# Problems with automating translation of movie/TV show subtitles

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.05362 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.05362/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 4 Sep 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [A Case Study on Contextual Machine Translation in a Professional Scenario of Subtitling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.00108/) (2024)
- [Detecting over/under-translation errors for determining adequacy in human translations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.00267/) (2021)
- [Enhancing Entertainment Translation for Indian Languages using Adaptive Context, Style and LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.20440/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present 27 problems encountered in automating the translation of movie/TV show subtitles. We categorize each problem in one of the three categories viz. problems directly related to textual translation, problems related to subtitle creation guidelines, and problems due to adaptability of machine translation (MT) engines. We also present the findings of a translation quality evaluation experiment where we share the frequency of 16 key problems. We show that the systems working at the frontiers of Natural Language Processing do not perform well for subtitles and require some post-processing solutions for redressal of these problems