Translating subtitles using Subtitle Edit?

I hope you have installed Subtitle Edit in your system. This tutorial focuses on how to translate subtitles by making use of Subtitle Edit video subtitle editor. Using this, you can use Google Translator or Multi Translator (only for Swedish to Danish) to translate subtitles for TV shows/movies.

How to translate subtitles from one language to another:

1. Open the video and the subtitle file in the original language.

2. Go to Auto-Translate -> Translate (powered by Google).

For Swedish to Danish translation, you can choose the other one.

Screenshot 2015-05-29 10.38.54

3. The Google translate window will appear now. You can choose the source language and the language in which you want the subtitles to be translated.

Screenshot 2015-05-29 10.40.01

Screenshot 2015-05-29 10.40.10

4. Click Translate. The translation process will take a while.

Screenshot 2015-05-29 10.40.31

5. Give Ok. Now the translated text as well as the original text will appear side by side. You can edit them by yourself.

Screenshot 2015-05-29 10.42.31

6. Now, click File -> Save as… And save the new subtitles. That’s it! Subtitles are ready.

Subtitle Edit is one of the many programs that upload to OpenSubtitles API. Enjoy the free subtitles service of opensubtitles and if you like it, consider making a small donation.

Start the discussion at forum.opensubtitles.com

Show archived comments
  1. This is not a good way to create new subtitles. Beware of it.

    Machine translation of subtitles is dynamite fishing in the language, all dead, many torn, little edible at great losses. Self translated subs are fished words, tasty and selected.

    Just because a good program offers this function, you should not necessarily use it.
    Creating good subtitles requires own initiative and work. The purpose should be to create good subtitles, to make other users happy, not angry.

    Opensubtitles.org has a certain quality standard for good subtitles. The quality of machine translated subtitles is bad. Machine translated Subtitles are usually not tolerated on Opensubtitles.org.

  2. Something very important is missing in this tutorial:
    Raw machine translations vary between very poor and totally incomprehensible. The vast majority of users consider them useless, some users even get upset.

    So I would say:
    Feel free to use the translation feature of Subtitle Edit, it is easier than looking up a bunch of unknown words in a dictionary one by one.
    But be prepared to rewrite every single line, using the original video file and considering technical guidelines like line length and CPS ratio, before uploading the subtitles.

    Please DO NOT upload raw unedited machine translations.

  3. Hello! I would like to ask you something if you know i tried to traslate something but the file is empty can someone know why?

  4. When I try to use the Google translator to translate, it now is just a blank. This just started happening. I have been using Subtitle edit to translate subtitles into Spanish for years, but it is not working as of 12/1/18. Could it be a change made to the Google servers? Anyone else having this problem?

  5. Auto translation is good. But today the auto translation not working anymore. Any solution why the translation always blank?

  6. Hello my caption does not translate when I use the Google item the result, the text is the same. What is going wrong, what I need to change or add.
    Can you help me

( 10 Responses )

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