hard coding subtitles with ffmegX on mac

[xinic]

I am an older person with hearing problems, so i need to add subtitles to movies i watch.
I use a mac with mavericks and my movie files are either avi or mp4 or mkv. my subtitles are str.
I need help with ffmpegX to hard code set files to my movies and then storing them in a media server so i can watch them on my tv via my mac.
i downloaded and installed ffmpegX and occasionally it works, but mostly not. when it is not working the encoding finished in a few seconds.
i need help in knowing what settings i need to use to encode my movies with subtitles.
I am not an expert in video files and easy to follow instructions is of great help.
All help is greatly appreciated.

[Baldrick]

No errors or error log from ffmpegx?

You can also try hardcode with handbrake. Try then the latest beta/nightly and see if they have added srt hardcoding.

Or maybe try iFFmpeg. Try the trial.

[Case]

To hardcode subtitles with ffmpegX, ffmpegX needs to use the mencoder engine. I.e. pick a preset that utilizes the mencoder binary. You may recognize those presets by the preset name that has mencoder in it (h.264 mencoder, XviD mencoder, DivX mencoder).
(Note that conversion to MPEG-1/2 with mpeg2enc has an option to decode with mplayer, which also allows for hardcoding subtitles.)

Totally separate from the above, there is another way to get hardcoded subtitles with ffmpegX. Many ffmpeg presets allow for Decoding with QuickTime as an option in the Options tab. This brings the possibility of hardcoding subtitles with the aid of QuickTIme add-on Perian, which is no longer actively supported, but still works.