VLC is Getting AI-Powered Offline Subtitles — No Cloud Required

The popular open-source media player VLC is getting a major upgrade: real-time, AI-powered subtitle generation — and it works entirely offline.

Unveiled by VideoLAN at CES 2025, this new feature enables VLC to generate subtitles using local open-source AI models — no internet connection, cloud service, or subscription required.

“VLC automatic subtitles generation and translation based on local and open source AI models running on your machine, working offline, and supporting numerous languages,”
— VideoLAN via X

🧠 How It Works

• Runs offline on your device — perfect for privacy and portability

• Supports 100+ languages and can display two languages simultaneously

• Allows saving subtitles as an SRT file for future use

In a live demo at CES, VideoLAN showed Ricky Gervais' infamous Golden Globes 2020 monologue being subtitled in real-time into multiple languages, including Japanese and French.

💬 Why This Matters

Whether you're watching local video files, old DVDs, or foreign films without subtitle tracks, this feature could be a game-changer. While VLC already includes a subtitle downloader, it only works if someone has uploaded the right file — and in the right language.

This new AI tool fills that gap, working instantly and without needing to hunt down SRT/VTT files from sketchy websites.

🤖 Powered by Whisper?

While VideoLAN hasn’t officially confirmed which AI model they’re using, OpenAI’s Whisper — a powerful, open-source speech recognition model — is a likely candidate given its capabilities and offline compatibility.

What they have confirmed, however, is that cloud-based processing is a no-go:

“Absolutely not,” they responded when asked if a cloud version was in the works.
“The goal is to not depend on an expensive cloud operation!”

🚧 When Can You Try It?

There’s no public release date just yet. The feature is expected to debut in VLC 4.0, but until then, if your movie lacks subtitles, you’ll still need to look for a subtitle file manually.

Still, this is a huge step forward for accessibility and localization — and it’s not hard to imagine future use cases like real-time AI dubs, though that's a different can of worms entirely.