How do I embed the captions into my video?

NEW! We now offer burned-in captions (open captions) for an additional $0.25 per minute. Learn more here. If you plan to burn the captions in yourself, read on.

The end product for captions is what is known as a sidecar file. It's a versatile, text-based file that you then add to your video by uploading the caption file to the online platform where your video is hosted. Viewers can toggle these captions on or off.

You can find instructions for adding the sidecar file to major social media platforms in this article.

There may be some cases where you want the captions burned into the video itself. A couple of popular programs are Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro. If you're looking for a free alternative to these, we suggest trying HandBrake. We've included instructions here on how to use HandBrake to burn captions into a video.*

Important Note: The instructions below are for Windows users. If you're using Handbrake on a Mac, please see this post for screenshots and instructions.

Using HandBrake to Burn Captions Into a Video

First, you will need to download the free HandBrake software from this link. Open the program, then click File: Open a single video file.

Select your video file, then click the Subtitles tab. Note: You may see an item titled "Foreign Audio Scan," but if your video file contains only English you can click the red X on the far right to remove this. 

Click Import SRT and select the .srt file you downloaded from Rev. When the file loads, double check to ensure that the Char Code (encoding) is set to UTF-8, and check the box that says Burn In. Both of these options are essential to burn the captions into the video correctly.

At the bottom of the screen, give your video a name and click Browse to choose where to save it on your computer. We recommend giving this a different name than your original video so that you still have a caption-free copy (remember, these captions will be burned into the video itself).

Once you've selected the path where you will save the video, click the green arrow that says Start Encode at the top of the screen.

That's it! You will see a green progress bar indicating how far along the encoding process is. Keep in mind that the larger/longer your video, the longer this will take. Once the encoding process is complete, you can open your video on your computer, and the captions will be burned in.

Watch the video below for a realtime walkthrough of burning in captions using HandBrake.

*For any help using third party software, please contact their respective support teams. We would love to troubleshoot, but they're in a much better position to do so.