Download MiVideo Video Captions and Use Them Outside of MiVideo

Environment

Canvas
MiVideo Mediaspace
HandBrake (https://handbrake.fr)

Issue

Download a MiVideo audio or video with captions, or just the captions file, for use outside of MiVideo (eg YouTube or other streaming platforms).

Video Demo

How to Download Captions & Transcript Files from My Media

Resolution

MiVideo captions and transcripts are separate files from the video. The MiVideo media players combine these files with the video for a seamless end user experience. There are several ways to share MiVideo content outside of Canvas. See the How to Share MiVideo Media Outside of Canvas article for ways to share content using MiVideo.

Downloading Video and Captions

User must be the media owner, co-editor, or a KMC admin.

• Navigate to the Edit Media page:
  • Canvas: Account > My Media > pencil icon next to the media item
    • or from the Media page, click Actions > Edit
  • MiVideo Mediaspace: user drop-down menu > My Media > pencil icon next to the media item
    • or from the Media page, click Actions > Edit
• The video can be downloaded using the download button in the top right of the player
• The SRT captions file can be downloaded from the Captions tab (download icon next to the captions to download)
• The TXT transcript file can be downloaded from the Attachments tab, or from the transcript widget when playing the video back in normal view.
• Captions and transcript files can be opened in a text editor such as Notepad, Wordpad, or TextEdit and modified as needed.

Resources

These resources may be helpful in using media and captions outside of MiVideo. ITS does not support these resources. 

Uploading SRT Captions file to YouTube

There are several video tutorials on YouTube, such as this this one titled How to Upload Subtitle Caption Files to YouTube Videos, that demonstrate how to add captions to your YouTube videos. Note that the YouTube interface is constantly changing, so your experience may be different than what is described in the video.

"Burned-in" (Open) Captions Using Free Handbrake software

Handbrake is popular free video conversion software for Mac and Windows. It can be used to combine a captions SRT file and a video into a new video file where the captions are permanently displayed (burned-in) at the bottom of the video. These steps outline the general process for burning in captions with Handbrake. For more support, see the Documentation and Community Forums at https://handbrake.fr 

1. Download Handbrake from https://handbrake.fr and install
2. Download the video and captions SRT file from MiVideo (see above)
3. Open Handbrake and Open the Source (downloaded video)
4. At the bottom of the page (or wherever you see Save As), enter a file name for the new video.
5. Click the Presets button and choose output settings (usually Fast 1080p30 is sufficient)
6. In the sub menu in the Handbrake Window, select Subtitles button
7. Click the Tracks drop down and Add External Subtitles.
8. Browse to the downloaded SRT file to add it.
9. Select the "burned in" checkbox option in the Handbrake window
10. Click the Start button at the top of the window.
11. When processing is done, open your new video to view with the burned in captions.

Related Articles

See related Media Captioning articles for more information about captions.

Additional Information

• Check out the new Academic Technology@Michigan website for course planning resources from across U-M
• Visit the Canvas @ Michigan site for faculty including the U-M Instructor Guide with links to additional support resources from across campus
• Check out the Canvas and MiVideo tutorials

For additional questions, please contact the ITS Service Center