Subtitles as Text+ titles in DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve has no command that turns a subtitle track into Text+ titles. Importing an FCPXML does it in one step: every cue arrives as a real Text+ title you can restyle, animate, and run through Fusion. This page is about that route specifically; for the general comparison of Resolve's three captioning options, see how to add subtitles in DaVinci Resolve.

Why a subtitle track is not a Text+ title

Resolve's subtitle track is its own kind of object. It renders text, and that is roughly where the similarity ends. None of Resolve's text tooling applies to it: no Fusion composition, no per-title animation, no shared style you can push across titles, and no access to the inspector controls people actually want when they ask how to style captions in Resolve.

A Text+ title is a Fusion node. Everything above is available, which is why almost every serious captioning look in Resolve is built on Text+ rather than on the subtitle track.

The gap this fills

Resolve will import an SRT onto a subtitle track, and it will let you create a Text+ title by hand. It has no command connecting the two. Search this problem and you will find Python scripts driving the Resolve API, Fusion macros, forum threads going back years, and paid title packs: a strong signal that the need is real and that Blackmagic has not addressed it.

FCPXML sidesteps it. Resolve reads FCPXML as a timeline, and a timeline full of title clips imports as titles. Because the file describes title objects rather than caption cues, what lands on your timeline is one Text+ per cue.

How to do it

1. Transcribe your audio or video, or bring an SRT you already have.
2. Set the frame rate picker to the frame rate of the Resolve timeline you are importing into. Not the source video's rate: the timeline's.
3. Export FCPXML.
4. In Resolve: File → Import → Timeline, and select the .fcpxml.
5. Resolve creates a timeline containing the titles. Copy them onto the timeline you are cutting, or work in the new one.

Styling them once they are in

Style one title the way you want it, then copy it and use Paste Attributes across the rest. That is the part the subtitle track cannot do, and the reason the detour through FCPXML is worth taking rather than importing an SRT and living with the result.

Frame rate is what goes wrong

FCPXML addresses frames, not seconds. Every time in the export is written as an exact multiple of the frame duration for the rate you pick, so a correct rate lands every title on the exact frame. A wrong one produces error that grows through the video and that nothing on screen reports; see why subtitles drift out of sync for how to recognise it.

Frequently asked questions