AI subtitle translation
English in. Dutch that reads.
A subtitle is not a translation of a document. It is a timed Dutch sentence that has to be understood in one glance, at the speed of speech, without covering the shot.
Undertitle drafts that sentence. Your editors decide whether it is the right one. That split is how you get volume without giving the channel’s voice to a model.
- Timing first. Cues are born with in/out points, not as leftover text looking for a home.
- Then the Dutch. Lines are written to the box: length, breaks, and a register that matches the programme.
- Then the house. Your forbidden words, preferred spellings, and speaker rules constrain the draft.
Generic AI translation dumps clauses onto two lines and calls it a subtitle. Editors then spend the shift undoing it. That is not an automated subtitle workflow. That is a new mess.
What “good Dutch” means here
It means the joke still lands. The insult is still an insult. A Belgian channel does not suddenly sound like a textbook from Haarlem unless that is what you asked for.
"The repetitive EN→NL work dropped out of the critical path. Editors kept the lines that needed a human."
Generic AI translation dumps clauses onto two lines and calls it a subtitle. Editors then spend the shift undoing it. That is not an automated subtitle workflow. That is a new mess.
Quality control is part of the language job
Subtitle quality control is not a separate department you bolt on later. Overlaps, reading-speed breaches, and house-rule breaks are flagged before an editor wastes a pass hunting them.
If you already have a Dutch subtitle team, this is for them. AI handles the repetitive English-to-Dutch draft. They keep the final word.