Lietuviškai← SubPlayer · VLC AI subtitles
Last updated: 2026-06-25 · VLC status last checked against public sources: 2026-06-25
So you read that VLC is getting AI subtitles, opened the app to try it - and there's nothing there. You didn't miss a setting. The feature is real and it was announced, but it hasn't shipped. Here's the honest status, what it will and won't do when it lands, and how to watch a movie in your language tonight if you'd rather not wait.
Short answer: no. As of mid-2026, VLC's AI subtitle generation still isn't in a public release.
The VideoLAN team showed it off in early 2025 - subtitles generated locally from a video's audio, no internet required, built on whisper.cpp (an open-source speech-to-text engine). It demoed well. But a demo isn't a download, and there's still no firm date. If you went hunting for the option in your copy of VLC and came up empty, that's why.
When it does arrive, here's the part most write-ups skip.
What was demonstrated: VLC listens to a video's audio and writes subtitles from it, on your own machine, offline - and can translate those subtitles in real time into a wide range of languages, with no account and nothing sent to the cloud.
What's still unclear: whether it will take a subtitle file a movie already ships with and translate that specific file, rather than working from the audio. That's a different job, and it's the one SubPlayer is built around. How good the translation will be - especially for smaller languages - also can't really be judged until it's actually released.
A few honest options while you wait:
SubPlayer is a Windows player built around one job - you open a movie, and the subtitles show up in your language. If the file already has subtitles in another language, it translates them. If it has none, it listens to the audio on your PC and writes them from scratch. Either way it syncs them to the dialogue, and you can drag, resize and recolor them while you watch.
SubPlayer gives you two relevant capabilities today: it translates a movie's existing subtitle file and can generate new subtitle text from audio. Machine translation can still make mistakes, especially with names, jokes and dialect, so important lines should be reviewed.
To be straight about the trade-off: SubPlayer is paid after a one-movie free trial, and it's Windows-only for now. VLC's feature, once it ships, will be free. If price is your only concern and you can wait, VLC may be all you need. If you need an existing subtitle file translated now, that is the clearer reason to consider SubPlayer.
| SubPlayer | VLC (upcoming) | |
|---|---|---|
| Available now | Yes | Not yet |
| Generate subtitles from audio | Yes | Yes (announced) |
| Translate subtitles it generated | Yes | Yes (announced) |
| Translate a subtitle file the movie already has | Yes | Unclear |
| Context-aware translation | Yes | Unknown |
| Lithuanian target language | Available | Public release support unknown |
| Video stays on your computer | Yes | Yes |
| Setup | Right-click → Open with | Wait for release |
| Cost | Free trial, then €9.99/mo (or €59/yr) | Free |
There's no official release date. It was announced in early 2025 and is still in development, so the honest answer is "not yet, and nobody outside the team knows exactly when."
VLC's announced feature can generate subtitles from audio and translate them in real time. What's not documented is whether it will translate a subtitle file a movie already ships with. SubPlayer does that today, and generates new ones too.
SubPlayer is one Windows option when you need to translate a subtitle file the movie already has. If you can wait and only need audio-based subtitles, VLC's free feature may be enough once released.
Not officially. You can download existing subtitles with the VLSub extension and run a Lua script to translate them, but the timing is often off and it's fiddly to set up. A purpose-built tool handles the same job in one step.
It depends on the tool. VLC's planned feature runs fully offline. SubPlayer transcribes the audio locally on your PC too; only the plain subtitle text is sent for cloud translation, and the video file itself never leaves your computer.
Sources: VideoLAN's AI subtitle demo and coverage - gHacks, Tom's Hardware.
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