Subtitling Translation

Subtitles are a major part of video streaming applications like YouTube, Netflix, Facebook etc. Many deaf people use these apps, but they can’t hear, so they use subtitles to gain a complete experience of the video or movie. Moreover, it also helps non-English speakers understand what’s going on in the film.

There are three types of audiovisual translation; Dubbing, Subtitling and Voice over. Subtitling is the cheapest and most popular form of audiovisual translation because you don’t need any team or additional staff like sound engineers, voiceover artists etc.

The translator needs some technical and linguistic skills. Subtitle translation is a fun way of audiovisual translation.

What is Subtitle Translation?

Subtitle translation is one of the types of audiovisual translation. We can define it as the process of adding text to any audiovisual media to show the message that is being spoken. Basically, subtitles are the written form of spoken words.

The translator needs some technical and linguistic skills. Subtitle translation is a fun way of audiovisual translation.

Technical Specification of Subtitle Translation

Subtitle translation is a technical process. Professional subtitle translation companies have their proprietary translation tools, which allows them to meet the client’s requirements. Typical client requirements are the number of on-screen characters and the time span of subtitle; how long a subtitle will be seen on screen.

Subtitles consists of one or two lines with 35 characters each; the maximum character length is 43 in one line. Exceeding the length will take a lot of screen area, which can affect the movie experience. Subtitles are left or center aligned.

TV and Films want to give enough reading time to viewers. So, they use two lines subtitles comprising of 60 to 70 characters with 5 seconds to 8 seconds screen time. The average number of characters per second is 12, and the total size must remain under 70 characters in 2 lines.

Classifications of Subtitles

There are three main classifications of Subtitles.

Translation for content localization: This is the common type of translation; in this one or two lines subtitles, are displayed on the bottom of the screen.
Closed Captioning: These are the subtitles for deaf people. In this, we show spoken words with all the background noises like a phone ringing, rain, dog barking etc.
Subtitle translation for Access Services: They are similar to second class. It has all the sound effects, but the translator also mentions the ID of the character whose talking.

How Subtitle Translation is Beneficial

There are many movies and TV shows streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max etc. Netflix has over 209 million subscribers around the globe. Similarly, Disney+ has 116 million subscribers, and HBO Max has 67 million subscribers. These services gain this immense number of paid subscribers by localizing their content. Subtitle translating has a big part in localization. Moreover, they also use dubbing and voiceover.

Then there are video playing apps like YouTube and Facebook, with more than 2 million active users. Each visitor on YouTube spends around 11m 24s per day, and 70% of viewers are mobile users. YouTube’s primary source of income is advertisements in the video; the same is the case with Facebook. So, imagine having your ad on these big platforms that have been localized for a specific audience can do wonders.

Here are some benefits of Subtitle Translation

Resource for Non-Native Speakers

Subtitles can be a good source of education for English learners or non-native English speakers. The producer can be a great teacher if they translate the video in accurate and reliable English. Subtitles open another resource that can earn you more money and provide a bigger audience.

Better Engagement

Putting subtitles will definitely enhance the engagement. According to research, 91% of users prefer the video with subtitles and engagement drops to 66% without subtitles. Moreover, it will be easier for your audience to quote a line from the movie or video to show appreciation.

Another benefit of great engagement is better Facebook and YouTube scores because video with better engagement ranks higher.

Provide Clarity

It’s another great benefit of having a video with subtitles. If you are making a technical video with a bunch of difficult words and abbreviations. Sometimes even the native speakers cannot understand the term or don’t know the acronym of an abbreviation. So, subtitles can help the viewer to memorize the information easily.

Enable Viewer to Concentrate for Longer Periods

Poor concentration will distract the viewer from the video, and they will look for something else. But subtitles are proven to help the viewers to maintain concentration for an extended period. That gives a better and immersive experience of the video.

Reach Bigger Audience

Subtitles open the video for a bigger audience. 1.5 billion people speak English, and many can only read English, and the lack of subtitles is keeping them away from good content. So, adding closed captions or subtitles will give them the opportunity to see the movie or video the way they want.

Disadvantages of Subtitle Translation

There is no clear disadvantage of subtitling translation. But we have analyzed a few issues with them.

Har to concentrate on one subject; they have to focus on two things at the same time. So, they get distracted from the movie.

Then there are some mistranslations. Subtitles are made short to fit in the space, so, in some cases, subtitles gives the main idea without unnecessary information.

Some people want the translation in long three lines, which ruin the movie experience as it takes a lot of screen space.

FAQs

What is the difference between subtitles and captions?

Captions are for those viewers who can see the video but can’t hear it. Captions describe every sound that is part of the video by words like the sound effect.

Subtitles are for the viewers who can watch and hear the video but they can’t understand the language. So, the video producer translates the spoken words into the viewer’s language.

What are open captions?

Open Captions are normal subtitles, but they are hard-coded in the video. Unlike Closed captions, there is no option to turn them off.

What are SRT files?

SRT stands for Sub Rip Captions. It’s a file extension. SRT is the simplest subtitle format that is supported by most of the software media player programs.