It is true, online tools are now able to translate your video subtitles, providing a quick and easy alternative for producing multilingual content. Now, subtitle editors have integrated Google translate or DeepL where content creators can send their SRT (SubRip Subtitle) files and get them translated into 100+ languages. Google Translate is less limited, processing up to 5,000 characters at a time, making it relatively speedy when translating sub files, but these tools tend to make mistakes, particularly with context or idiomatic expressions, so other humans must ultimately review the translation (these errors are made even worse when you consider that some languages have incredibly complicated grammar!).
In addition, dedicated platforms, such as Amara, also allow automatic subtitles translations but offer the ability for the user to modify them, as well as similar platforms (like Subtitle Horse). They are meant to be easy to use, with tools like direct timestamp editing, direct previews of the video, and more, so users can check that the translations match up well with the video. Amara, for example, provides previews of live translations, and users can tweak how long subtitles remain on the screen based on the unique pace of each language. All of these platforms use a freemium model, which means their basic translation tools may be free, but all their advanced features have a premium of $5 to $15 monthly; in general, at least.
If all the professional quality is used online, it achieves not quite all properties. Hence, quality remains a crucial aspect. In 2022, the Localization Industry Standards Association found that the accuracy of machine-translated subtitles was, on average, 15% shots in the dark — with even worse hits and misses on Arabic and Japanese. It creates such mistakes that might skew the intended meaning, especially in cases of technical or emotional content.
Andrew Ng, one of the most prominent AI icons, pointed out this dilemma by stating, “Translation isn’t just words, it’s context,” emphasizing that AI is still not up to the task of making cultural adaptations. In spite of this weakness, video platforms including YouTube enable automated subtitle translation clearing way to global viewers to access the content. In English, YouTube automatically generates captions that are around 85% accurate, which may decrease as much as 20% for languages that fit less well into digital environments.
Online tools to translate video online Online tools are a fast, cheap option for content creators, and add a human touch through manual adjustments for quality assurance. For people with multilingual audiences, these tools are indispensable, however, ideally, a professional should review your most important or involved projects to ensure their precision.