Panopto: Captions

Panopto offer several different ways to add captions to recordings, including translated captions. Once captions are added, viewers will be able to turn them on during playback in Panopto’s viewer window or, if they download a recording, any other media player that supports captions.

ASR Captioning in Panopto

By default, Panopto automatically adds English ASR-generated captions for uploaded recordings that do not already have captions. This means if you upload a captioned video, Panopto will NOT overwrite those captions.

Some important things to know about this process include the following:

• The ASR process starts after the upload/recording is complete. Processing times are typically shorter than the duration of the recording, but may take up to 24 hours in periods of heavy demand. (If it takes longer than that, please contact the Help Desk.)
• When Panopto imports a Zoom recordings, the recording's caption file is also imported. So, if the recording has captions, ASR captions will not be generated for these videos. (Zoom recordings imported without captions will receive ASR captions).
• ASR captions are saved as a separate file that is formatted for display during playback (closed captioning). They are NOT embedded in the video itself (open captioning).
• ASR captioning is available in languages other than English. See How to Use Multiple Language ASR Captioning for supported languages and instructions.

View and customize captions

1. Log into Panopto.
2. Find your recording and click  Edit to open it in the editor window.
3. Click (Closed captions) at the bottom of the video player window to toggle closed captions on and off.
   
4. Click Open Captioned Settings menu to customize the video's captions. You can change the captions' Quality, Speed, Position, Color, and Size. 
5. If you need to edit captions, click Captions. You will be able to see time stamps for captions and search for particular ones. You can then edit a specific piece.
   

Edit captions in Panopto

1. Log into Panopto.
2. Find your recording and click  Edit to open it in the editor window.
3. Click Captions.
4. If have captions you've created outside Panopto, you can add them by doing the following:
   • Click Import Captions  >  Upload or Request Captions.
   • A new menu will open. Select Chose File from it. 
   • Pick the file you want to add from your device's hard drive.
   • Click Upload Captions. 
5. Otherwise, find the caption you want to edit by scrolling through the ASR captions or using Find & Replace to search for a word or phrase.  When you find something you want to change a portion of the captions you want to change, do one of the following:
   • To edit a caption, double-click on it and make any needed changes. Press Enter to save
   • To delete a caption, hover over it, click (More) >   Delete.
   • To add a new caption, pause at the point in the video timeline where it should appear. Type the text into the Enter a caption box and press Enter to save.
6. Once you've entered all your desired changes, click the Apply to save your work.

Panopto will begin processing the changes. Depending on how many you made, it will take a shorter or longer amount of time to finish this processing. 

Edit caption files outside Panopto

If captions need extensive editing or you want to translate them to create subtitles, it may be easier to export the caption file, edit it outside of Panopto, and then re-upload it to apply your changes.

Export caption files

1. Log into Panopto and find your recording.
2. Click  Settings.
3. Click Captions.
4. In the Available Captions menu, select the language of the caption file you wish to download.
5. Click Download file.

Edit the downloaded file

1. Open the downloaded captions in a text editor like NotePad (Windows) or TextEdit (macOS). Do NOT use a word processor like Word or Google Docs, as they will add invisible code to your file that will create issues when you upload these edited captions to Panopto.
2. Notice how the document is formatted and preserve this format as you edit.
   • Each caption consists of three lines:
     • Line 1: Caption number (does not appear on screen);
     • Line 2: Caption display period. For instance, 00:00:01,000 –> 00:00:03,500 means the caption appears one (1) second into the video timeline and disappears at 3.5 seconds.
     • Line 3: The caption text.
   • There should be a blank line between captions.
3. When you are finished editing, save the file with an .srt file extension.

Import caption files

1. Log into Panopto, and find the recording.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Captions.
4. If you want to replace an existing caption file, click its language in the Available Captions menu. Then, click Delete Captions. 
5. In Upload Captions menu, choose the language of your caption file. Then, click Choose file and browse for the saved .srt file on your device.
6. If your captions are based on the edited (e.g., trimmed) version of the recording, check Captions are based on the edited sessions
7. Click Upload Captions
   

Further Resources on Captions in Panopto

•   Viewing Video Captions (Panopto)
•   How to Manually Caption in the Editor (Panopto)

Questions?

If you have any additional questions or problems, don't hesitate to reach out to the Help Desk!

Phone: 610-526-7440 | Library and Help Desk hours
Email: help@brynmawr.edu | Service catalog
Location: Canaday Library 1st floor