Inserting Closed Captioning to YouTube Videos

Like this sample video, I might place subtitles. To enable it, if it doesn't by default, hover over the arrow pointing up at the bottom right and click on "CC" (closed captioning). The arrow pointing to the left indicates other subtitles available for the video and the option to translate the provided subs into the language you want. This way, you can have one subtitle track at a time, have it in your language, or none at all. To tell if the video has closed captioning, look out for a "CC" icon below the "Subscribe" button.

To upload a soft sub to youtube, go to the video you want to put it in, under "Video Owner options", select "Captions and Subtitles" and upload a SubRip (.srt) file. I tried SubStation Alpha (.ssa/.ass) file before, but it doesn't work.

Video above demonstrates widescreen video, high definition, closed captioning (including timing), video & audio encoding when uploading, and having wanted sections of a full-length video.

In case you were wondering what the format of the .srt file is, here's a sample:

8
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,000
Whatever they will be doing, they will be eating this, eating that.

9
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,000
And then... okay?

10
00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,000
I would present back.


11
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,000
Or you would fight with the monkeys there for nuts and beries.

The numbers are the time in hour:minute:second,millisecond format and how long the video would appear according to the timing of the video you would put this in. Of course, the numbers above the time start from 1, but the sample above shows that you do not need to place a leading zero.

Since it's a .srt file, you can either open it up with Notepad or a subbing program. Don't forget to save.

Once you are done, select that file and language of the subtitle. Title is optional. If you want to put up an updated version of the file, delete the old one and upload the updated version in it's place. It's normal if the view count increases by a small amount during the subtitle upload/update/delete process. This also includes pressing that HQ/HD button.

How to have the video as HD? Make sure the video is 1280 x 720 (16:9) encoded in h.264, MPEG4, MPEG2(?) or DIVX/XVID, with 44100 Hz of audio. As to how to edit your video, well, I can't really help you with that part as there are so many programs available, other than that Windows Movie Maker would not be suitable for this. If you must use WMM, avoid the default settings, have the output resolution closest to 1280 x 720, and re-encode to the formats mentioned earlier in a different program. Due to the double encoding, visual quality might be lost in the process and spend more time transcoding, especially on a computer with insufficient processing power. Don't forget that, except for certain special accounts, YouTube does not accept files larger than 1GB or longer that 10 minutes.

Here's an uncut 4:3 version that is hard-subbed (irremovable subtitles), standard quality, out-of-sync audio and video, with funny fonts, colours and size for typography:


Speaking of K-On!, I have put up the draft of the opening and ending lyrics post on the Japanese version as the album containing the proper lyrics is not out yet. Since the current lyrics are based on what is heard, there may be misinterpretations of the actual words. It will appear on the anime blog in Japanese when it's ready. And if I feel like it, the English version too.

Closed captioning is rare on youtube, but it seems to be increasing lately.

Here's another video that basically summarizes what I was talking about: