How do you get subtitles to work on XBMC?

I've been fiddling around trying to get some subs to display. Uh the video is in .avi and the sub is .sub and i manually searched for the sub and then it did some caching or whatever but it still didnt show. Any tips?

make sure the sub is in the same directory as the movie, with an identical file name

example:
they_live.avi
they_live.sub

or even easier...get yourself subtitleworkshop.....convert teh subs to .ssa

get yourself virtualdub mod......you are gonna need the ssa subtitle plugin.....i can upload it for you...enable this and direct it to the new .ssa sub file you made.....

save the movie as a direct stream copy.....voila.....the movie is now hardsubbed......they will show up on anything you play the movie on cuz they are now part of it

doesnt sound easier at all, just more work that is not necessary

i got this srt one to work but the timing was off...

hmm do you guys know of a .sub converter to .srt