View, edit, and manage video transcripts and captions

Viewing captions  

Anyone viewing a video that has caption / transcript files can turn captions on or off by clicking the CC button in the player controls near the bottom-right side of the video.

And then selecting the available caption language.

Customize the captions display by clicking Playback settings > Caption settings >Size, Color, etc. Your customizations will last for a browser session.

Viewing transcript

Display or hide a video's transcript by selecting the Transcript button in the upper-right side of the video that has a caption / transcript file. Within the transcript, select any block of text to jump to that part of the video file. 

Searching transcript

Transcript search helps you find any point in a video you're looking for. Search for any keywords in the transcript and then quickly navigate through those search results. You can click any portion of the transcript to jump to that point in the video.

Generate captions and transcripts 

Video owners can generate transcript and captions file for videos spoken in 28 different languages and locales. To generate a transcript and captions navigate to the Video settings panel and select Generate. This feature is enabled by default but can be disabled via tenant- and site-level settings using the Media Transcription property within PowerShell. 

Caption/transcript files may take a while to generate depending on the length of the video.

Once your file has been generated, you can follow the same steps for turning on Captions and Transcripts. 

We're working on enabling the generation of captions directly within embedded video scenarios, meanwhile you can always generate captions in Stream web app where you can manage all your Stream videos. 

Upload captions and transcripts 

Upload your own WebVTT captions and transcript file by selecting Video settings in the upper right of the web player. Expand the Transcripts and captions section if closed, then select Upload. In the dialog that appears, select the language of the file you’re uploading. Viewers will see this language when they turn captions on or off. Choose Select file to pick a WebVTT file from your computer. If you accidentally pick the wrong file, select the X icon to remove the file and choose another. 

WebVTT file format 

The first line must read WEBVTT and subsequent entries in the file are called “cues”. Cues are:  

1. A time marker (beginning time and end times, separated by an “arrow”, -->). Valid formats for specifying time marker include  hh:mm:ss.ttt, hhhh:mm:ss.ttt, or mm:ss.ttt. Use two or four digits for hours (hh or hhhh), two digits for minutes (mm), and two digits for seconds (ss). Separate time markers with a colon (:). After ss, include a period (.) and three digits to represent thousandths of a second (ttt).

2. Text that should appear on the video player during a particular segment of time. Limit text to a maximum of three lines to ensure all the words will fit on the screen.

NOTE: Additional fields, such as notes, comments, styles, etc., are not supported and will be removed from the file upon upload.  

Example   

WEBVTT 
00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:05.330 
Good day everyone, my name is June Doe. 

00:00:07.608 --> 00:00:15.290 
This video teaches you how to 
build a sand castle on any beach. 

In the example above, the first caption appears after the video has played for one second, and it remains on the screen until 5.330 seconds of the video have elapsed. The next caption appears after the video has played for 7.608 seconds, and it remains on the screen until 15.290 seconds of the video have elapsed. 

Error message 

If the upload doesn’t work, you’ll see an error message and can try picking a different file. Some common errors include:  

• Sometimes there may be errors in your WebVTT file. To work properly, your file must conform to the WebVTT format shown above.

• Your file size exceeds the 4MB limit that this feature supports.

Download 

If you have edit permissions for a video file that has a caption file associated with it, you can download the captions as a WebVTT file. To do so, open Video settings and expand the Transcript and captions section if it’s closed. Then, next to the transcript you wish to download, select Download from the "..." menu. 

Delete  

If you have edit permissions for a video, to delete a transcript and caption file open Video settings and expand the Transcripts and captions section if it’s closed. Then, next to the transcript you wish to delete, select Delete from the "..." menu. 

Note: If the file you’re deleting is a transcript from a Teams meeting recording, the transcript will still be available in Teams unless you also delete it from the meeting there. 

If you accidentally delete a transcript and caption file, you can recover it by using version history in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint. 

Replace 

If you have edit permissions for a video file that has a caption file associated with it, you can update the WebVTT file by replacing it. To do so, open Video settings and expand the Transcript and captions section if it’s closed. Then, next to the transcript you wish to replace, select Replace from the "..." menu.