Use captions and transcripts in Kaltura

Reviewing and editing captions

To review and edit captions, find the relevant video or audio file in either My Media or the Media Gallery for your site. Simply click on the name of the media to open the media information screen, open the Actions menu and select + Caption & Enrich. 

The list of available captions will be displayed. Select the pencil icon to open the Closed Captions Editor. The Closed Captions Editor will be displayed. 

Editing captions

To edit a Caption, select the field for the relevant caption [1] and change the text as necessary. When you have finished editing the text, select ‘Save’ [2]. To discard your changes, click ‘Revert’ [3]. 

Useful tip

Remember to save your work regularly, as reverting changes will remove all changes since the last save. There is no undo function. 

Adding/deleting caption fields and altering time captions

To add a new caption before/after an existing caption, click on the plus button in the place you need to add a caption [1]. A new caption field will appear in the desired location. 

To delete an unwanted caption field, hover the mouse pointer over the field and select the trash can icon [2], then confirm that you want the caption to be deleted. Check your changes by playing the video in the preview player. 

To change the length of time that a caption is displayed, click on their field for the start or end time for the caption [3], then enter the relevant start or end time. 

If a time field is highlighted in yellow, then the caption running time overlaps with either the previous or following caption. You will need to edit the relevant time field to ensure that the start and end times do not overlap.

Searching text within captions

To search for text in captions, enter the text to search for in the search field [1] and either press the ‘Enter’ key or click on the magnifying icon. 

The captions that contain the search terms (eg. >>) with be highlighted in yellow [2]. Scroll through all the captions to ensure that you see every match. 

Replacing caption text

 To replace text, first search for it in the manner described above. Once you have found the relevant text, then:

Adding a speaker

If a video contains more than one speaker you should identify who is speaking by adding their name to the captions whenever the speaker changes. The name of the speaker is indicated by adding it in square brackets at the beginning of a caption, e.g. [Narrator]. 

To add a speaker to a caption, first type their name in the Add Speaker field [1], check the box next to the relevant captions [2] and choose ‘Add’ [3]. 

Useful tip

Select multiple check boxes if you need to enter the name of the speaker multiple times. 

Uploading and downloading caption files

To upload or download captions, [1] open the ‘Actions’ menu and [2] select the ‘Edit’ option. 

The following choices will be displayed below your video. Select the Captions tab [3] to see the captioning options. 

Select “Upload captions file” [4] to add new captions or click on the download icon [5] to download existing captions. 

Captions can be uploaded in SRT, XML or DXFP formats. SRT format is one of the most transferable caption formats and is supported by YouTube and Vimeo, though only the Classic YouTube editor supports import/export of SRT files.

Useful tip

Microsoft Stream only imports/exports VTT caption files. VTT files need to be converted to upload them into Kaltura. 3PlayMedia provide a free online caption converter that will convert SRT files to VTT files if required. 

Downloading transcript files

To download a transcript from Kaltura  

1. Select Attachments.  
2. Select the arrow icon that corresponds to the “.txt” file. 
3. Download the Auto-generated transcript text.  

Additional caption settings

Additional settings are available on the Captions tab. Staff may [1] make one set of captions the default set, [2] edit the text in the Language and Label fields for the captions, [3] delete a set of captions and [4] block a set of captions from being played by viewers.

Computer generated captions can be requested for video or audio files uploaded to Kaltura. Captions may be generated in the following languages:

• English (British)
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Mandarin
• Chinese

Note that captions

• will only be generated in one requested language per file
• may be edited for accuracy and timing in the captioning editor
• may be requested for publicly listed YouTube videos embedded using Kaltura

Related blogs

3 surprising ways that captioning improves learning for all of your students

Find out how captioning makes video content better for all users.