AutoSub Bilingual Engine

An open-source Python toolkit for:

• ASR transcription to English from multilingual videos
• English to Simplified Chinese translation
• EN-only / ZH-only / bilingual SRT generation
• Post-cleaning to reduce obvious ASR hallucinations
• Hard-burn bilingual subtitles into video files with ffmpeg

This repository provides a powerful, automated pipeline for generating and hard-burning bilingual subtitles. It was originally developed as part of Ivan's "AI Startup Chronicle" (specifically for the Father Love Global Education video project) but is designed as a modular engine for any video subtitling needs.

Teaching-aligned subtitle standards

This project includes a practical quality rubric inspired by communicative language teaching principles often associated with Prof. Wang Qiang:

• Authenticity: preserve real meaning and context, avoid over-editing speakers.
• Comprehensibility: short, clear lines with synchronized timing.
• Cultural awareness: keep culturally specific references explicit when possible.
• Learning value: bilingual pairing supports noticing and comparison.
• Output quality: remove repetitive hallucinations and check timing consistency.

See docs/WANGQIANG_RUBRIC.md.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• ffmpeg installed and available in PATH (or pass --ffmpeg-bin)
• Internet access for translation API calls and model download on first run

Install

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install -e .

Or:

pip install -r requirements.txt

CLI usage

autosub burn \
  --video-dir ./videos \
  --pattern "*.mp4" \
  --font "Hiragino Sans GB" \
  --skip-existing

Outputs:

• name.burned.mp4

Publish to GitHub

Follow these steps to push this project to your GitHub:

1. Initialize Git:

   git init
   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial release of Father Love Subtitle Studio"

2. Create Repo & Push: Go to GitHub, create a new repository called father-love-subtitle-studio, then run:

   git branch -M main
   git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/father-love-subtitle-studio.git
   git push -u origin main

Tip

Make sure NOT to add the large .mp4 video files to Git. They are already in .gitignore. Only scripts and documentation should be uploaded.

Responsible use

• Do not commit copyrighted videos unless you own rights.
• Respect local laws and platform terms when downloading or distributing media.
• Machine transcription and translation require human review for high-stakes use.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.