April 16, 2009

Caption Editor for YouTube Videos

CaptionTube is a site that lets create captions for YouTube videos. For example, you can include a transcript of the video in one or more languages and YouTube's search engine will bring more viewers.

The site lets you caption any YouTube video, not just the ones that you've uploaded, and the captions can be exported as an XML file that will be later imported at YouTube.



YouTube's blog mentions that the site has been built by John Skidgel, a user experience designer that works at Google. Another online captioning service created for YouTube is YouTube subtitler, but it's less user-friendly.

PLYMedia's research showed that subtitles increase the amount of time that users spend watching videos by about 40%. "As more and more online video is consumed in an increasing variety of settings—from office environments to noisy bars to mobile phones—it makes sense to add closed-captioning and subtitling features to digital video files. These enhancements expand opportunities for viewers to enjoy online video, even when it's impractical for them to have the sound turned on."
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10 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 16, 2009 at 1:58 PM

    I sure hope there's an off button, this could get annoying, like pop-up videos on VH1. Not to mention splashing text advertising all over the screen. This would kill YouTube for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex ChituApril 16, 2009 at 2:34 PM

    Unlike annotations, captions are disabled by default.

    ReplyDelete
  3. funtomApril 17, 2009 at 1:31 AM

    Exactly what I've been hoping for. Assuming, the optional subtitles will be displayed just underneath the pictures frame, not overlapping it, taking advantage of the electronic media format.

    ReplyDelete
  4. web design tipperaryApril 17, 2009 at 6:19 AM

    it still does open up a lot possibilities for video mash-ups from the more creative people out there

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  5. PatApril 17, 2009 at 10:02 AM

    And it really does bring in a TON of extra viewers.

    Especially if you run the captions through Google Translate.

    ReplyDelete
  6. joelptApril 18, 2009 at 8:51 AM

    A bit surprised Google hasn't got automatic subtitling running yet.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Alex ChituApril 18, 2009 at 8:54 AM

    Automatic captioning is available as an experiment (limited to political speeches). As you can see, the technology is not solid enough to be used for any kind of video.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousMarch 29, 2011 at 2:26 AM

    how to download caption from youtube????

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousMay 8, 2011 at 6:26 AM

    Log in at YouTube, go to My videos, click on "edit" for the captioned one, click on the captions tab at the top and there is a download button.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousAugust 17, 2011 at 11:42 PM

    Download button, after logging onto YouTube is in SBV format (not SRT). Uploading edited SBV file to youTube is NOT allowed by YouTube video.

    There is a direct way, to grab the timed text (but it is in XML). I wish one could choose the format (SBV,SRT,XML, etc.) from a single page-URL.

    XML download without logging onto YouTube is:
    CC: http://video.google.com/timedtext?hl=en&lang=en&v=adxiAfiNrXk
    'http://video.google.com/timedtext?hl='+lang_code+'&lang='+lang_code+'&name='+caption_name+'&v='+video_code

    ReplyDelete

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