some other alternative ways to convert SUP to SRT, Subtitle Edit’s OCR seems to be the most reliable out there with tons of users corroborating the final generated results from the tool.
While it isn’t perfect, the output is definitely something that we’d describe as practically usable. This conversion is not as simple as text-based conversion because of the visual nature of SUP files and the final output will always depend on the quality of your images and how well the OCR is able to detect the string values contained in them.
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