How do I automatically generate and edit captions in My Media?

When you publish videos in your UVACollab sites, UVA policies (opens new window) require that you provide an alternative method for your audience to understand the content if they cannot hear the audio.

You may request automatic (machine) captioning for videos you have uploaded to My Media in your Home site or to the Media Gallery in one of your UVACollab sites. You can easily edit the text in the captions to correct any errors.

Request automatic captions.

Go to Home.

When you first log into UVACollab, you are placed in your Home site.  If you are viewing another UVACollab site, select the Home tab in the favorites bar at the top of the screen, or in your My Sites list, to access it.

Select My Media.

Select My Media from the Tool Menu in your Home site.

Select the video to caption.

Select the Actions menu, then Caption & Enrich.

Submit the caption request.

A page will display where you can check the status of existing captioning requests and submit new requests.  On this page, under the heading Order Captions & Enrichment Services:

  1. Select the Source Media Language to indicate the language of the video to caption.  By default, the language is English.
  2. Select Submit.

Check the progress of your request.

  1. The request for captioning will display under the Existing Requests section of the page, along with its Pending status. The Status will change to Processing while the captions are being generated for your video, and Completed when the captions are available.
  2. A message will display under Order Captions & Enrichment Services to indicate that your request has been received.

Note: The captions will not display automatically on your video when the request has been completed. You will need to enable them after verifying that they are accurate.

Edit auto-generated captions.

After captions are created from your request, they will need to be reviewed and edited to ensure that they are accurate.

Select the video to edit.

After waiting for the captions to be generated, return to My Media and select the video with the captions to edit.

Select the Actions menu, then Edit.

Select the Captions tab.

Select the Edit Captions button.

Edit the captions as needed.

Using the Closed Captions Editor, correct any errors in the captions and add speakers, if needed.

Select the captions to edit. (Optional)

In most cases, there will only be one Captions file attached to your video.  If you have uploaded your own captions file in addition to requesting the automatic captions, select the captions to edit from the Captions menu.

Search for and replace terms.

  1. Enter text in the Search box, and press Enter or Return on your keyboard to search for specific terms.  Blocks of text in the captions containing that term will be highlighted in yellow.
  2. If the text you entered in the search contains an error that you need to correct in all instances where it appears in the captions, enter the desired replacement in the Replace with box, then select Replace.

Add speakers, if needed.

If your video contains multiple speakers, you should identify them as follows:

  1. Select the checkbox to the left of each text block spoken by a specific person.
  2. In the Add Speaker box, enter the person's name.
  3. Select the Add button.
  4. The speaker's name will be added in brackets in front of each selected block of text in the captions.

Correct errors.

Auto-generated captions need to be edited so they are accurate.

  1. Play the video to check the timing of the captions (i.e., the text displays at the same time as the words are spoken), and their accuracy.
  2. Select a timestamp to edit it and correct any error in timing.
  3. Select a block of text to edit it. The video in the player on the page will automatically skip to the timestamp in the video with the selected text. The text shown in the player will update as you edit it.

Save your changes.

Once you've made all the necessary changes, scroll up near the top of the page and select Save.  In the Save Changes window that pops up, select Yes to confirm saving.

Select Back.

Select the Back link near the top of the page to return to the video's editing page.

Enable the captions.

Select the Captions tab.

On the video's editing page, select the Captions tab.

Show the captions.

A table listing the Language, Label (the text of the option in the video player to display captions), and File type of the captions file will display, along with Actions, which includes icons you can use to modify the captions file's properties. In most cases, the Language and Label will both be English. The File type for automatically-generated captions is SRT. Under the Actions header:

  1. Select the checkmark (Set As Default) icon. Selecting this option will ensure that the associated captions file is the one that displays by default when a viewer turns on closed captions in the player.
  2. Select the screen (Show On Player) icon.

Note: Before they are selected, the icons may appear to blend in with their background, so it may be difficult to find them.

View captions in the video.

After enabling the captions, refresh the page and return to the video. A CC (Closed Captions) button will be available in the player. Select the button, then the label for the captions (e.g., English) to display them.