Closed captions and subtitles are important features that improve the viewing experience for your video audience.
In Wildmoka, closed captions can be ingested with your video stream, uploaded from a subtitle file, automatically generated via speech-to-text transcription, or manually typed and edited.
Once closed captions are added to your clip, you can use them in one of the following ways:
1. Export the closed captions as a file (such as WebVTT or SRT) to your CMS or OVP.
2. Download the closed caption file for use in other platforms.
3. Burn the closed captions into the video so they become "open" captions.
What is the difference between subtitles and closed captions?
Subtitles are intended for viewers who can hear but prefer to read along, or who need the dialogue in a different language. They display spoken words only.
Closed captions go further: they also describe sounds like "crashing" or "clapping," and indicate when music is playing. Most video players, including your TV, let viewers turn closed captions or subtitles on or off.
In the rest of this guide, we use the term "closed captions" to refer to both closed captions and subtitles.
Ingesting, uploading or generating closed captions
If your video stream has embedded closed captions in EIA-608 or EIA-708 format, Wildmoka will automatically ingest and display them.
If your stream does not have embedded captions, you have several other options:
- Enable AI audio transcription when ingesting your stream or uploading a video file.
- Use the Closed Captions editor (CC Editor) when creating your clip to manually type or edit captions. The CC Editor also includes a speech-to-text option.
- Upload a sidecar subtitle file.
To display closed captions in your video player, click the CC button in the player toolbar.
Closed captions editing modes
When editing captions, you can choose between two modes:
- Automatic mode (default): Edit the audio transcription text in the Captions tab. The editor handles caption segmentation and timing for you, splitting text into pages based on its own logic. This is the faster, lower-effort option.
- Manual mode: Take full control of paging by deciding where each subtitle segment starts and ends, and by setting precise in/out timestamps. To activate this mode, click the "Edit subtitles" icon in the clip editor's vertical toolbar.
Mode selection is set at the clip level. Once you choose a mode for a clip, all further edits to that clip use the same mode, and the other mode is disabled.
This feature works with all subtitle types, including speech-to-text transcripts and embedded subtitles.
Caption edition with the automatic mode
Automatic mode is the default for closed caption editing. The Captions tab in the clip editor displays the audio transcript of the ingested stream or file.
To correct the transcript text, select a segment of text, right-click the selection, then click the pencil icon in the popup toolbar.
Caption segmentation and timing are handled automatically, so editorial users can focus on storytelling rather than fine-grained synchronization.
Caption edition with the manual editor
Automatic paging works well for quick clips, but when caption quality is critical, such as for professional publishing, accessibility compliance, or branded content, manual control gives you greater precision.
While editing a clip, click the "Edit subtitles" icon in the clip editor's vertical toolbar. The advanced subtitle editor will open in a modal window.
Note: the "Edit subtitles" icon stays disabled until a clip has been created, meaning the clip's cut-in and cut-out points must be defined first.
Managing caption tracks
The caption editor lets you choose how to work with caption tracks. You can:
- Edit the clip's current caption track (Edit track: Clip Override)
- Edit another existing caption track (Edit track: select a track from the list)
- Create a new caption track, for example for a language translation (Edit track: New track)
Example of a clip with a single caption track:
Example of a clip with a multiple caption tracks:
If you create a new track, you will be prompted to name it and associate it with a language audio track.
When creating a caption track, choose whether to start from scratch (Initialize from track = Start empty) or copy the timing segments from an existing track.
To rename an existing caption track, select it in the list, then click the pencil icon.
Create caption segments manually
The manual caption editor lets you edit each caption segment and its precise timing.
Note: the segmentation you create here will not apply to caption styles that include automatic caption reflow rules.
The caption editor displays each caption segment as its own editing pane. If the source stream or file already included embedded captions, they will appear in the timing segments. Click the text of any segment to edit it.
If there are no embedded captions, you can start from scratch, load captions from an external file, copy them from another caption track, or generate them automatically using speech-to-text.
Basic editing actions
Click the edit box of the first caption segment and start typing.
Click the "+" button to add a new segment, or press Enter on your keyboard.
To add a new line within a segment, press Shift+Enter.
Playback controls
Click to play the video segment that matches the caption segment.
Click to go back to the first frame of that segment.
Click to play the segment at low speed, making it easier to type while watching.
