How to Translate Subtitles for Premiere Pro & DaVinci Resolve

How to Translate Subtitles for Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve

If you edit in Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, you know that auto-transcription has changed the game. You can generate English captions in seconds from the audio track. But when your client says, "Great, now give me a Spanish version," most editors hit a wall.

Most non-linear editors are terrible at translation. Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve can transcribe audio, but they cannot translate the resulting text into another language. The built-in tools either do not exist or rely on basic machine translation engines that miss context, produce awkward phrasing, and ignore the flow of the original captions.

Editing translated text manually inside the timeline is painful. Each caption is a separate clip, and copy-pasting translated text into hundreds of caption clips one by one takes hours. There is a better way.

How Do I Translate Subtitles for Premiere Pro?

The secret is not to translate inside Premiere. It is to export the subtitle file, translate it externally, and import the translated file back into the timeline. This round-trip workflow preserves all your timing and gives you clean translated text in minutes.

Step 1: Export Your Original Captions from Premiere Pro

First, get your current captions out of Premiere as an SRT file.

1. Open your project in Premiere Pro.
2. Go to the Text panel. If you do not see it, go to Window, Text to open it.
3. Click the three dots in the top right of the Text panel.
4. Select Export, then Export to SRT file.
5. Choose where to save the file and click Export.

You now have an SRT file with the exact timing of your caption track. Every caption clip, every timestamp, and every line of text is in that file.

Step 2: Translate the SRT File

Now you have an SRT file with perfect timing for your cuts. You just need to change the text to another language.

1. Go to the SubWiz Dashboard.
2. Upload your exported SRT file.
3. Select your target language. SubWiz supports Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, and dozens more.
4. Download the translated SRT file.

SubWiz respects the SRT timecodes strictly. It translates only the text and leaves the timing untouched, so your translated file will stay in perfect sync with the original edit.

Step 3: Import the Translated File Back into Premiere Pro

1. Import the translated SRT file into your project. You can drag it into the Project panel or use File, Import.
2. Drag the SRT file onto your timeline. Premiere will create a new Caption Track from it.
3. The translated captions will appear with the same timing as the original English track.
4. You can now toggle between the English and translated tracks to check alignment.
5. If you need to make adjustments, click on individual caption clips to edit the text directly in the Text panel.

The whole process, from export to translated import, takes about five minutes for a typical video. Compare that to manually translating each caption clip inside Premiere, which can take hours for a 10-minute video.

How Do I Translate Subtitles for DaVinci Resolve?

DaVinci Resolve handles subtitles differently from Premiere, but the workflow is the same concept: export, translate, import.

Step 1: Export Your Subtitles from DaVinci Resolve

1. Right-click your Subtitle track in the timeline.
2. Select Export Subtitle from the context menu.
3. Choose SRT as the format.
4. Save the file to your computer.

DaVinci Resolve also supports exporting as TXT or XML if you need those formats, but SRT is what you want for translation.

Step 2: Translate the SRT File

Same as with Premiere Pro:

1. Go to the SubWiz Dashboard.
2. Upload the SRT file you exported from Resolve.
3. Select your target language.
4. Download the translated file.

Step 3: Import the Translated File Back into DaVinci Resolve

1. Go to File, Import, Subtitle.
2. Select your translated SRT file.
3. The file will appear as a new subtitle track in your timeline.
4. You can toggle between the original and translated tracks to verify alignment.
5. Click on any subtitle clip to edit the text if needed.

DaVinci Resolve handles SRT imports cleanly. The timing carries over exactly, and you get a new track with translated text that matches your original cut.

Should I Burn In Subtitles or Use a Sidecar File?

This depends on where the video is going. There are two ways to deliver translated subtitles, and they serve different purposes.

Burning In (Hardcoding)

Burning in means the subtitle text is rendered permanently onto the video frames. It becomes part of the image and cannot be toggled off.

Use burning in when:

• You are delivering to Instagram, TikTok, or other social media that does not support external subtitles
• The client wants subtitles that always show, with no option to disable
• The video will play on a platform where subtitle file support is unreliable

In Premiere Pro, enable the caption track visibility and render normally. The subtitles will be part of the output video.

In DaVinci Resolve, use the Deliver page, go to the Subtitle settings, and check Burn In.

Sidecar Files

A sidecar file is a separate subtitle file delivered alongside the video. The viewer or platform uses the sidecar to display subtitles, and they can be toggled on or off.

Use sidecar files when:

• You are delivering to Netflix, Amazon, or broadcast standards that require separate subtitle files
• The client needs subtitles in multiple languages and wants viewers to choose
• The platform supports external subtitle files natively

In Premiere Pro, disable the caption track visibility and export using the Subtitle Export option in the Export settings to create a separate SRT or VTT file.

In DaVinci Resolve, use the Deliver page, go to Subtitle settings, and choose Export Sidecar File instead of Burn In.

How Do I Handle Multiple Language Tracks in Premiere Pro?

If your client needs subtitles in several languages, you can stack multiple caption tracks in the same timeline.

1. Import your first translated SRT file and drag it onto the timeline. Premiere creates a Caption Track.
2. Import your second translated SRT file and drag it onto the timeline. Premiere creates a second Caption Track.
3. Repeat for each language.
4. You can toggle each track's visibility independently to check them.
5. For sidecar delivery, export each track as a separate SRT file.
6. For burned-in delivery, enable only one track at a time and render separate video files.

This is useful when you have a single video that needs to go out in five languages. You keep all the subtitle tracks in one project, check them against the same video, and export what you need from each.

Why Not Just Use Google Translate on the SRT File?

You can paste an SRT file into Google Translate and get a translated version back. I have tried it. It works, sort of, but the results are noticeably worse than a dedicated subtitle translation tool.

The problems with generic translation tools on subtitle files:

• No context awareness. Each line is translated independently, so pronouns and references get inconsistent across the file.
• Slang and idioms get literal translations that make no sense in the target language.
• Formatting can break. Google Translate sometimes adds or removes line breaks, which corrupts the SRT structure.
• Timestamps can drift if the tool modifies the timestamp lines.

A dedicated subtitle translation tool like SubWiz handles these issues because it is built for subtitle files specifically. It preserves the SRT structure, translates with context awareness using LLMs, and outputs a clean file that imports back into your editor without issues.

What If My Subtitles Are Out of Sync After Translation?

If the timing is off after importing the translated file, the issue is almost always in the export step, not the translation. Here is what to check.

Verify the frame rate matches. If your timeline is 23.976 fps and you exported the SRT at 25 fps, the timestamps will drift. Make sure the export frame rate matches your sequence settings.

Check that the original SRT was in sync before translation. If the original export was already drifting, the translated file will have the same drift. Fix the original first.

Confirm the SRT file was not modified during translation. Open both the original and translated files side by side in a text editor and compare the timestamp lines. They should be identical. If the timestamps changed, something went wrong in the translation process.

SubWiz preserves timestamps exactly, so if the original SRT was in sync, the translated file will be too.

Related Articles

• using subtitle files on other platforms
• SRT vs VTT format differences

Summary

The professional workflow for translating subtitles in Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve is simple. Export your captions as an SRT file, translate it with SubWiz, and import the translated file back into your timeline. The whole process takes about five minutes and preserves your original timing. For delivery, choose burn-in for social media or sidecar files for platforms that support external subtitles.

Stop wasting hours copy-pasting into Google Translate. Automate your workflow with SubWiz.