Files with sub extension are usually video subtitles in one of the most common subtitle format. It's a plain text file format that contain individual text entries with time stamps that basically tell the media player which text and at what playback time it should show.
SUB file extension - Video subtitles
What is sub file? How to open sub files?
File extension sub is probably best known as one of the most common type of video subtitles, a textual versions of the dialog in movies, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Many tools use .sub files for subtitles and you can find many variants based on which program was used to make them starting from the original MicroDVD, SubViewer to VobSub. But the core remains the same.
These can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added information to help viewers who are deaf and hard-of-hearing to follow the dialog.
SUB subtitle format is often used for subtitles for DivX movies, very popular on P2P servers (torrents).
A variant of sub format is sometimes labeled as VobSub, which you can identify by .idx file that is found together with the .sub file.
Updated: November 15, 2023
The default software associated to open sub file:
Company or developer:
The SubtitleCreator team
SubtitleCreator allows users to add subtitles to their DVD movies. It is available for Windows platform.
Company or developer:
VideoLAN Project Team
Very popular multimedia player developed for Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, Unix and various other operating systems and platforms.
VLC can playback many of the video formats (AVI, MKV, OGV, WMV, ASF, MOV...) and audio formats (MP3, AAC, M4A, OGG, FLAC...) as well as support of subtitles for video. It can also be used as a streaming server and multimedia transcoder.
Aegisub is a free, cross-platform open source tool for creating and modifying subtitles.
List of software applications associated to the .sub file extension
Recommended software programs are sorted by OS platform (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android etc.)
and possible program actions that can be done with the file: like open sub file, edit sub file, convert sub file, view sub file, play sub file etc. (if exist software for corresponding action in File-Extensions.org's database).
Hint:
Click on the tab below to simply browse between the application actions, to quickly get a list of recommended software, which is able to perform the specified software action, such as opening, editing or converting sub files.
Software that open sub file - Video subtitles
Programs supporting the exension sub on the main platforms Windows, Mac, Linux or mobile. Click on the link to get more information about listed programs for open sub file action.
Microsoft Windows:
Main software associated with sub file by default:
SubtitleCreator
Other suggested software:
Gaupol Subtitle Editor
Subtitle Edit
Swift Create
Subtitle Workshop
Apple macOS / Mac OS X:
Linux/Unix:
Multiplatform:
Main software associated with sub file by default:
Aegisub
Other suggested software:
URUworks Subtitle Workshop
TeroSubtitler