OpenSubtitles forum

Hello,

I have created a console app that uses Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft API translation services to translate subtitles files.

I know there are websites that translate subtitles for free, such as: https://translatesubtitles.com/index.php and http://www.subtitulando.com.ar/ (this one rather finds than translates). And these tools are good and I still even use them where it is only 1 subtitle like for a movie. But it is time consuming to translate, let's say 9 seasons which each one has 24 episodes, that's 216 files you have to manually translate, for just 1 TV show.

One main motivation to do this was, to watch not so popular TV shows with my significant other since it is in a different language. It is so easy to find English subtitles but hard to find in your own native language and the correct sync'ed one.

The other motivation, was to learn about Cloud Api's and to have a hobby project to work on.

Two caveats; the translation is not perfect, but it is something, and the app is not very "user friendly". I have made some improvements for v2, that should relieve some frustrations.

There is more information on the README.md file.

Project url: https://github.com/jonwolfdev/QuickSubtitleTranslator

You may compile it yourself or download a release: https://github.com/jonwolfdev/QuickSubt ... r/releases

I wanted to share this in hopes that someone finds this helpful. If you do find this helpful, drop me a comment or feedback.

Also, I wasn't sure where I could post this, so I chose this section.

Thanks for reading.

Hi

I didn't try your tool, but it looks nice, well done! You can try also https://www.deepl.com/en/translator - they should have great results!

Any plans to support our API to upload translated subtitles ?

Hi

I didn't try your tool, but it looks nice, well done! You can try also https://www.deepl.com/en/translator - they should have great results!

Any plans to support our API to upload translated subtitles ?

Thanks There is more stuff I would like to improve.

Looks like DeepL has some really good translations according to their results (https://www.deepl.com/quality.html), I guess that is why it is so expensive. I have compared it to Amazon using the scrubs subtitle file, and it's better than Amazon, but not by much.

The more the merrier. I will implement DeepL in a future release, they have a 30 day trial that people could benefit from.

That's really a good suggestion to implement Open Subtitle API. Let me look around the documentation about how to implement it, and let you know

Thanks for the suggestions!

Hi

I didn't try your tool, but it looks nice, well done! You can try also https://www.deepl.com/en/translator - they should have great results!

Any plans to support our API to upload translated subtitles ?

I have looked around the API and looks simple enough. Definitely yes. An UI would be nice, so the app can look for a subtitle that matches the video hash, if one is found, let the user decide if he/she wants to download it.

Or translate the subtitle and then try to upload it. Cool.

you can contact us for some cooperation send me PM or email.

Sorry to ruin the fun, but:
- Subtitles are more than just translations. Due to the limited time and space, it also involves important technical and formatting issues like reading speed, line length and wrapping, durations, gaps, etc.
- English subtitles for English movies and shows are made in a significantly different way than subs in other languages.
- English is a relative 'short' language compare to Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian, etc.

Therefore, machine translations of English subs for English videos, no matter how good the actual translation is, are pretty much guaranteed to fail as subtitle. That being said, machine translations of for example Dutch subtitles into German could be okay.

Sorry to ruin the fun, but:
- Subtitles are more than just translations. Due to the limited time and space, it also involves important technical and formatting issues like reading speed, line length and wrapping, durations, gaps, etc.
- English subtitles for English movies and shows are made in a significantly different way than subs in other languages.
- English is a relative 'short' language compare to Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian, etc.

Therefore, machine translations of English subs for English videos, no matter how good the actual translation is, are pretty much guaranteed to fail as subtitle. That being said, machine translations of for example Dutch subtitles into German could be okay.

Yes, I agree. At the current state of machine translation, it is better to have a dedicated human translated subtitle. Like I mentioned previously, tools like www.subtitulando.com.ar/ are just way better, and I use them.

I have watched the entire Dexter (the serial killer) TV show with translated subtitles (and others TV shows as well), from english to spanish, and they are fine. Not perfect, obviously. But we were able to watch it and enjoy it.

Machine translation is a good option for people who cannot find their translated subtitles for their movies, TV shows, etc. In their native language.

Greetings from an old geeky linguist,

Thanks for the links. I've been using DeepL Pro, mostly. And as I teach Linguistics at college, it's rather helpful in most cases, specifically, when we learn linguistic means of intercultural exchange. We also analyzed Swedish and Danish subtitles - the dialogues in the Nordic series "Bron/Broen" (aka "The Bridge"). I used Multi Translator 1.5 this time.

Greetings from an old geeky linguist,

Thanks for the links. I've been using DeepL Pro, mostly. And as I teach Linguistics at college, it's rather helpful in most cases, specifically, when we learn linguistic means (my articles at essays.agency prof page) of intercultural exchange. We also analyzed Swedish and Danish subtitles - the dialogues in the Nordic series "Bron/Broen" (aka "The Bridge"). I used Multi Translator 1.5 this time.

Not that I'm boasting or something Just haven't been online for a while and currently busy with more projects on linguistics, so..
Any other good subtitle translator apps?
Thanks,
Randy

Yes there is another app my friend and it will help you to translate up to 20 subtitle files at once and you can edit them later at https://translatesubtitles.co

I just approved this post as forum moderator, but once again, as a subtitler 'in soul' I would like to emphasize:
1. Subtitles are more than just a translation, due to limitations in time and space.
2. Therefore, machine translated subtitles, no matter how good they are linguistically, are more or less (most probably "more") guaranteed to fail as subtitle.
3. If you think they are good enough, feel free to use them for yourself. But please oh please, do not share them as subtitles. They are not.

With all respect, an AI cannot replace the human but might be a powerful tool in your hands and improve the speed of the translation. After you let translate the subtitle you really have to work on the harder parts only. It spares a lot of typing.
I played a lot with ChatGPT and it makes very good translation in small and very difficult languages like Hungarian too. The only thing is that the chat version stops at every 30 lines so it is useless. You cannot solve this with custom GPT either. Thus you have to use the API for the automation of process.
I made a small webapp that you can use free for subtitle translation with ChatGPT into 40+ languages:

https://subtitletranslator.app.co.hu

What to expect? The webapp uses GPT-3.5 model (ChatGPT) and GPT-4 model. The subtitle text will be easy to follow and grammatically correct throughout, with few errors. The translations are quite imaginative. Mis-translations are very rare, even in complex texts.
In comparison, gpt-4 is sometimes more cleverly worded and uses more beautiful language.
You can get a $5.00 free credit from OpenAI for API testing, this is enough for ca 100-140 subtitles. Unfortunatelly OpenAi doesn't allow to test the GPT-4 model with the free credits, you can use GPT-4 if you top up some money to OpenAI.
And you should take into account that the API response times are quite long so a subtitle translation takes some minutes. Especially in case of GPT-4. But, in contrast, you get a quality translation, not a google translate crap.