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How to translate video subtitles into other languages

Transcription vs translation vs dubbing, SRT vs VTT vs burned-in, a workflow that stops errors multiplying, Netflix line-length rules and Hebrew RTL.

Updated November 5, 2026 · 9 min read

A 40-minute lecture in Hebrew, with good captions in English, Spanish and Russian, reaches people the Hebrew version never will. Getting there is not one step. It is three: turn the speech into accurate text, turn that text into other languages, and fit the result into lines a viewer can read in the time they are on screen. Bad translated captions often fail at the first or the last step, not at the translation itself.

This guide walks through the difference between transcription, translation and dubbing, which caption format to use where, a workflow that keeps errors from multiplying across languages, the line-length and reading-speed rules professional subtitlers follow, what changes for Hebrew and other right-to-left languages, and how to think about cost and time.

Transcription, translation, dubbing

These three get mixed up, and tools are often sold under the wrong name.

Translated subtitles are cheaper and faster than dubbing, and they keep the speaker's own voice, which matters for a teacher, a rabbi or an interviewee. Dubbing is a different product with different problems (voice consent, lip sync). This guide is about subtitles.

SRT, VTT or burned in

A caption is either a separate text file that the player shows on top of the video, or text drawn into the picture itself.

YouTube accepts uploaded caption files (SRT and WebVTT are both on its list of supported formats) and lets you add one track per language: in YouTube Studio, open the video under Subtitles and use Add language for each one. A viewer then picks the language in the player. Note what YouTube's help page says about its own automatic captions: they are in the video's default language only. So for a Hebrew video, uploading your own English, French and Russian files is the way to get those languages as proper tracks. Sources: Add subtitles and captions and Supported subtitle and closed caption files.

Burned-in captions are the right choice for vertical clips, because the feeds of Shorts, Reels and TikTok play the video as it is. The cost is one export per language.

A practical rule: long video on YouTube or your website, upload files, one per language. Short vertical clips, burn in, usually in the language of the audience you post to.

The workflow that keeps errors from multiplying

Every error in the source transcript is copied into every translation. A misheard surname in Hebrew becomes a wrong surname in eight languages, and you will not be able to spot it in Russian. So the order matters.

1. Transcribe

Automatic speech recognition is good on clear speech from one microphone and gets worse with crosstalk, room echo, music under speech and specialist vocabulary. Give it the best audio you have (the direct recording, not a re-recorded copy from a phone).

2. Fix the source first

Read the whole transcript against the video once, before any translation. Look for:

• Names. People, places, organisations. A frequent error.
• Terms. Professional, religious or technical vocabulary. A Gemara class has Aramaic terms that a general model will spell as the nearest Hebrew word.
• Numbers. "Fifteen" and "fifty" sound alike in English; in Hebrew, gender forms of numbers get confused.
• Who is speaking. If there are two speakers, mark the change, or a translation will join two people's sentences.

3. Make a glossary

Before translating, write down every name and term and how it should appear in each target language. A short table is enough:

Netflix's Hebrew subtitle guide gives a useful default for names going into Hebrew: proper names are transliterated, not translated (its example: Christopher becomes כריסטופר). The same principle works in the other direction.

4. Translate sentence by sentence, not line by line

Caption lines break in the middle of sentences. If each line is translated alone, word order goes wrong, because languages put verbs, negation and adjectives in different places. Translate whole sentences, then split the result back into timed lines. Good tools do this; if you are using a general translator, paste full sentences, not caption lines.

5. Re-time and re-split

A translation is rarely the same length as the source. Some languages need more characters for the same sentence, and Hebrew, which does not write most vowels, often needs fewer characters than English. Do not assume: check that no line now breaks a reading-speed rule (next section) and re-split long ones.

6. Review by a native speaker

For anything public, a person who reads the target language natively watches the video with the captions on. Not reads the file: watches the video, because timing errors and a joke that does not land only show in context. If you cannot get a native reviewer for a language, think twice about publishing that language.

Line length and reading speed

Professional subtitling has published rules. Netflix's timed-text style guides are public and specific, so they are a good reference even if your video is a class, not a series. As of 4 November 2026:

Sources: English (USA) Timed Text Style Guide, Hebrew Timed Text Style Guide, Subtitle Timing Guidelines.

What the numbers mean in practice, as arithmetic:

• One full Hebrew line of 42 characters at 17 characters per second needs 42 / 17 = about 2.5 seconds on screen.
• Two full Hebrew lines (84 characters) need about 4.9 seconds.
• The same two English lines at 20 characters per second need 84 / 20 = 4.2 seconds.