Auto-Pause: stops video playback automatically when you click into a subtitle line, use the keyboard or move the playhead, so you can edit text and timing without the video continuing to run. Playback resumes after a few seconds of inactivity, letting you make precise adjustments without manually pausing each time.
The Chars/second ratio shows the number of characters displayed per second. This helps you write subtitles that are comfortable to read. Values below 12 are easy to read; values between 12 and 16 can feel rushed; values above 16 are too fast for most viewers to finish reading.
The number of characters per line is a useful guide for subtitle display. In some formats like WebVTT, exceeding a set line length will cause subtitles to wrap to a second line.
Click to merge the current caption segment with the next one.
Click to split the caption segment into two, at the cursor and playhead position.
Upload and edit an external caption file
You can start your caption track from an external SRT or WebVTT file. Open the caption editor's 3-dot menu and select Upload subtitles file.
Copy from another caption track
You can populate a caption track by copying from an existing one. For example, to create a new language track, copy the English caption track and then translate each segment.
Open the caption editor's 3-dot menu, select Copy from other track, and choose your source track from the list.
Generate captions with speech-to-text
Click the speech-to-text button to generate captions automatically.
Note: any existing caption segments will be replaced by the speech-to-text output.
Processing takes roughly 1.5x the clip's duration (for example, a 2-minute clip takes about 3 minutes to convert). While processing, you can click Save to close the caption editor and continue working. You will receive a notification in the Notification Alerts Center when the conversion is complete. Your clip will then be ready to publish with closed captions.
Reset to stream/file original close captions
At any time, you can revert your clip's closed captions to the originals from the source stream or file.
Open the caption editor's 3-dot menu and select Reset to stream CC.
Set current frame as beginning
Delete subtitles
You can delete a single caption segment or all subtitles in the clip.
To delete one segment, click the cross icon in the top-right corner of its pane.
To delete all segments, open the caption editor's 3-dot menu and select Delete all subtitles.
Set an offset (all segments range of segments)
You can apply a positive or negative timing offset to all segments, or to a specific range of segments.
To offset all segments, type a positive or negative number of seconds in the offset field.
To offset a range of segments, open the 3-dot caption editor menu and select Apply offset on a range.
Auto-sync'd subtitles
Wildmoka supports automatic re-synchronization of external live subtitles using speech-to-text timings generated during ingest. This is useful for customers broadcasting live who often have legally approved subtitles that have already aired on TV, but carry a few seconds of delay from the live generation process. Fixing this manually is slow and tedious. Automated resync saves significant time and delivers a noticeably better viewing experience, making it a clear win for any customer ingesting external subtitles such as EIA-608/708.
How it works: During ingest, the speech-to-text engine generates accurate word-level timings from the audio. External live subtitles (for example, EIA-608/708 or other formats) carry a few seconds of delay because they were generated live. These captions are matched against the speech-to-text timings and automatically re-timed to align with the actual speech, with no manual re-syncing required.
Existing subtitle content is preserved, so legally approved, broadcast-vetted subtitles remain unchanged; only their timing is corrected.
To enable this feature, go to the source management page and enable it per stream. The live speech-to-text option must be active on the stream. Check the option Enable auto-synced subtitles.
Subtitle styles
You can create a variety of subtitle styles. Styles control how subtitles appear on screen, including font, font size, font color, background color, dynamic effects, and caption page reflow rules.
Subtitle styles are configured in the Decorators management page (see details in section Managing subtitles decorators).
Publishing with Closed Captions
When you export a clip to a CMS, OVP, or social media platform that supports closed captions (such as YouTube or Facebook), the sidecar file (SRT or WebVTT) is sent automatically.
If you want captions burned into the video instead, select that option for the specific destination.
You can also send a clean version without burned captions to some destinations while sending a burned version to others.
To configure this, open the Clip Publishing details and expand the section for a specific destination. In the Subtitles publication field, leave the value set to default to send the SRT file (if that destination supports it), or use the dropdown menu to choose a different closed caption action, such as "Burn: Default Style."
Depending on destinations, you can also configure the closed caption track and its associated language.
Once the clip is published, the selected closed caption option is applied to each destination.
Using Publishing templates with closed captions
When configuring a publishing template, you can specify the closed caption action for each destination. For example, you could set one Twitter account to receive burned captions with a specific style, another Twitter account to receive a clean video, Facebook to receive an SRT sidecar file, and your CMS to receive a WebVTT file.
Selecting a publishing template for a clip automatically applies the configured settings to each destination, including subtitling options.