Get more audience with the right video translation services: video translation or subtitling?

[:en]It feels great to finish a video project that you have dreamt of for a long time—what a moment it is when you finally feel that you are done with something worth presenting. But then you suddenly realize that there’s something still left to be done because you want it to be seen by more and more people. It doesn’t matter if your customers know the language you have recorded the video in; their friends whom they’ll share the video might not, and for them, it needs to be translated.

There are two popular ways to make your video understandable; voice-over translation and the subtitle translation. Choosing one between both can be a bit challenging. So, you need to know at least a few important aspects about both so as to make the right decision, whether you should pick a voice-over translation agency or avail a subtitle translation service. Moreover, keeping sufficient information about them will also assist you in choosing the right agency.

Subtitle translation explained

In the subtitled video, the audience listens to the original language, and the dialogues in the translated language appear at the bottom of the screen. So, the viewers enjoy the original inflections and tone of the video and get the genuine experience.

The use and limitations of subtitling

The written translations are kept at most of two lines and are made to appear in sync with the audio. So, the same thing poses a challenge for the subtitlers. The length of the line, the time to read them, and then syncing with the audio make their job difficult.

Also, in many languages, the length of the line increases after the translation, so it can’t be covered in the short window of just a few seconds. Here, the subtitler has to adapt to the changed length without compromising with the actual meaning of the content, which becomes a problem many times. 

However, the professionals at the established subtitle translation agencies very well know how to deal with it. They manage to prepare it anyway by dropping the unnecessary repetition and filler words. They sometimes even restructure the complete sentence keeping the meaning the same with the original content and cutting out the irrelevant piece of information. Now, this act of restructuring may face criticism by some people who want not even a single edit with the actual dialogue.

Sometimes, even after the professional translation, the subtitles can be distracting to the viewer, especially when the video carries a strong visual message. In that case, choosing a well-skilled voice-over translation service will be a better option.

 Advantages– 

The key advantage of using subtitle translation is that it is cheaper than the voice-over. The costs associated are less because subtitling requires no voice talent, audio studio, or the recording engineer. Furthermore, it has become a great method of presenting the video to the people across the globe through platforms such as YouTube.

Voice-over Translation

A voice-over translation needs to be done in an audio studio with voice-over talent. It is recorded in the target language from the translated version of the original script. So, the viewer gets to watch the video in their native language. Like the subtitling, the translator here also needs to adapt to the complexity of both the languages and has to be careful about the syncing of the audio with the video.

How many people prefer to avail the voice-over translation services against the subtitles because the former has no distracting text on the bottom of the screen. Instead, they can have the video in their language without missing any visuals. In addition to this, having more than one voice’s talents to distinguish multiple speakers gives the required clarity.

How to choose

Both the methods of video translation are effective and can be used without any doubt. But the suitability depends upon a few factors-

Type of content: It may be a technical video, a corporate video, training series, instructional video, etc. Choose the translation method accordingly. If it’s a promotional video, voice-over will be a better option.

Publishing platform: Different platforms have different conditions. A few allow the addition of multiple languages at reasonable prices, whereas others don’t.

The complexity of the video: This is an important factor as some videos already have texts and graphics on the screen, and more subtitling can make it text-heavy.

Target audience: Finally, you will have to analyze whom you are actually targeting. Keep yourself at their place and then wonder what will be easier to make the video understandable and authentic.

Conclusion–

Gone is the days when the artists and the business people had a limited audience, and they could do nothing about this. But after the invention of the translation services, it has become a different story. You need not limit your video content due to some language barriers. 

Put some efforts, choose the right method, get to a reputed voice-over or subtitles translation agency, and make the difference.

Apart from this, if you want translation services then connect with Devnagri.[:]