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How to add and put subtitles to a YouTube video? Step by step guide

How to add and put subtitles to a YouTube video? Step by step guide

YouTube has become the most popular platform for watching videos over the past few years, where you can find a lot of content of all kinds, whether it’s music , tutorials, among many others.

However, on many occasions we find videos that do not have subtitles and which are in another language other than ours , which ends up becoming a problem , especially if it’s a content we need to see.

Subtitles are one of the most important tools in any video file, as it will make it easier for more people to see them. That’s why here we show you different methods to place these STR files to a YouTube video.

Steps to add subtitles to your own YouTube videos

Being able to add subtitles to a video on YouTube or on any other platform is extremely important, since this will make this content reach a greater number of users, especially those who handle other types from a language other than ours and even people with hearing problems. In addition, this is something that can be done in a very simple way, without the need to have much experience in this area.

Due to this, here we explain the different ways of being able to put subtitles to each of your videos uploaded on this platform, to do so follow each of these methods.

Create subtitles

One of the ways to be able to do this is creating the subtitles yourself from scratch or in that case modifying the drafts if you have activated the community contributions on your channel.

In addition, it is important that you have the classic version of Creator Studio , since if you have the beta version of YouTube Studio You will not be able to perform this method.

If you are one of the users that has the beta version , you can switch to the classic in a very simple way, you just have to go to the menu on the left of your account and follow each of the steps that we will explain below:

  • There you will have to select the subtitle language you want to create.
  • These can be searched using the search bar in if the language you are looking for in the list does not appear.
  • Now play the video in the draft of the language you have chosen.

Crear subtítulos

  • When you arrive at the moment of the video where you want to add the subtitles you must click on the pause button and then on the text box on screen. Note that you can also add some kind of sound to the video , such as applause, thunder, bells, , among others.

Crear subtítulos

  • You can adjust if necessary the start and end of the subtitle. To do this, you will have to drag the borders that surround the entire text of the video.
  • Now, you have to repeat this process with all the parts of the video that merit the subtitles, in case you don’t have time to finish it completely, you can save the changes in the draft and that way you can continue at another time.

Crear subtítulos

  • Once you have finished it completely, simply click on “Publish”.

Upload subtitles

Another way to insert subtitles to a video is by directly uploading the subtitle files . This will prevent you from having to create them yourself, which can be a bit more tedious and will undoubtedly consume you much more time.

These types of files usually contain all the text, as well as the time codes that determine the exact times for them to appear and disappear during content playback. Some other files of this type of text contain information about position and style, something that is ideal for those who have hearing problems.

In order to carry out this it is necessary that you follow the steps that we will explain below:

  • The first thing will be to log into your “YouTube Studio beta version ” account.
  • Now in the menu on the left select the option of permittedVideos†.
  • Then click on the title or in the thumbnail of a video.
  • The following will be to select the “Advanced” tab.
  • In the “Advanced” section we select the “Upload subtitles” option.
  • Choose between “With time” or “Without time” and then click on furtherContinue.
  • When you have done all this select the text file that you want to upload in the video.
  • Once loaded into the account, select the “Save” option.

In this way, you can add a subtitle file to a video in the beta version, a very simple and quick way to achieve. To verify that everything went well, you will simply have to reproduce it.

But, if you don’t have the beta version , but the Classic version of Creator Studio, you can also do this as follows:

  • To start you will need to select the video or the thumbnail of the video you want to work with.
  • Then you will have to enter the menu and select the option to “Add new subtitles.”
  • Then choose their language. If you don’t find the language you are looking for in the list you can use the search bar.
  • Now select the “Upload a file” item and select the type of file you want to upload.
  • When you have selected the file click necessarilySubir†.
  • With the help of “Editor” you can start making the necessary adjustments in the text, as well as the synchronization of the new subtitles.
  • Once all this is done, you will only have to select the option of subsequentlyPublicate.

To be able to see the results you will simply have to play that video. In this way you will be putting subtitles to your YouTube videos in the Classic version.

Synchronize automatically

Another way to be able to do this is to use automatic synchronization which can only be applied to the original language of the video. In this case, it is about being able to get all the video transcription and that the text of the dialogue is divided into lines automatically.

That is, that transcript will collect everything that is said in the reproduction, but does not include the times of the same. Therefore, you will have to take care of setting yourself the times so that you can synchronize the dialogue with the video playback.

It is worth mentioning, that for this method it is recommended to use videos not exceeding 60 minutes, nor to use reproductions that have poor audio quality. It is also important that the transcript be of the same language as the original video and that it is compatible with voice recognition technology.

If you are one of the users who have a beta version you will not be able to perform this method. However, you can enter the menu on the left and select the “Classic Version of Creator Studio” and start performing each of the steps that we show you below:

  • Once you have chosen the video you want to work with, you will have to select the “Add new subtitles” option.
  • Then choose the language you want for the text, use the list of available languages ​​, in case you don’t get it you can use the search bar.
  • Now select “Add new subtitles” again.
  • Just below the video choose the option of “Auto transcribe and synchronize”.
  • Write all the audio discourse in the text fields. In automatic subtitles add fund audios if applicable, be it applause, music, bells, among others.
  • Then select “Set times”, this will allow you to synchronize transcription and video so that they work correctly.

Keep in mind that synchronize text and video times will take a few minutes. During the wait you will return to the list of all your videos. Once the playback has been completed, all subtitles will have been automatically published in the video.

