How to play MP4 and MKV files with SRT subtitles on your PS5

This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to play MP4 and MKV video files with SRT subtitles on your PlayStation 5.

To play an MP4 or MKV movie or video with SRT subtitles on the PS5, you'll need to merge the SRT subtitle file with the MP4 or MKV video file. You can use a free tool called MKVToolNix that can do this easily and quickly.

This tool is available for Microsoft Windows and Linux.

For Windows, MKVToolNix is available as an installer and as a portable 7zip archive file.

You can download MKVToolNix for Windows 10 and 11 here.

Note: If you've downloaded the portable version of MKVToolNix, then you will need to unzip the .7z file first. You can use 7-Zip for this.


How to play MP4 and MKV files with SRT subtitles on the PS5

  1. Make sure the subtitle file is in the same folder as the video file.
  2. Make sure the subtitle file has the same filename as the video file (e.g., Movie name.mp4 - Movie name.srt).
    Video file with SRT subtitle file
  3. Open MKVToolNix (mkvtoolnix-gui.exe or mkvtoolnix-gui).
  4. Click on + Add source files located at the bottom of MKVToolNix.
    Add source files in MKVToolNix
  5. In the next window, you go to the location on your computer where the subtitle and video files are.
  6. Select the subtitle file and video file.
  7. Click on Open.
    Open video and subtitle file in MKVToolNix
  8. Click on OK.
    Adding multiple files options window
  9. In the 'Destination File' field at the bottom, you can see and change the location on your computer where MKVToolNix will save the new video file.
    MKVToolNix destination file field
  10. Click on Start multiplexing at the bottom.
    Start multiplexing button in MKVToolNix

MKVToolNix will now merge the subtitle file with the video file.

This process will only take a minute or so to complete.

You can see the progress in the bottom right corner of MKVToolNix.

MKVToolNix progression

The result will be an MKV video file.

You can play this video file from an external hard drive or USB flash drive or stream it from your PC to your PS5.

If you want to play the video file from an external hard drive or USB flash drive, check that the USB device uses the exFAT or FAT32 file system.

The PlayStation 5 supports the exFAT or FAT32 file system for external hard drives and USB flash drives. I recommend using the exFAT file system for external USB drives because the exFAT file system can support single files larger than 4 GB.

To check the file system of a USB drive on Windows > open File Explorer > right-click on the USB drive > click on Properties > check at File system.

If your USB drive doesn't have the exFAT or FAT32 file system, then you will need to format your USB drive. WARNING: formatting a drive will erase all data on the drive.

To format a USB drive on Windows > open File Explorer > right-click on the USB drive > click on Format > select exFAT or FAT32 at File system > click the Start button.

PlayStation 5

Related:

How to merge subtitles with any video permanently (6 ways)