Subtitles Translation using Baidu (Beta)
I’m please to announced that the Subtitles Translator now support the English to Chinese translation using the baidu translation API.
The main reason to support this was some requests from Chinese community that the translation done by Google or Bing to Chinese was not that great. I don’t know how bad the translation was, but I take their words, and thought to better integrate translation API from people who speak Chinese with high hopes that it performs better. So I ended up integration translation API from Baidu. Though I still have no way to confirm if it’s better or worse 🙂
The translation using Baidu is some what similar to other translator options. After uploading the subtitles file, you click on the Baidu icon at the bottom left in translator options panel:
Once you click that icon, it should show you the source and target language options with a button to translate the subtitles using selected options:
Clicking the Translate button should start the translation, and once its done, the the translated subtitles should be displayed below as normal, where you can then manually edit some lines or simply download the translated file using “Save As” button.
Before you get too excited, here are some known limitations:
- The Baidu open translation API currently only supports English <-> Chinese translation. I will add more languages as support is enabled in the API.
- The API has frequency and concurrent calls limit, which means that it may be slow to translate a normal subtitles file (may take 5-10 seconds) as I have to throttle the calls being sent to their server. And worst it may fail and give some error.
These are the limitations you have to live with when working with something which free. Did I mention this is still beta yet? So do expect some bugs and issues.
Anyway, the good news is that integrating a server side translation API was the hard and most time consuming part. Now that it’s done, and working, hopefully adding other translation API will not take that long. So if you have your favorite API, please do let me know.
PS. I frequently get requests to integrate deepl API. While it seems its translation quality is great, this API is unfortunately not free, so with my intention to keep everything free, I’m avoiding any paid APIs for the moment. Hope you understand. Unless of course you want to fund the monthly subscription fees 🙂
Some problem with de subtitles…
Sorry for the trouble. If you can highlight the exact problem you are running into, I will try to look into these as early as possible.
Regards, Akbar
Does this file work on smart phones without a computer?
Yeah, it should work! I would suggest trying the latest Chrome browser on Smart phone to use this website.
Regards, Akbar
Hi mate, we have tried to translate the files but cant open them in Premiere Pro ? is there a reason for this…..
Hi Adam, do you get any particular type of error? Does the original subtitle file works? If yes, can you please send me a copy of the original and translated files so that I can see what is causing the problem?
Regards, Akbar
Tried 3 times but did not translate the complete subtitle file.
Does it get stuck somewhere in the middle of translation, or doesn’t start translation at all?
Regards, Akbar
O QUE HOUVE COM O TRADUTOR DE LEGENDAS .NÃO ESTÁ FUNCIONANDO .VALEU ..
Thanks, if you can please explain exactly what part of the translator i.e. upload, translation, download, etc is not working, I will try to work on that at priority.
Regards, Akbar
Great this web for common user who loves foreign movies
Con GOOGLE Antes hace como 3 meses se traducia automaticamente al español sin tener que colocar que lo deseabas.
Luego ahora hay que coloocarl a que idioma lo deseas. y por supuesto hay que utilizar la tecla scroll.
aunque la traduccion no es perfecta debe entenderse que quien utiliza el servicio debe tener conocimientos de idiomas, para poder corregir los detalles, de tal forma que sea muy buena la traduccion de la pagina.
me ha servido mucho y lo utilizo constante.
gracias deben agregar la calificacion de las estrellas
Thanks for the feedback Frank. Regarding the language selection, you may have to re-select the language, if you cancelled/closed the Google Translation bar last time on this site. And regarding the scrolling of the content for translation, you can automate that by clicking on the “Translate” button next to Save-As in the top-right corner. I hope this helps.
Regards, Akbar
I like very this web site. It’s very useful.