Fixing encoding problems with Korean subtitles

So, you've managed to get a legal, paid-for copy of your favorite film, and want to share the moment with your Korean-speaking friend. You dim the lights, turn up the speakers, and hit play, only to have the mood ruined by this:

Ah yes, the random characters that ruin any 미드 (= 미국 드라마 = American dramas) viewing. Your face now looks like Hotch here. What can you do about this?

I can recommend basically two choices:

1. Use GOM Player.
   Seriously. I know you love your VLC or whatever, but trust me, fighting with your video player to make it accept your subtitle file is more frustration than it's worth. Just download GOM Player: it's free, it's fast, and it handles subtitles files better than anything I've ever seen. Continue to watch your porn educational content on VLC; but use GOM for anything with subtitles. 
2. Change the encoding or format of the subtitle file yourself.
   This might sound like a hassle, but it's not. I highly recommend Batch Subtitles Converter. This app rocks because (1) it's self-executable, i.e. you don't have to install it; just double-click it (2) it's super lightweight and clean (3) it does multiple / batch conversions (4) it can convert both the file type and the encoding type.
   For example, I had an old set-top box with a USB port. I'd copy movies onto a USB stick, but that damn set-top box was so picky. The subtitle files had to be named identical to the video file, they had to be in EUC-KR encoding, and they had to be in SAMI (.smi) format. Loads of subtitle files I downloaded were UTF-8 and SubRip (.srt) format. This app took did it all no sweat, in a flash.

Good luck. And by the way, if you're looking for where to get subtitle files from, check out this post.

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Korean subtitles for English movies/TV

Let's say you want to show your favorite English-language movie or TV show to your Korean girlfriend as a prelude to hot sex friends, but her their English is not very good. So, you want to show it with Korean subtitles. But where can you get them?

You basically have two options: (1) GOMPlayer or (2) manually download them yourself.

1. GOMPlayer

GOMPlayer is by far the most popular desktop video playing software among Koreans. I'll be honest: I've never gotten GOMPlayer to work properly when it comes to its feature of automatically downloading Korean subtitles. My friends say they just load the video and something pops-up saying "ooh you want Korean subs for this? YOU GOT IT BUDDY" but I've never had such luck. Maybe they are using the Korean-language version of GOM (I use the English), or a newer version, or a magic version. Whatever. I'm stuck with the manual route. Not like it's that hard anyway (that's what she said).

By the way, GOM (곰) is Korean for "bear" thus the paw icon, and although I can't get me some automatically downloaded subs, I still choose it for watching the videos once I've got them, as some apps (I'm looking at you, VLC) seem never to get the encoding right. GOM Player has always displayed the subtitles correctly the very first time.

2. Manual downloading

For manual downloading, ignore any English-langauge sites; only the Korean sites will have a decent selection. There are many out there, but my go-to site is Cinest. Add the title of the movie you're looking for in the search box (the smaller one, next to 제목 ("title")) and hit search. A list of subtitle files comes up. Click one, and download the .smi or .srt file on the resulting page. I usually download 2~3 as the timing will be off on some. Load it in your favorite video player after loading the video.

For example, here's the results page for a search of Korean subtitles to the critically-acclaimed 2009 film "Bruno"

UPDATE - JAN 2014:

Here are some additional useful sites (for television and/or movies):

• Subtitles Archive (sample search)
• GomTV (sample search)
• Jamak Nara (sample search)
• nScreen (sorry, can't copy the search URL directly) 

Usually you can search for the film/show's name in English, but if no results are coming up, you can try it in Hangul. In this case, Naver Movies is your friend. You can also sometimes do a YouTube search for the name in Korean + "자막", and might find it with burned-in subtitles.

Once you've got the subtitle files, check this post if you have any issues with encoding.

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Use Naver's English Dictionary in English!

Problem:
You want to translate a word/phrase between Korean/English, but Google Translate sucks (doesn't have a translation, or the wrong translation) and your phone dictionary doesn't have it.

Solution:
Koreans invariably use Naver's English Dictionary, which now boasts an English-language version to help you navigate. Check it out; it's (usually) much more accurate than Google.

Source:
http://endic.naver.com/?isEngVer=Y

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