How to import an SRT into CapCut, Final Cut Pro and IINA

SRT is the most widely supported subtitle format; almost every editor and player reads it. Here is how to bring one into three common places, and where we could not verify something, we say so.

Two things to get right before importing

• File name and location: keep the SRT in the same folder as the video, with a name that starts with the video's name, for example talk.mp4 with talk.en-zh.srt. Kept together, the file is easy to find later.
• Encoding: an SRT should be UTF-8. Twinsub writes UTF-8. If a file from elsewhere shows garbled text after import, re-save it as UTF-8 in a text editor first.

Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro can import SRT directly. These steps come from Apple's official user guide (Final Cut Pro User Guide: Import captions, read 2026-10-10):

1. Open the projectOpen the project you want to caption in the timeline.
2. Choose the menuFile > Import > Closed Captions.
3. Pick the file and set the roleSelect the .srt and, under “Import as Role”, choose a closed caption role and a language subrole.
4. Choose where to insertUnder “Insertion Time”, “Relative to Timeline” adds the project start time to every cue; “Absolute” uses the cues' own timecodes. For a project that starts at 00:00:00 the two are the same.

After import the captions appear in a closed caption lane at the top of the timeline. One user on Apple's forum reported an “unsupported data” error when importing an SRT, apparently caused by overlapping cue times (thread). If you hit it, check for two cues whose time ranges overlap; see checking and editing SRT.

CapCut

CapCut's import entry changes name and place between versions. We did not find a fixed import path in CapCut's official help, so we do not hard-code a menu name, only how to look for it:

1. Open the captions panelIn the CapCut desktop editor, open the text or captions panel and look for an entry such as “Import captions” or “Local captions”.
2. Choose the SRT fileIn a bilingual SRT every cue has two lines of text, so both the translation and the original show up in the same caption.
3. If you only want the target language, choose the single-language file (such as .en.srt)To style the original separately, import a second subtitle file or split the lines inside CapCut.

An SRT carries no font or colour styling, so after import the editor decides the font and size; adjust them in one pass inside the editor. Other editors such as Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve also read SRT; check their documentation for the exact import path.

IINA player

If you only want to read bilingual subtitles while watching, with no editing, load the file in a player. In IINA (checked in version 1.4.4, English interface) use Subtitles > Load External Subtitle… and pick the .srt. Other players such as VLC and Infuse also have a “load external subtitle” entry, in different places.

If non-Latin text shows as boxes or garbage in the player, it is usually a font or encoding problem: confirm the file is UTF-8, then pick a font that covers that script in the player's subtitle settings.

When an import fails, check four things first

1. ExtensionMake sure it is .srt, not a hidden .srt.txt.
2. EncodingUse UTF-8.
3. Overlapping timesThe start of a cue should not be earlier than the end of the previous one.
4. Empty entriesA cue with a number and timecode but no text is rejected by some software.

Updated 2026-10-11. Back to the Twinsub home page