Burn Subtitles (Hardsub)

😫 The Pain Point

You have a movie file and a separate subtitle file. It plays fine on your computer, but when you copy it to a TV or upload it to Facebook, the subtitles disappear. You need to “burn” the text into the pixels of the video itself.

🚀 Agentic Solution

Hardsub Tool: Merges the video stream and the text stream into one composite video.

Key Features:

• Styling: Choose large yellow text standard for movies.
• Robust: Works with Unicode characters (Vietnamese, Japanese).

⚔️ Phase 1: Commander (Quick Fix)

For a quick burn.

Prompt:

“I have movie.mp4 and subs.srt. Use FFmpeg to create a hardsub version movie_hard.mp4. Ensure the font size is 24.”

Result: A video with burnt-in caps.

🏗️ Phase 2: Architect (Permanent Tool)

For Translators/Subbers.

Engineering Prompt:

**Role:** Python Video Engineer
**Task:** Create a "Hardsub Tool".
**Requirements:**
1.  **GUI:**
    *   Select Video.
    *   Select Subtitle.
    *   Dropdown: Font Size (Normal, Large, Extra Large).
    *   "Render" button.
2.  **Logic:**
    *   Construct complex FFmpeg filter: `vf="subtitles=filename.srt:force_style='FontSize=24'"`
    *   **Crucial:** Handle Windows path escaping (FFmpeg hates backslashes `\` in filter chains).
    *   Show progress bar.
3.  **Deliverables:** `hardsub.py`, `run.bat` (Windows), `run.sh` (Mac).

🧠 Prompt Decoding

• Path Escaping: FFmpeg command lines use : (colon) as a separator. If your Windows path is C:\Users\..., the colon in C: breaks the command. The Architect knows to handle this by escaping or converting paths to forward slashes.

🛠️ Instructions

1. Copy Prompt -> Paste -> Run.
2. Select Video + Subs -> Render.