YouTube Adds Automatic-Captions/Subtitles and Automatic-Timing for Videos

Nov 19, 2009 by Abbas

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Youtube can only get better by the day. Google just announced two new features which will be of tremendous help to the hearing impaired. It will also help the video uploaders gain more global exposure for their content.

The two new features are Automatic-Captions and Automatic-Timings. These features let the video uploaders add captions automatically or simply upload the transcript of the video and let Youtube figure which text goes were in the video.

Automatic-Captions: Once the video is uploaded choose “Transcribe Audio” from the captions menu, that’s it! This will add captions to your video automatically. Not just that but once the automatic-captions are created for the video, these captions can later be translated to other languages.

Imagine how great it would be if the browser detects the default language and delivers captions on the video in the same language as default. I am quite certain we will see that feature on Youtube soon.

Automatic-Timing: If you don’t want to go with the Automatic-Captions feature because you are not getting the best results, you can also upload a transcript file to make sure the subtitles on the video are perfect.

With the Automatic-Timing feature in action the users just have to upload the transcript file with the text in it and Youtube will automatically figure out which word was said when in the video and add the appropriate subtitle at the appropriate time unlike earlier where users had to time their transcript manually.

The features are currently being rolled out so if you don’t see them yet, don’t worry, you should see it by the end of the week.

Both the features are great for uploaders and viewers; however, they might not get you the best of results every time you use them. Google always relies on machine learning techniques to improve its language based services and features. So, if not now, these features will work great in the time to come.

If you are looking to achieve great results using softwares, here are two free ones that can help you get the results you are looking for.