Polili puts tone-marked pinyin and instant translation directly over the subtitles of any Chinese video — live, while it plays. No pausing, no copy-paste. It reads burned-in subtitles that subtitle-track tools like Language Reactor structurally can't touch.
✓ Works: YouTube · Bilibili · Viki · iQIYI · local video files ✗ Can't work: Netflix · Disney+ · Prime (their video is DRM-encrypted — the browser only sees a black frame)
Mark the subtitle strip once. Polili reads the characters with PaddleOCR and floats tone-marked pinyin above each one — in real time, while the movie plays.
The Polili pronunciation software is designed to disappear into your viewing session — you set it once and it runs.
Go to YouTube, Bilibili, or any streaming site with Chinese content. Hit play on any video — no subtitle track required.
Hit the 🦜 icon in your Chrome toolbar. Drag the teal strip to sit over the subtitle line, then tap Start. Takes about ten seconds.
Polili reads each subtitle and floats pinyin above every character, live. Click any character to hear it aloud. Hover to see its meaning.
The Polili app runs entirely in your browser — no server, no usage fees, no data sent anywhere.
The Polili OCR translation engine reads characters directly from the screen and overlays tone-marked pinyin above each one. Works on burned-in and hardcoded subtitles — no subtitle track required.
VIDEO MODEToggle on to activate the Pinyin over Chinese text browser overlay across any site. Hover a word for instant CC-CEDICT pop-up definition. Select two or more characters to look up compound words.
WEB MODEDraw a box around any characters the automatic OCR missed. Get tone-marked pinyin, per-character definitions, and an automatic translation — all in a floating card.
SNIP TOOLClick any character on a web page or in a snip result to hear it spoken in standard Mandarin (zh-CN) via the Web Speech API. Entirely offline — no audio API calls.
AUDIOThe full CC-CEDICT dictionary is bundled directly in the extension. Definitions appear instantly on hover — no internet request needed, no usage limit, no rate throttling.
OFFLINE DICTIONARYEach film you watch is saved to your Library by name — full transcript with characters, pinyin, and translation. Add notes per line and per movie, then come back and test yourself with Review mode (pinyin and meaning hidden until you tap). Review is where a language actually sticks. Export any transcript to share or drop into Anki.
MOVIE LIBRARY + NOTESLanguage Reactor and Trancy read the streaming site's subtitle data track — so they structurally cannot help with burned-in subtitles or sites that provide none. The Polili subtitle translation extension reads the pixels, not the data.
Works where the incumbents can't: YouTube, Bilibili, Viki / Rakuten, regional streamers, and any hardcoded subtitle. Full compatibility guide →
| Capability | Polili | Language Reactor | Trancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burned-in / hardcoded subtitles | ✓ OCR reads pixels | ✗ needs subtitle track | ✗ needs subtitle track |
| YouTube / Bilibili / regional streamers | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| No subtitle track required | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Offline dictionary | ✓ CC-CEDICT bundled | ✓ | ✓ |
| Click-to-hear any character | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free to use (core features) | ✓ 100% free core | ✓ limited free tier | ✗ $3.49–5.99/mo |
We target hard-script languages where learners can't even type the characters to look them up. Chinese is live. The others are coming.
Every core feature runs client-side at $0 per user and will always be free. Premium adds AI-powered upgrades that justify a subscription.
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