Insert automatic subtitles

This method is only available for the “Classic Version of Creator Studio”, and which will help you insert automatic subtitles in each of your videos uploaded to the YouTube platform. This will undoubtedly help you so that your videos can reach a greater number of people, with whom you will be able to obtain greater benefits.

In this case, Youtube uses voice recognition technology to be able to create these dialogues automatically. To generate them, the platform makes use of different machine learning algorithms , so that their quality can vary depending on the video and the audio quality of the same .

That is why we will explain how you can use this tool both for your videos on demand , as well as for live broadcasts.

Automatic subtitles on demand videos

Please note that if at the time of uploading your video you want to add the subtitles immediately , they will be published only if there are automatic subtitles available for the video, if it is so, they will be added in automatically to the playback. But, it is also possible that they are not ready when loading the file, everything will depend on the complexity of the audio.

In addition, it is important to mention that the voice recognition technology used by YouTube, stands out for its excellent performance. However, in some cases the text inserted in the video may not fully correspond to what the audio says , this is due to different reasons.

They can be a bad pronunciation, bad accents, noises in the background that do not allow good audio recognition or simply dialect . Therefore, it is recommended that once the entire subtitle process has been completed, review it in detail and correct those parts that have not been transcribed in the correct way.

In order to carry out all this it will be necessary to follow these steps:

  • Enter the “Video Manager”, there go to the upper right and select the option of accountAccounts.
  • Then select “Creator Studio”, there you choose the “Manager of videos” and finally “Videos.”
  • Now click on the drop-down menu next to “Edit” in the video you want to insert the subtitles.
  • There you choose the option of “Select subtitles.”
  • In case automatic subtitles are available for the video, you will see the default language of the same in the “Publish” section on the right side of the video.
  • There you can review the subtitles in detail and in case you want to modify somewhere in the text just follow the instructions that will be shown on the screen.
  • When it has been modified correctly if necessary, you will have finished this process, and your video will already have the subtitles.

Keep in mind that on many occasions the video is not capable of generating automatic subtitles in order to carry out this process, this may be due to the following reasons:

  • The audio is very complex , which will take the same time to process.
  • The language video is not compatible with the technology of speech recognition.
  • Exceeds the duration of 60 minutes.
  • A long period of silence at the beginning of the reproduction.
  • There are simultaneous dialogs of several people.
  • It has a very low sound quality.

Automatic subtitles for live broadcasts

In this case, these automatic subtitles are only available in the English language , and can only be used by those YouTube channels that have more than 10,000 subscribers and that perform broadcasts at normal latency .

In addition, you must have compatible software through HTTP POST. Therefore, if you meet these requirements you can do the following:

  • Create your live broadcast as you normally do, for this it is necessary to use the new Youtube Live platform.
  • Now in the tab “Ingestion settings” select the option accounSubtitles.
  • Then check the boxes to enable subtitles.
  • Then you will have to click on the URL box of “Subtitle Ingestion” to be able to select that address and copy it.
  • Now copy the URL to your subtitling service so you can access YouTube-compatible software.
  • Finally, click ” Save ”.

How to put and activate subtitles to a YouTube video of another person ?

Perhaps one of the most frequent problems when you want to watch a video on YouTube, is that most of them do not have subtitles. Well, basically this will depend on the person who has uploaded it to the platform.

But, What happens when we want to watch a serious movie or tutorial and it is in another language? In this case, it will be necessary to download this video to our computer, keep in mind that this can be done through different web platforms that allow the download of these files from YouTube .

In addition, it will be necessary to use the VLC media player, once the video is downloaded to your computer. Taking into account that this player has really effective and easy-to-use functions to insert a subtitle to a video .

Thus, here we explain what are the steps to follow to insert a subtitle to a YouTube video of another person:

  • Once you have downloaded the YouTube video to your computer, the following will be opened through the VLC player.
  • To this, you must locate the video file on your computer and right click on it.
  • There will open a drop-down menu where you will select the option “Open with ”, and then select the “ VLC media player ”.

Cómo poner y activar los subtítulos a un vídeo de Youtube de otra persona

  • Now play that video on VLC .

Cómo poner y activar los subtítulos a un vídeo de Youtube de otra persona

  • The following will be to select the “Subtitle” tab located at the top.

Cómo poner y activar los subtítulos a un vídeo de Youtube de otra persona

  • There, select the option “Add subtitle file”.

Cómo poner y activar los subtítulos a un vídeo de Youtube de otra persona

  • Windows Explorer will open, where you will have to select the STR file and click on subsequently Open.
Cómo poner y activar los subtítulos a un vídeo de Youtube de otra persona
  • Automatically subtitles will be added to the video and you can start enjoying a subtitled playback.

Better extensions to add external subtitles to YouTube videos

Another way to insert subtitles to videos of other people from YouTube is through the use of extensions , this in order to understand what is discussed in them. Bearing in mind that in most cases we get videos that are in a language other than ours which makes it impossible for us to know that they speak, which becomes inconvenient when it comes to a movie or series we want to see.

In this way, we can use the different extensions for web browsers that will help us add subtitles to YouTube videos.

Subtitles for YouTube

Subtitles for YouTube

This extension can be found available for the Google Chrome browser, it stands out for its easy operation, where it simply involves dragging the .SRT file over the video to which we want to insert it. As for its configuration, we can carry it out with the letter “V” to deactivate it, while the letters “G and H” allow you to change the synchronization in 50 millisecond intervals.