VideoLAN's VLC Media Player Uses AI To Create An Offline Transcription And Translation Feature

VLC

VLC media player is the popular open source software developed by nonprofit VideoLAN.

The equivalent of Winamp with its MP3 playback feature back in the 1990s, VLC is like the Swiss Army Knife of media players. VLC is widely known for its ability to play almost any media file, regardless of format. This made it a go-to solution for people dealing with the constant issue of file compatibility during the early days of digital media.

More or less, VLC is the "one-stop-shop" nature for video and audio made it famous, especially for users who didn’t want to deal with codecs or install multiple media players.

And this time, the product is yet another product that wishes to piggyback the AI trend.

But instead of using Large Language Model AIs to create a feature that helps users with their queries, VideoLAN wants to use it to automatically create captions.

Initially demonstrated at CES 2015 in Las Vegas, U.S., the feature can automatically generate real-time subtitles for more than 100 languages, using open source AI models that run locally on users’ devices.

And of course, because it uses AI, the feature doesn’t just transcribe; it translates too

The feature can display two languages at once, and allow users to ‘save’ translations to an SRT file.

"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 said in its X post.

The feature works similarly to the likes of auto-generated captions feature on YouTube, where creators can use AI to caption spoken words.

Many other video editors have plugins and/or native real-time transcription features too.

So it makes sense for VideoLAN to to leverage similar technology to its ubiquitous VLC.

But unlike others, the AI models VideoLAN use, can work while users are offline.

What this means, the feature can work without internet connectivity, or cloud services whatsoever.

This is a huge deal for anyone who consumes foreign-language content, who’s hard of hearing, or simply prefers subtitles while watching. And it’s especially nice for users who still rely on VLC to do things that many other video player apps can’t do, like play DVDs on PC for free.

VideoLAN was a project launched in 1996 by students at École Centrale Paris, which was a French grande école in engineering and science.

At the time, the group was trying to create a tool to stream videos across campus. Unlike many open source projects that have struggled to survive on donations alone, VLC has maintained its free, ad-free model while expanding across multiple operating systems. The media player continues to operate without advertising, data collection, or commercial revenue streams.

In fact, the VLC media player has stood the test of time, remaining relevant in the ever-evolving world of streaming services and on-demand content.

Unlike Winamp that quickly saw its downfall since the internet began to thrive and stream music, the app that has a traffic cone as its logo, is still a staple tool in many computers around the world.

In fact, its user base is still growing.

At CES 2025, the -profit organization VideoLAN announced that the open-source media player app VLC media player has crossed a 6 billion downloads milestone.

“The number of active users of VLC is actually growing, even in this age of streaming services,” VideoLAN president Jean-Baptiste Kempf wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Published: 
14/01/2025