VLC will soon be able to use AI to generate subtitles for any video
VLC Media Player remains one of the most popular video players, having just hit a staggering 6 billion downloads. But VideoLAN, the company behind the software, is not one to rest on its laurels as an exciting demonstration at CES shows.
One of the biggest features in the pipeline for the media player is automatic subtitles generation and translation based on local, open-source AI models. With subtitles being vital for a lot of people, and highly preferable for many, this use of artificial intelligence plugs an important gap in media accessibility.
See also:
- Microsoft says 2025 is the year to ditch Windows 10 and embrace Windows 11
- Apple defends Siri, saying the data it collects is never used for advertising, never sold, and never used for profiling
- New year, new low? Microsoft’s latest underhand tactic is spoofing Google for Bing users
When you download videos via certain means -- and you know what we mean -- they will often come with subtitles included, whether they are hardcoded, or provided as a separate file. There are also a surprising number of sites offering subtitles for just about every movie and TV show imaginable in a wide variety of languages. The problem with these sites is that they can be unreliable and riddled with malware.
There are also plugins that can be used to search for and download subtitles for a video file playing in VLC, but these can be hit and miss. Turning to AI seems like a sensible use of a technology which many people see as struggling to justify its existence. The beauty of VideoLAN’s solution is that the AI model is built into the app, eliminating the need for an internet connection and calming privacy concerns.
It is not clear quite when the subtitle feature will launch, or what the hardware requirements will be -- but we should know more soon.