If a fast speaker says a lot in 3 seconds, the translation has to be condensed, not just split. That is a translator's decision, not a tool's, which is another reason for the review step.

These rules are for horizontal video on a TV or a laptop. On vertical clips the screen is narrow, so lines are much shorter (two to five words), and the same reading-speed logic applies.

Hebrew and other right-to-left languages

Hebrew and Arabic captions have problems that left-to-right languages do not:

• Punctuation at the end of a line can jump to the wrong side when the line has no direction information at its end. An invisible right-to-left mark (Unicode RLM) at the end of each line fixes it in most players.
• Numbers and Latin words inside a Hebrew line run left to right and can reorder the words around them when the line breaks badly.
• Delivery formats differ. Netflix, for example, does not accept EBU STL files for right-to-left languages and asks for TTML with the direction stated (its RTL requirements). For YouTube and web players, SRT and VTT work, but test the result in the actual player.
• Numbers style. Netflix's Hebrew guide writes 1 to 10 as words and 11 and above as digits, and does not use italics. Pick a style and keep it.
• Fonts. A burned-in caption needs a font that has Hebrew letters. Many decorative fonts do not.

Translating from English into Hebrew raises the same issues on the output side, and the review should be done by someone who reads Hebrew, on a phone, in the final video.

Cost and time

Translation tools usually charge by minutes of video, sometimes per language. So count minutes, as arithmetic:

• A weekly 45-minute class is 4 x 45 = 180 minutes in a four-week month, or 225 in a five-week month.
• If you translate each class into two languages and the tool counts minutes per language, that is 360 to 450 minutes a month.
• Clipping only the best 10 minutes of each class instead is 40 to 50 minutes a month per language.

Your own time is mostly in step 2 (fixing the source) and step 6 (review). Reading a transcript against the video takes at least as long as the video, often longer. Plan for it, because it is where the quality comes from.

What goes wrong

• Translating an uncorrected transcript. Every error multiplies. Fix the source first.
• Translating caption lines instead of sentences. Word order breaks and meaning drifts.
• Lines too long to read. The translation is accurate but disappears before anyone finishes it.
• Names translated. A surname that happens to be a word gets translated as the word.
• Punctuation on the wrong side in Hebrew or Arabic. Check the exported video, not only the editor.
• Burned-in captions on a long YouTube video. Viewers cannot turn them off or switch language. Upload files instead.
• No native review. Machine translation reads fluently even when it is wrong, which makes errors harder to spot, not easier.
• Expecting live translated captions. Translating during a live broadcast is a different, harder problem; most caption workflows, including ours, work on the recording.

Where StreamLive Pro fits

StreamLive Pro transcribes video with a timestamp for every word, then translates whole sentences (not word by word) into 143 languages. You fix the text in a line list beside the video, then either burn captions in with one of more than 80 designs, including a highlight on the spoken word, or export SRT or VTT files to upload to YouTube. Hebrew right to left is handled as a main case: punctuation and numbers land on the correct side. Translation minutes per month depend on the plan and are on the pricing page; the 7-day trial includes 10 translation minutes.

What it does not do: captions or translation that viewers see during the live broadcast are not available yet (in development), and there is no dubbing or voice cloning. More on the captions and translation page, with the steps in Automatic Hebrew subtitles and Caption templates and styles. For clips, see turning a live stream into Shorts.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI translate video subtitles accurately?

It translates clear speech well when the source transcript is correct and it works on whole sentences. Names, specialist terms and jokes still need a human check, and anything public should be watched by a native speaker of the target language.

Should I use SRT or VTT?

Both work on YouTube. SRT is the most widely accepted and has no styling; VTT is made for web players and supports positioning. If a platform accepts either, SRT is the safer default.

How do I add English subtitles to a Hebrew video on YouTube?

Create an English caption file with the same timing, then in YouTube Studio open the video under Subtitles, choose Add language, pick English and upload the file. YouTube's automatic captions only cover the video's default language.

How long can a subtitle line be?

Netflix's English and Hebrew guides both use 42 characters per line and at most two lines. Reading speed is up to 20 characters per second for English and 17 for Hebrew in adult programmes.

Does StreamLive Pro dub videos or translate live broadcasts?

No. It makes translated captions, burned in or as SRT and VTT files, from recordings and uploaded videos. Live captions and translation are in development, and there is no dubbing.

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