About
Kaltura’s Closed Captions Editor allows you to review and edit captions for your videos, whether they’re generated by REACH or uploaded manually. With an intuitive interface, you can easily adjust caption text, timing, and speaker names, and if you have enabled Kaltura's transcript widget, any changes you make are reflected in the transcript.
The editor also includes features like auto-scroll, timestamp adjustment, and search and replace, giving you full control to fine-tune captions and enhance the viewing experience for your audience. This tool is particularly useful for improving the accuracy of machine-generated captions (ASR).
To use the features described here, Kaltura REACH needs to be enabled with the right user permissions.
Access the editor
- From the user menu, select My Media.
- Locate the desired media and click the three dots at the far right, and select Edit.
- Click the Captions tab.
- Click Edit captions.
- Captions drop-down list - If there is more than one caption file for the entry, you can select a different caption file from the list.
- Edit details - Click to change the caption's language, accuracy, and label.
- Search field - Type a search term and hit 'enter' on your keyboard. The results are highlighted in yellow, as shown in the image below.
- Replace - Quickly find specific words or phrases in captions and replace them with new ones.
- Add speaker - Click to add a speaker's name.
- Autoscroll - Click to enable to auto-scroll captions as the media plays.
- Trash can icon - Click the trash can at the right of the caption line to delete that line (the trash can appears when you hover).
- Add caption - Click to add a new line of text (the +Add caption button appears when you hover).
- Timestamp - Click to modify the time.
- Caption text - Click to modify the text.
- Click on Edit details.
- Click Replace.
- Enter the search term in the Find match field,
- Enter the replacement term in the Replace with field.
- Click Replace.
- Click Save.
- Move the slider accordingly, then click Save.
- Select the row(s) where you want to add the speaker's name, then click Add speaker.
- In the 'Speaker name' field, type the name, then click Add Speaker.
- Click Save.
- Move the slider accordingly, then click Save.
- Hover over the caption row until you see + Add caption and then click on it.
- Click on the caption text to activate the text field, then modify the text as desired.
- Click Save.
- Move the slider accordingly, then click Save.
- Click on the caption text to activate the text field, then modify the text as desired.
- Edit the text as desired.
- Click Save.
- Move the slider accordingly, then click Save.
- Player seek 5S backwards = Ctrl <-
- Player seek 2S backwards = <-
- Player seek to 0 = Home and in Mac Command <-
- Player pause-play toggle = space
- Player seek 5S forward = Ctrl ->
- Player seek 2S forward = ->
The My Media page displays.
The edit media page displays.
The captions for that media display.
The closed captions editor displays.
Editor layout
The editor has two main areas - captions panel and player panel:
Captions panel
The captions panel displays the captions and the editing options, including the following:
The captions editor uses the SMPTE time format: hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds (hh:mm:ss,mmm). This format helps you set precise start and end points for each caption.
Kaltura supports dual screen inside the captions editor.
Player panel
The player panel displays the player, allowing you to sync the text with the audio and visuals in real-time to ensure each caption line accurately aligns with the on-screen content.
When you click on a caption line, and the player jumps to the correct frame for the selected text as shown in the example below.
Editing options
Edit caption details
The Edit caption details screen displays. You can change the caption's language, accuracy, and label.
The information is immediately updated.
Find and replace text
You are asked to confirm captions accuracy.
The search term is replaced immediately.
Add speaker's name
The speaker's name is added at the beginning of each line.
You are asked to confirm captions accuracy.
The information is immediately updated.
For general information about Kaltura's player, check out our article Introduction to the Kaltura Player.
Add a caption line
The caption is duplicated.
When editing a caption, adjust the timing to avoid overlaps. Kaltura highlights any timing errors in red for easy identification, as shown below.
You are asked to confirm captions accuracy.
The information is immediately updated.
Edit a caption line
You are asked to confirm captions accuracy.
The information is immediately updated.
Revert and Save
Revert takes you back to the last saved changes. Save saves the modified caption file.
Keyboard shortcuts
