Forum Discussion
How to get custom vtt subtitle or caption file to show up in the transcript window and be searchable
Ok... I finally figured out what was going on after lots of trial/error and closer looking at the problematic VTT files.
It turns out Stream will not parse the VTT file uploaded in the caption section and turn it into the transcript if there is a line in the file that has no elapsed duration/gap between the time codes. For example like this:
00:16:24.490 --> 00:16:24.490 keep falling apart.
If you change the time codes so there is a time gap between them, it works fine. Like this:
00:16:24.490 --> 00:16:24.491 keep falling apart.
So for the example VTT file you sent, there is actually 2 lines in the file where there is no gap in the time codes. I updated these 4 lines in your file to ensure there is gap and the subsequent line also starts at the new time. Once I did that your custom VTT file works correctly and shows up as the transcript. (See the attached file below that is the fixed VTT, to try yourself.)
00:16:24.490 --> 00:16:24.491 keep falling apart. 00:16:24.491 --> 00:16:26.890 THE WITNESS: 417? 00:41:07.740 --> 00:41:07.741 read it. 00:41:07.741 --> 00:41:21.720 (Requested portion of record read.)
I'll file a bug on our side in Stream to fix this issue so that our parsing logic still works even if there are lines in the VTT with the beginning/ending time codes the same. I don't know how easy/hard this will be to fix on our side.
MicrosoftAs a workaround for the time being, it seems if you let Stream generate the VTT file for you, download it, edit it by hand, and re-upload it, then it will work fine.
I think I spoke too soon, haha!
I did try reformatting but, in the transcript window, I'm still getting the same message, "Audio transcripts aren't quite ready yet. Check back soon."
It seems to be alternating where one video will work, the next will not, and then the next will, and then the next will not and so on.
That seems to have worked! I had a point where I meant to have a comma, corrected that, and now it seems to be working consistently!
All I can think of is to make sure your time codes all have at least one second difference (or more) for start and stop for each line. If any of your lines have an invalid time separation it seems to break it. Not sure if the developers have done anything about this one yet. Good luck!
I tried adding the WEBVTT line at the top of my .vtt subtitle file, as mentioned in your post, and it worked for one file, but then I tried it again with another video just to make sure it wasn't a fluke and it didn't work.
I've been finding that Stream is displaying captions or transcripts inconsistently; sometimes the transcript shows up, but then sometimes I get a message saying "Audio transcripts aren't quite ready yet. Check back soon."
Just wondering why I might be getting inconsistent results
Asmita Kulkarni (RADIANT)Yes, we are looking into this to help improve the current experience. Please @ me if there are further questions that I can help answer.- Marc Mroz
@Thomas Maier @Matt Cannady @Marc Mroz I have tested it. The transcript option is only displayed when the captions language is set to English or Spanish. If you have manually uploaded your own vtt captions file and set the captions language to German for example, the transcript option is not displayed. I think in the software is a simple if statement present (if (captions language == English or Spanish) {DisplayTranscript();}) that should be changed to "if ((captions is autogenerated and captions language == English or Spanish) or (captions is manually uploaded no language check required!)) { DisplayTranscript(); }" (sorry for this unnice programming language :-)).
Asmita Kulkarni (RADIANT) - Can you take a look at this issue? We don't show the transcript window unless the caption is listed as English or Spanish.
- I am with you!
I understand that, but just because it's not available I want to add the file manually ...
Yes, I have the same experience. But I think that's a mistake. Because if I have uploaded the file manually, it should also be displayed ...
Thomas-Maier Matt Cannady Marc Mroz I have tested it. The transcript option is only displayed when the captions language is set to English or Spanish. If you have manually uploaded your own vtt captions file and set the captions language to German for example, the transcript option is not displayed. I think in the software is a simple if statement present (if (captions language == English or Spanish) {DisplayTranscript();}) that should be changed to "if ((captions is autogenerated and captions language == English or Spanish) or (captions is manually uploaded no language check required!)) { DisplayTranscript(); }" (sorry for this unnice programming language :-)).
Thomas,
I thought the transcription service was only available for English and Spanish, maybe French? A limited set of languages though.
