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Inspiring
January 24, 2023
In Development

Export captions as .vtt (WebVTT) files

  • January 24, 2023
  • 101 replies
  • 41155 views
I'd like the option to export closed captions as .vtt files. Some of my clients only accept this format, and doing it manually or with different software is either very time consuming or costly.

101 replies

Participant
November 21, 2023

@Francis-Crossman17221443 The link you shared doesn't mention anything about the status of support for exporting VTT files, and your post was nearly a year ago. Any update on this? Thanks.

Inspiring
November 2, 2023

Bump. Premiere Pro 2024 and still no ability to export as VTT.

Participating Frequently
October 17, 2023

I've been using Veed.io for this lately, which normally works great, but today I can't get it to download the VTT files in any browser. So I turned to ChatGPT, and it worked beautifully! Of course we wouldn't have to do all these backflips if Adobe would simply make this a priority. 

Participating Frequently
October 16, 2023

I found a great open source program that can help with caption/subtitle/VTT and all various caption flavors. It will even do translations.

 

https://www.nikse.dk/subtitleedit

virginiam30451105
Participant
October 16, 2023

Srsly. this is weird. Agree.

virginiam30451105
Participant
October 16, 2023

ikr?

Known Participant
October 16, 2023

I also only need basic, plain text .vtt. Just need .vtt to import into the caption settings in 'Microsoft Stream on SharePoint' videos. If Adobe just released this basic functionality right away, couldn't the fancier stuff come in later releases? 

Participant
October 16, 2023

Sure, VTT can include all that formatting, but its not needed if you just want basic .vtt captions, that can then be controlled by the player.  This is what I'd like to see exported as a .vtt:

WEBVTT

00:00:04.212 --> 00:00:06.631
This is some text.

00:00:06.631 --> 00:00:08.049
This is more text.




Stan Jones
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 16, 2023

@defaultuvxayfpaqgrb,

 

> I can't imagine this is very difficult to implement. 

 

It is not that simple. Can they do it? Yes. But it will take some effort, and that gets translated into priorities for limited programming time. Should they do it? Yes.

 

VTT is only useful if it includes the positioning and styling information that is missing from the current SRT export. It is more appropriate to compare EBU subtitles (which PR exports with some styling as XML or STL); those are more complex than SRT. A VTT downloaded from Youtube (some time ago) began like this:

 

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en
Style:
::cue(c.colorCCCCCC) { color: rgb(204,204,204);
 }
::cue(c.colorE5E5E5) { color: rgb(229,229,229);
 }
##

00:00:16.650 --> 00:00:19.230 align:start position:0%
 
<c.colorE5E5E5>Lords<00:00:17.650><c> anchor</c><00:00:17.980><c> was</c><00:00:18.130><c> started</c><00:00:18.520><c> by</c><00:00:18.670><c> people</c></c><c.colorCCCCCC><00:00:18.730><c> in</c></c>

00:00:19.230 --> 00:00:19.240 align:start position:0%
<c.colorE5E5E5>Lords anchor was started by people</c><c.colorCCCCCC> in
 </c>
......

 

Stan

 

Participant
October 16, 2023

This doesn't appear possible in the 2024 release. I can't imagine this is very difficult to implement. Just format the timecode with the differences from .srt to .vtt. Instead of a comma, you make a period for the frame. Add WEBVTT to the top. Remove the line numbers. I'm not a coder, but I'd think an intern could develop this in an afternoon?  Just have it similar to the .srt export but with the above differences?