Did you know that YouTube was created in 2005, while Netflix was created in 1997?

Yes! Netflix is older than YouTube.

However, YouTube’s popularity surpassed Netflix.

According to Statista.com, Youtube currently has 163 M users, while Netflix has 46 M users.

Although YouTube has 163 M users, not all of them speak English. Therefore, providing subtitles in various languages is a great method for you to increase your channel’s reach and audience.

According to Ethnologue, there are at least 23 languages spoken by half of the world’s population.

But… how can one possibly know 23 different languages?

Sure, there are a lot of polyglots out there. But, how about those who only speak 1 or 2 languages? How can they translate their videos into multiple languages?

That’s exactly what we are going to discuss today!

Multiple Ways To Translate Your YouTube Videos

Manually Translate Your YouTube Videos

Of course, the most accurate way to translate your Youtube videos is by manually translating them. Doing so means that you either can speak in the target language or hire someone who can speak in the target language.

Here’s how you can manually translate your YouTube videos:

1 - Create an SRT file

First of all, you will need to create an SRT file.

SRT is a plain-text file that contains critical information regarding subtitles, including the start and end timecodes of your text to ensure your subtitles match your audio, and the sequential number of subtitles.

By having an SRT, your video will have subtitles or captions.

There are different software out there for you to manually create an SRT file, one of them is TextEditor.

Here’s how you can manually create an SRT file with TextEditor:

1. Order your caption lines with a number beginning from 1.
2. Click enter and put your timestamp. The format of the timestamp will be ‘hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds --> hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds’.
3. Click enter again and start writing your caption.
4. Go to Format and click on ‘Make Plain Text’.
   
5. Go to File and click save.
6. In the Save As text field, type down your file name. TextEdit will automatically put the file extension to .txt so you want to change it to .srt.
   
7. Uncheck the ‘If no extension is provided, use .txt’ box and click save.

2 - Translate Your SRT File

Now that you have your SRT file ready, it’s time to translate it.

Here is how you can manually translate your SRT file:

1. Make a copy of the original SRT file.
2. Change the language of the text while still maintaining the same timestamp.
3. Save your translated SRT file.

3 - Upload Your SRT File

The final step is to upload your SRT file to YouTube.

To do this, you need to:

1. Sign in to your YouTube account and go to YouTube Studio.
2. From the left menu, select Subtitles.
3. Select the video that you would like to edit.
4. Click add language.
   
5. Select your language.
6. Choose Subtitles, click add.
7. Select Upload File.
    
8. Choose between With Timing or Without Timing, then select Continue.
9. Choose a file to upload.
10. Select Save.

Translate Your YouTube Videos With Video Translator

Method #2 is to translate your videos with VideoTranslator.

1 - Transcribe Your Video

The first step to translate your video with VideoTranslator is to transcribe your video.

Transcription is the processing and transferring speech sounds into timed-text displayed on the video.

VideoTranslator uses artificial intelligence software to transcribe your videos automatically.

Automatic video transcription can help you save time by instantly converts your speech into timed text. This way, you don’t have to manually type the text and adjust the timing like what we discussed in the previous point.

To transcribe your video with Video Translator, follow the below process:

1. Log in to your Video Translator account.
2. Upload your video using the quicktranscribe button.
3. Select the language and dialect of the video and click the accept button to trigger the transcription. The transcription process will run in the background.
4. Once the transcription is complete, go through and check the transcription for proper grammar e.g. capitalisation and full stops.

You can save your transcription as an SRT file, and we will tell you why this is important as we go through other methods.

2 - Translate Your Transcription

Once it is done, VideoTranslator can automatically translate your transcription.

To do this, you have to:

1. Go to the action button > Translate.
   
2. Choose the language that you want it to be translated to and click accept.
3. Create a different name for the translated video. You can also choose to overwrite the existing video by ticking the box. Click submit.
   
4. You will be redirected to the Root page. Find your new file and click edit.
5. You will be able to find your translated transcription by clicking on the caption button.
6. Download the srt file.

3 - Upload Your SRT File

You can upload your SRT file to YouTube by following the steps mentioned previously in Manually Translate Your YouTube Videos.

Translate Your YouTube Videos With YouTube

Method #3 is to use YouTube to translate your videos.

1 - Create Caption

If automatic captions are available, YouTube will automatically generate captions.

Currently, automatic captions are available in Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

This means that there is a limited number of languages available for you to generate the caption. Without the caption, you won’t be able to translate your videos.

The other alternative is to upload your original SRT file before it is translated.

Do you remember that we mentioned in method #2 that you can save your transcribed text as an SRT. This is where your original SRT file becomes useful.

The original SRT file is what YouTube needs to auto-translate your subtitles.

2 - Translate Your Subtitles

Here’s what you should do to translate your subtitles with YouTube:

1. Click add language and select your language.
2. Click subtitles > add.
3. Click auto-translate.
   
4. Your subtitles will be automatically translated.

Why Use VideoTranslator to Translate Your YouTube Videos?

Sure, you have learnt through this article that YouTube can automatically translate your videos. So, why use VideoTranslator?

1 - Video Translator Offers 60+ Languages And 150+ Dialects

As we have mentioned in this article, you will need to have your videos transcribed before the translation process occurs.

As for YouTube, currently, automatic captions are available in Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

So, what happens if your content is in languages other than the 13 mentioned above?

That’s when VideoTranslator comes into play. Click here for the list of languages and dialects we offer.

2 - You Can Embed Your Subtitles In Your Video

With YouTube, your subtitles will only become available if you click on the CC button on your screen.

But, what if you want your subtitles to appear permanently on your video?

Well, VideoTranslator can help you do that!

To do that, you have to:

1. Open your video that’s already transcribed/translated in VideoTranslator.
2. Click on the action button > auto overlay.
3. Edit the font style, size and colour according to your preference.
   
4. You can choose to add a stripe, highlight or not to put any styling on your text. Click confirm.
5. You will be redirected to the Root page. Click on your file and press the edit button.
6. Your video will have embedded captions on it.
   

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed how you can manually translate your YouTube videos, or by using VideoTranslator and YouTube to automatically translate your YouTube videos.

We hope that this article helped you with your translation journey!

Here’s a little bonus… Why don’t you try VideoTranslator for FREE?

Let us know how it goes 😉

For more information regarding VideoTranslator, do not hesitate to contact us at hello@videotranslator.ai.

See you next time for more educational blog posts!