Transcribing and Translating with Subtitle Edit

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By Nelson Garcia

Introduction

This guide provides a step-by-step overview of how to use Subtitle Edit (SE) for transcription and translation tasks. While Subtitle Edit is primarily a subtitle creation and editing tool, its integration with speech recognition engines such as Whisper makes it a useful solution for generating transcripts and translating subtitles. This document is designed for paralegals, investigators, and translators who need practical instructions for working with audio and video files.

Overview of Subtitle Edit

Subtitle Edit (SE) is a free, open-source subtitle editor developed primarily for Windows, with versions available for Linux and macOS. It is widely used for creating, editing, synchronizing, and translating subtitle files. SE supports many subtitle formats (including .srt, .sub, .ssa, .ass, .vtt) and provides useful features such as waveform and spectrogram visualization, audio/video playback, and speech recognition integration.

Key features include:

  • Waveform & Spectrogram Views – Align text to speech visually for accurate timing.
  • Audio/Video Playback Integration – Slow down, loop, and replay sections while typing.
  • Speech Recognition – Integration with Whisper or Vosk for automatic speech-to-text.
  • Spelling & Search Tools – Built-in spell-check and find/replace functions.

Transcription with Subtitle Edit

Subtitle Edit allows users to create transcripts either by editing existing subtitle files or by generating new transcripts from audio and video. The most effective approach is through its integration with Whisper.

Steps for Transcription

  1. Open Subtitle Edit and go to File > New to start a blank project.
  2. From the Video menu, select ‘Audio to Text (Whisper)’.
  3. In the Audio to Text window, choose the Faster-Whisper-XXL engine.
  4. If your transcript is in another language, select it from the dropdown. The option to ‘Translate to English’ will then appear.
  5. Select a Whisper model (Tiny, Small, Medium, Large v3). Larger models are more accurate but take longer to process. The model only needs to be downloaded once.
  6. Click the Advanced button to add options such as diarization (speaker recognition). For example: `–diarize pyannote_v3.0`.
  7. Click Add to choose one or more audio or video files. Supported formats include MP4, MP3, and WAV.
  8. Click Generate to begin transcription. Processing time depends on your hardware and model size.
  9. When complete, a notification will appear showing the transcript file’s name and location.

See transcription shots below:

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Translation with Subtitle Edit

Subtitle Edit has a feature called Auto-Translate. It integrates Google Translate to provide subtitle translation across 100+ languages. An internet connection is required, but your files are not uploaded to the cloud—translation happens locally. With Auto-Translate, you can only translate one file at a time.

Steps for Translation

  1. Open your .srt transcript file in Subtitle Edit.
  2. From the menu, select Auto-translate > Auto-translate.
  3. In the settings window, confirm that Google Translate V1 API is selected.
  4. Set the source language (e.g., English) and the target language (e.g., Spanish).
  5. Click Translate. The transcript will be translated automatically.
  6. Review the translated text and make corrections as needed.
  7. Save the translated file. Subtitle Edit will automatically add a language code extension (e.g., ‘.es’ for Spanish).

See translation screenshots below:

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Pros and Cons of Subtitle Edit

Advantages:

  • Free and open-source software.
  • Supports a wide range of subtitle formats.
  • Integration with Whisper for accurate transcription.
  • Supports translation into 100+ languages with Google Translate.
  • Waveform and spectrogram views for precise synchronization.

Limitations:

  • Not a dedicated transcription platform—some features are basic compared to specialized tools.
  • Accuracy of translation depends on Google Translate, which may misinterpret idioms or context.
  • Transcription speed and accuracy depend on computer hardware and selected Whisper model.
  • Speaker diarization requires extra setup and external models.

Where to download:

The main site for Subtitle edit is: https://www.nikse.dk/subtitleedit.  Here you will find information about the product such as overview and features. To download it, click on this page: https://github.com/SubtitleEdit/subtitleedit/releases.  Please be aware that Subtitle Edit is a Windows program only.

Conclusion

Subtitle Edit is a powerful and flexible tool for transcription and translation, particularly for users who need a free and open-source solution. While it does not replace dedicated transcription platforms, its integration with Whisper and Google Translate makes it a valuable resource for handling subtitles, transcripts, and translations. By following the steps outlined in this guide, users can efficiently create, edit, and translate subtitle files for a wide range of applications.

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