How many main subtitle categories?

[umforrest]

Hi all,

I've been involving in subtitle work for sometimes but my experience is quite limited to work in just .srt (Visual Sub Sync, .stl (Annotation Edit) and create permanent subtitle (caption) using Premiere Pro.
Actually subtitle is not something new to me but I think there're many thing I need to learn more.
So I'd like to use this forum to correct my understand and to guide me and maybe the others who interested in subtitle and maybe in the same level as me for further studying.

My understanding;
There're 2 main categories of subtitle.
1. Embeded subtitle or permanent subtitle which can be made by
- using video editing tool ie. Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas etc.
- using other softwares with few processes
2. Streaming file used for DVD authoring

Please advise

[guns1inger]

I prefer the terms Hard and Soft.

Hard subtitles are those that are part of the video image and cannot be turned on and off.

Soft subtitles are the opposite. They are data that is held either inside the video container (.avi, .mkv, .divx, .vob all allow for soft subs to be store within them) or in an external file (.srt etc)

Hard subs require the video to be re-encoded to incorporate the new image data. Soft subs do not, although they may require a pass through a muxing process to embed them into the container.