Looking for a way to easily translate your videos to the wider world?
There are many benefits to do subtitles in multiple languages: making your content more understandable and engaging, increasing your visibility, even boosting your SEO.
Yet, if you don't have a subtitle file yet (.srt, .vtt, .stl…), the only way to do it would be to transcribe by yourself the captions of your video. Not very convenient.
Luckily, there are plenty of other easier and faster ways to do video translation on the internet. Let me explain them to you.
How to make quality video translation by hand?
Admittedly, translating manually your video is not the easiest way, but at least you know what you're doing.
After all, that's the job of professional subtitlers who adapt international movies and Netflix series of all kinds.
These subtitle translation experts spend their day transcribing and translating audio from video.
What can you learn from their method?
How to create translated SRT files?
In their everyday work, subtitling professionals use specific tools. One of them is the subtitle file, which allows them to transcribe their translations in a certain format.
If you don't have a subtitle file yet, you need to transcribe your video by yourself, as these professionals do.
But this is not done just any way. You need to rewrite the dialogue lines according to the time frames and script codes supported by software and video players.
One of the most universal file sub formats is SRT (SubRip) which is supported by almost all video players.
To create this kind of file, simply open a blank file in any text editor (Notepad, Word, Text Edit on Mac) and transcribe your video speech according to this structure :
When you're finished with that, simply save your file by adding an .srt at the end.
Translating the original language of your video will only require you to re-open your file and change the text display to the desired language.
Tips to make accurate subtitling translation
Be careful when you are going to try to translate by yourself, there are several precautions professional translators are familiar with:
- Sometimes literal translations make less sense than finding different phrases that are more understandable to the speakers of the translated language.
- Always keep in mind the space limitation of subtitles. Some languages say less in more words or vice versa. You can try to reduce non-essential information to have shorter, screen-friendly expressions. But this should be done carefully.
- Consider cultural and national differences related to language. Australian, Canadian, American, South African… English is not the same as English in England.
- There are words and cultural references that cannot be translated. It’s okay to eave them in their original language.
- As for humor and irony, you may need to show some creativity in the delivery.
- Get inspiration from the subtitles of successful movies and series, to get more smart and creative when translating subtitling.
Who knows, with all these tips, you'll become a professional translator yourself!
How to Translate subtitles files With Translator Software?
Okay, that's all well and good, but isn't there a faster way to translate subtitle files that you already have?
Of course there is!
With a little research, you can find online tools that allow you to easily translate your SRT, VTT, Stl, Youtube Subtitles files into several languages. These web software, often free to use, use automatic translators like Google translate to modify your subtitles.
Here is a list of the best ones:
All you have to do is upload your compatible subtitle files to these sites and select your translation language. The software will automatically take care of the rest, and convert your files according to the chosen language.
Translate your videos in 180 languages
Start Now
Where can I find an Automatic Video Translator?
Now let's assume that you don't have a subtitle file of your video at yet. Let's also assume that you don't want to bother and are looking for a software that automatically adds your translated subtitles to your video.
Well, there are a number of these platforms on the internet that produce your subtitles and translate them immediately into the language you want.
Here is a list of the best tools you can find on the web:
Smodin is a website that not only translates text easily but also allows you to translate in real-time the subtitles of the YouTube videos you are watching. It's a simple and free tool to quickly enjoy your favorite videos.
If you want to use the skills of professional translators for your video, Textmaster is a platform that brings together high-quality translation services. It provides skilled experts and specialized in various areas of content (marketing, journalistic, commercial…).
Professional Translation Platform : Checksub
Realizing the lack of efficient subtitling translation tool for video creators, we have been working for 4 years on a subtitling translator that brings together the best technologies on the market:
- The best speech recognition and machine translation APIs to analyze your video
- A powerful and very easy to use online subtitle editor
- A collaborative platform for working with translators, clients, and other partners
The process is simple:
- Upload your video
- Indicate the original language and the languages you may want to obtain (there are 128 languages in all).
- Check the result
- Export the written transcript file and do whatever you want with it.
Try one of the best subtitle translation tools on the market!
