{"id":8846,"date":"2025-08-21T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/?p=8846"},"modified":"2025-10-02T15:20:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T13:20:38","slug":"subtitle-post-editing-what-happens-when-machine-translation-isnt-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/subtitle-post-editing-what-happens-when-machine-translation-isnt-enough","title":{"rendered":"Subtitle Post-Editing: What Happens When Machine Translation Isn\u2019t Enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__avatar\"><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/lenka-lidinska_avatar-48x48.jpg' srcset='https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/lenka-lidinska_avatar-96x96.jpg 2x' class='avatar avatar-48 photo' height='48' width='48' \/><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\">Lenka Lidinsk\u00e1 | Head of Audio\/Video Department<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Speed. Scalability. Simplicity. That\u2019s what every content team wants when it comes to multilingual subtitles, especially when deadlines are tight and budgets are tighter.<br>So when one client chose to use machine-generated subtitles to streamline costs for two well-known TV series, the logic made sense. The source files had been quickly generated \u2014 fast, automated, and budget-friendly. But by the time those subtitles reached our team, the picture looked very different.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The hidden cost of the \u201cfaster option\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The subtitles for two well-known TV series had been machine translated into Slovak, directly from English source files without any human post-editing. What we received was, technically, a&nbsp;\u201cready\u201d file.<br>But:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sentences were mistranslated or made no sense in context<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Subtitle timing was inconsistent or distracting<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Character speech was hard to follow, especially in fast-paced dialogue<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Visual alignment was off<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grammar and typography errors were everywhere<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Even for experienced post-editors, one episode took 4 to 6 hours to correct and that didn\u2019t even include full retiming. And the deeper issue? Translators were being paid per minute of content, not per hour of work \u2014 a&nbsp;mismatch that quickly made the project unfeasible for several freelancers involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One translator even stepped away from the project entirely, choosing to finish only the first series. It wasn\u2019t about unwillingness; it was about practicality. The math simply didn\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meeting the challenge without blame<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We knew the client wasn\u2019t at fault. Like many production teams, they were looking for a&nbsp;way to do more with less. The intention was clear: automate the repeatable tasks, then finalize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The problem wasn\u2019t the goal. It was the gap between input and output expectations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So instead of pushing back, we restructured our approach:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Adjusted post-editing workflows for high-complexity language pairs (like English\u2192Slovak)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Flagged quality thresholds to avoid last-minute panic at delivery stage<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Communicated openly with our freelance team to set realistic expectations and support<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The result: a&nbsp;project that could be rescued, stabilized, and delivered with quality intact even under complex conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A subtle but crucial lesson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Many teams experimenting with AI-generated subtitles are running into this same issue: What looks like a&nbsp;quick win turns into a&nbsp;slow, quiet bottleneck, especially when human review isn\u2019t built into the workflow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t use machine translation. It just means you should know <a href=\"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/ai-powered-translations\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/ai-powered-translations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">when and how to use it effectively<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speed. Scalability. Simplicity. That\u2019s what every content team wants when it comes to multilingual subtitles, especially when deadlines are tight and budgets are tighter.So when one client chose to use machine-generated subtitles to streamline costs for two well-known TV series, the logic made sense. The source files had been quickly generated \u2014 fast, automated, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-localisation"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8846"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9010,"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8846\/revisions\/9010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.presto.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}