Some DVD movies contain no subtitles – or some subtitles that are not on the DVD may be needed.
Is there a way to see external subtitles when watching a DVD movie?
How to Watch a DVD Video with External Subtitles in Windows
dvdsubtitleswindows
Related Solutions
I don't own your DVD player, but I too have problems with subtitles on my DVD player (a modest AG). It works if I convert the subtitles to a SUB format. MicroDVD on my case.
Since you don't want to mux the subtitles, you have very few options. There's nothing wrong with your srt. This is controlled by your dvd player chipset. Either srt is entirely not supported, or the chipset contains a bug (unfortunately common on many asian-made models). Some hardcore ripping folks on the net know all the details on many of these chipsets. So you may want to open your dvd player, get the chipset make and model and travel to such places like Doom9, for further info.
Finally, if your DVD player is DivX Certified, you can convert your srt to XSUB. It won't matter if you then mux or not. It will play in that format.
Best of luck.
To be clear, there's nothing you can do other than trying to convert your srt to other formats or mux the subtitles.
But since you seem interested in playing ripped videos in your DVD player, let me give you a piece of advise: As soon as possible get yourself a DivX Certified DVD player. There's much better subtitle support on these devices.
Yes, all you have to do is open the subtitle file in VLC's Menu Bar.
Subtitles > Add Subtitle File...
Browse for an appropriate subtitle file (example: subtitles.srt)
If the subtitles are not synced with your audio, use the h and j keys to adjust subtitle delay offset.
Best Answer
Use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (MPC-HC)
Go to View-Options (or press O), then Output.
Select one of the two options under DirectShow Video indicated in the image below:
Apply, then open the DVD and add the subtitle - even drag and drop works.
Chances are that the subs you find are not synced - but for that MPC-HC can help, as shown in this answer..
I have found this answer here.
PotPlayer and KMPlayer are both able to accomplish this right away (I would recommend the first, which looks to me like a non-bloated fork of the second.)
DrakaSAN gave an answer saying that VLC also plays DVD with external subs, but after more testing, the VLC solution seems very unstable, it sometimes does not work for parts of the video, and especially subs disappear after seeking back or forth. I keep it here for reference and in view of further findings.
BSPlayer PRO seems to be able to accomplish the task.
A different approach (useful with a player that cannot play external subs with DVDs) is to display the subtitles over the video with a separate specialized program, like Greenfish Subtitle Player. Of course, this works with any playing video, not just DVD.