Are you ready to caption your videos?

Yes, it is easy. You’ve read how to guides and found captioning to be incredibly easy! But before you sit down with a cup of coffee and headphones, wait… Did you know that there are different file formats? That, Apple devices accept captions, in H.264 video files?

Captions unlike subtitles are embedded within the video and not stored externally. So it is important that you know your formats! We offer a brief rundown of the formats available and why knowing about them, can make all the difference.

The most widely used format for YouTube videos!

.SRT is officially supported by YouTube. Most captioned files uploaded in YouTube videos use this format. You can also use a .txt file and attach it to your videos. YouTube has certainly made captioning easy by offering an automatic time stamping feature that can synchronize text files to videos. So all you will have to do is type out your audio content or find a good transcriber!

Captioning for desktop videos…

“Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange” or SAMI as it is most commonly known is a HTML based captioning format developed by Microsoft. SAMI is also supported by Flash videos. It is one of the most popular desktop video formats around. You should use an ASX file or HTML to play your captioned file in the Windows Media Player.

Creating captions for iTunes!

Now this is a bit tricky. Use the Text Edit option in your Mac and create a text file. Export your text file to QuickTime. The text files are called as caption tracks. Edit your exported text file in the QuickTime player. Change the timecodes according to your liking. Run the movie with the captions to make edits. (Below every line of caption a small bracket that contains editable timecodes).

You can use MacCaption to create a closed caption track quickly. You will just need a captioned document. MacCaption also offers a batch processing feature.

Going mobile!

People consume videos mostly through their mobile phones. Several smartphones and Android devices support closed captions. But the only flipside is that every device supports a different file type. You can use software like Telestream to make your videos compatible across different devices.

Most Apple products support captions that are used for television, H.264 videos files are the preferred format. Android devices that support Flash can display Flash closed captions.

Better left to the professionals!

Stumped by all that information? Captioning like call things digital is a bit messy and confounding. Working with professional captioning firms can save you the time and stress of captioning videos.