When downloading, avoid files smaller than 40KB. A good subtitle file for a 2.5-hour movie should be around 60-80KB. Smaller files are usually missing 30% of the dialogue.
A: Open the SRT file in Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac). Go to File > Save As. Change the encoding from UTF-8-BOM to ANSI (Windows) or Western (Mac) . Save and reload.
Open the movie with VLC. It should automatically detect the subtitles. If not, right-click the video, go to Subtitle > Add Subtitle File , and select your .srt .