Subtitles generated from audio and video are translated into target language subtitles by translation channels, and then dubbed. Obviously, the translation result directly affects the dubbing effect.

Translation channels can be divided into traditional translation and AI translation:

• Traditional translation: Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, DeepL, Baidu Translate, Tencent Translate
• AI translation: ChatGPT, Gemini, AzureGPT, 302.ai, a number of domestic AI, local large models

By charging situation

• Free unlimited: Google, Microsoft
• Free quota: Baidu Translate, Tencent Translate, a number of domestic AI, Gemini
• Paid: Deepl, ChatGPT, AzureGPT, Gemini

By whether an agent is needed

Agent required: Google, ChatGPT, Gemini No agent required: Domestic translation, deepl

The software supports two translation methods

• 1. Only submit the pure text in the subtitles to the translation channel, and replace the original text in the subtitles with the translation result.

All traditional translation channels (except Google) use this method.

• Advantages: Ensure that the translation result is a valid srt subtitle format; save translation characters.
• Disadvantages: When the number of lines of the translation result and the original text do not match, it will be forced to translate one line at a time, resulting in loss of context and poor results.

In this translation method, there may be too many blank lines, and because there is no line number, it is impossible to determine which line the blank line belongs to, so it can only be placed at the end, which may cause subtitle confusion. Therefore, when a blank line appears, it will be forced to re-translate line by line, losing context relevance.

• 2. Submit the complete srt subtitle format to the translation channel, including line numbers, timestamps and other content that does not need to be translated.

• Advantages: Better context association, avoiding too many blank lines
• Disadvantages: Waste of tokens; Not smart enough AI may return incorrect srt format, such as merging the original single-line number into the next line, and converting the English symbols in the timestamp into Chinese, resulting in the return result being no longer a legal srt, and the parsing error occurs.

This method may still return blank lines, but it does not affect the effect, because the blank lines have legal numeric lines and timestamps. It is only because of semantic association that the translation result of the line is merged into the previous line, especially when the line is only one or two words.

By default, AI translation and Google channels use this translation method. Open Menu - Tools/Options - Advanced Options - Subtitle Translation - Send complete subtitle content when AI translation, uncheck it, and the first translation method will be used.

Number of translations at a time

Menu - Tools/Options - Advanced Options - Subtitle Translation - Number of subtitles to translate at the same time, you can set how many subtitles to translate in batches at a time. The larger the number, the faster the translation, and the better the context association. However, if it is too large, it may exceed the character limit of the corresponding channel, and the number of blank lines may increase.

Summary Translation Channel Selection

• If you want to be completely free and unlimited, Google (requires an agent) is preferred, followed by Microsoft Translate.

• Completely free to accept frequency quota restrictions, the first choice is domestic AI providers, such as deepseek.com, kimi.moonshot.cn, 302.ai, etc., followed by Tencent Translate, Baidu Translate, Gemini (requires an agent).

• When there is no agent, the first choice is domestic AI providers, followed by Microsoft Translate, Tencent Translate, Baidu Translate, etc.

• If you want the best effect, the first choice is Openai ChatGPT. If you don't have a paid account, you can choose a third-party transfer API, such as 302.ai; the second choice is Gemini (requires an agent), and then domestic AI providers.

• Not recommended to use: DeepLx, which is essentially an illegal use of free deepl traffic. Due to the large number of subtitles and multiple requests in a short time, the local deployment will be quickly blocked by deepl and cannot be used.

• Not recommended to use: Local large model translation. Limited by computer resources, the locally deployed model is generally small in scale and not intelligent enough. It is very likely that the translation result will be in a chaotic format. If you insist on using it, please Menu - Tools/Options - Advanced Options - Subtitle Translation - Send complete subtitle when AI translation, uncheck it, and set Number of subtitles to translate at the same time to 5 or smaller.

• In extreme cases, if you want to translate only one line at a time to ensure that the format is 100% correct and there are no blank lines, set Menu - Tools/Options - Advanced Options - Subtitle Translation - Number of subtitles to translate at the same time to 1. Exchange quality for perfect format.

How to use a number of domestic AI providers in the software

Make sure that the API provided by the merchant is compatible with openai, copy the merchant's API address, SK and model name, and open the software Translation Settings - OpenAI ChatGPT and compatible API.

Fill in the API address specified by the merchant in API URL, fill in the provided key in SK, fill in the model name in the large text box, and then select in the "Select Model" drop-down box. Save after testing without problems.