Apple devices in particular have a habit of defaulting to Apple-specific formats that may be hard to use in other tools. Do a test recording to see what format you're getting, and change the options in the settings if necessary. Some sound formats and video formats are more universal than others (they'll work with more programs). If you're making a digital recording that you'll ultimately want to transcribe, think about what format you're recording to. In such cases you might not need the same level of accuracy or coverage as would be used for subtitling. If you're conducting research you might be transcribing an interview. A subtitle file will be a form of transcript, or it could be a stand-alone text document (for instance, a transcript of a speech as an alternative to watching it). The optional subtitles you get on television or on a DVD are closed captions.Ī transcript is a written account of material originally presented in another medium (for this Guide's purposes, usually speech).

They're supported online in more-elaborate media players such as those found on YouTube or Google Drive, and in the University's Panopto lecture captures. These captions are stored in a separate file to the video itself. Generally preferable to burnt in subtitles are ' closed captions' - captions that are overlaid onto the video, and can be turned on or off. You'll also often see it in television news reports or documentaries, where a speaker's words are being translated for the audience. This is particularly common in videos for social media, where video players don't have support for 'closed' captioning (more of which in the next paragraph).

Subtitles might be ' burnt in' to the video: part of the actual video image and impossible to remove.

Whether you're deaf, struggling with an accent, watching the video in a distracting environment, or just don't have the sound on, subtitles allow you to read the speech and sound of the video. Subtitles (or captions - we'll use the terms interchangeably on this guide) are blocks of transcribed text that appear at the bottom of a video.

Download video transcript youtube