VLC media player is hands down the most popular multimedia player in the world that is known for its ability to play almost any audio or video format without requiring additional codecs.
It has been in great shape thanks to the work of VideoLAN and the many open source contributors behind it, who have tirelessly worked to make it the finest media player around.
However, as the AI craze continues to grow, VLC is stepping up and has introduced a new AI-powered feature meant to enhance the user experience.
AI-Generated Subtitles In VLC: What To Expect?
VLC automatic subtitles generation and translation based on local and open source AI models running on your machine working offline, and supporting numerous languages! Demo can be found on our #CES2025 booth in Eureka Park. pic.twitter.com/UVmgT6K4ds
Shown off at CES 2025 is VLC's upcoming automatic subtitling feature, which is local in nature, running entirely on a user's machine without needing to connect to some distant server.
According to Jean-Baptiste Kempf, the creator and lead developer of VLC, this new feature is powered by open source AI models, which carry out subtitle generation tasks in two stages.
One aspect is automatic generation of subtitles from the video, and the other is translation of those subtitles into over 100 languages.
When someone on X speculated that it would be computationally expensive to run such an AI model locally, VideoLAN pointed out that:
Absolutely not! The goal is to not depend on an expensive cloud operation!
This means that they most likely went for lighter AI models that use fewer resources, so that they run smoothly without putting too much strain on the machine.
VLC's automatic AI-generated subtitles in action, generating Japanese subtitles for English content. (Source: VideoLAN)
So far, all of it sounds great, and once this is in place, people won't have to scour the internet for sourcing subtitles to their favorite movies, shows, or even anime. Unfortunately, there's no word on when this feature will be arriving on VLC.
We will just have to wait until an official announcement is made. 😅
Ankush Das
