I just downloaded DaVinci Resolve 19 and I can see there's an automatic subtitles feature, but I'm struggling to find it and use it properly. Is it supposed to be free like the rest of the software? And does it work well for French or is it just for English?
In Resolve, you go to the "Fusion" tab or directly in the timeline, then you look for "Captions" in the menu at the top - normally there's an "auto caption" button that lets you generate subtitles automatically, and yeah it's free in the free version of the software. It works with French no problem, but honestly the quality really depends on how clear your audio is; if you've got background noise or someone talking too fast, it won't be perfect. The function uses local speech recognition (so it processes on your PC), which means you don't need internet, but that means it can be a bit slow depending on your machine - basically you just have to be patient and double-check the results afterward, especially for specialized content where technical terms can get missed.
I tested that recently while editing a video and honestly it's become way simpler than it used to be. The auto captions function is in the "Edit" tab (not Fusion), you go to "Captions" in the top menu, and then you click on "Generate Captions" or "Auto Caption" depending on your version. It's free, yeah, it works with the free version no problem.
For French, it works great now. Before it was a pain with languages other than English, but now Resolve uses a speech recognition system that handles quite a few languages. I tested it with French and it recognizes pretty well, like maybe 80-85% accuracy depending on audio quality, so you have to fix a few words but it's far from being trash. But if you have crappy audio or really strong accents, then yeah it gets more complicated.
Once it's generated, you can edit the captions directly in the timeline, delete the stuff that's messed up, add missing stuff. The timing does itself so you don't have to mess around with timecodes. Just make sure to check your audio beforehand - if you have background noise or music drowning out the voice, it's gonna generate garbage for you.
Don't look for this feature in Fusion - that's a waste of time. The tab you need to use is "Edit" at the top of the screen, and you'll find "Captions" in the menu there. Once you're in, you'll see the "auto caption" button that'll let you generate your subtitles automatically.
Yeah, it's free, like the rest of Resolve. But where it gets a bit annoying is that this feature relies on speech recognition and while it works fine in French, you'll notice that the accuracy really depends on your video's audio quality. If you've got background noise, strong accents, or very fast spoken text, the results are gonna be imperfect. You'll have to fix a lot of stuff afterwards, especially proper nouns and specialized terms. It's not optimized the way it could be with other paid tools, so don't be surprised if you have to do some manual cleanup.
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