PlaySubtitle listens to the video or audio you play and shows subtitles in your language as it plays. Speech recognition and translation run on your computer, so your audio is not sent away to be processed.
Windows 10 and 11. Free edition with a free account: just your e-mail, no password.
There is also PlaySubtitle Live Overlay, a separate product that shows subtitles over your other apps. See Live Overlay
Showing Japanese subtitles translated to English
A video file or a video on a website. In any language PlaySubtitle can recognise.
The app recognises the speech and translates it on your PC, using your graphics card.
You read the translation in your language, with the original line above it if you want.
Pick the one that matches where your video is. Live Overlay, for subtitles over other apps, is a separate product and is not part of Free or Pro.
For video and audio files on your PC
For video on websites
Subtitles that appear sooner have less of the conversation to work with. Three modes let you decide what matters for what you are watching.
Shows text as early as it can. Each short phrase is translated on its own.
Good for Live web video and fast back-and-forth speech.
Waits for a short phrase to finish and uses the sentence before it to keep the meaning.
Good for Most films, series and online video.
Waits for complete sentences and looks further back in the conversation. Subtitles arrive a little later and read more naturally.
Good for Story-driven content where who is speaking to whom matters.
PlaySubtitle translates into more than 30 languages, including Thai, English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Japanese to Thai is one of the pairs it is tuned for.
The full list is shown in the app.
This is machine translation. It handles everyday dialogue well and can still get names, slang, songs and overlapping voices wrong. How quickly subtitles appear depends on your hardware.
PlaySubtitle is built to work locally. The parts that handle your audio and subtitles do not need a server.
Speech recognition and translation run on your own hardware. Audio and subtitle text are not uploaded to be processed.
You confirm your e-mail address once, to download. There is no password, and the app does not ask you to sign in to use the Free edition.
The app does not send usage statistics or crash reports by itself. If you ask for help, you decide whether to create and share a support file.
Both editions use the same speech recognition and translation. Free does not lower translation quality.
PlaySubtitle Video Player
Subtitles for files and websites.
No payment required
PlaySubtitle Video Player
Everything in Free, plus subtitles for web videos without captions and more control.
US$29.99 per year
Renews every year until you cancel
One computer per licence
PlaySubtitle runs AI models on your own computer, so it needs a capable graphics card.
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) | Windows 11 (64-bit) |
| Processor | 4 cores: Intel Core i5 (8th generation) or AMD Ryzen 5 (2000 series) | 6 cores or more: Intel Core i7 (10th generation) or AMD Ryzen 7 (3000 series) |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics card | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6 GB of video memory | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, 3060 or 4060 with 6 GB or more |
| Storage | 15 GB free space | 20 GB free space on an SSD |
| Sound | Any Windows audio device | Any Windows audio device |
PlaySubtitle is a Windows app that creates translated subtitles for video and audio while you play it. It recognises the speech, translates it, and shows the result as subtitles. It works with files on your PC and with video on websites.
It is machine translation that uses the surrounding conversation to choose its words. It handles everyday dialogue well. It can still make mistakes with names, slang, songs, and several people talking at once.
No. Speech recognition and translation run on your PC. Audio and subtitle text are not uploaded to be processed.
Local Player and Web Mode, all three translation modes, and the same translation quality as Pro. Free shows every translated line in the first fifth of a video and about 7 in 10 after that. The original-language text is always shown.
An NVIDIA GeForce graphics card with 6 GB of video memory is recommended. PlaySubtitle runs its AI models on NVIDIA graphics cards, so the GTX 10, RTX 20, 30 and 40 series give the best results. On AMD and Intel graphics, or without a supported NVIDIA card, PlaySubtitle runs on the processor instead. It works, but subtitles arrive noticeably later, and a processor that meets the recommended requirements matters more.
Start with the Free edition. Local Player and Web Mode are included.
