Video Content Management - Captioning Videos in Panopto


Introduction

Panopto is Virginia Tech’s chosen video content management system and video creation tool that allows users to create, share, and manage video content easily. 

Panopto is integrated into Virginia Tech’s Canvas platform, allowing instructors to record, upload, and share videos directly within Canvas. Panopto also provides tools for organizing videos, tracking engagement, and enabling students to review content.

This guide covers captioning videos in Panopto for creators. For additional Panopto topics, please see: Virginia Tech Panopto Resources.

Contents

Instructions

About Captioning

Restrictions

  • Post-production captions are automatically added to videos that Virginia Tech users upload to Panopto Video. 
    • To upload the captions to a video hosting platform, follow the platform's instructions. YouTube's instructions are here: Add subtitles and captions. 
  • Video creators can edit captions. Video creators can share folders with specific videos for editing (see below).

Machine (Automatic Speech Recognition) Captions

For all videos uploaded to Panopto Video, machine captions are generated using automatic speech recognition (ASR) software. Accuracy is typically around 95%, though factors such as audio quality, the speaker, and specialized or complex terminology may impact accuracy.

Machine captions are free for all Virginia Tech affiliates’ media. While captions typically process in under 15 minutes, the exact processing time depends on the video length and overall video processing time. Captions can be edited for accuracy in Panopto Video. 

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Editing Captions

Machine captions are generated with automatic speech recognition software and are ~95% accurate. Video creators can edit captions in Panopto's captioning editing tool.

Video creators can edit captions. 

  1. In Panopto, browse to the media entry and select the video thumbnail or title.
  2. Click on Open in Editor, located in the top right.
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  3. Click on Captions on the left toolbar.
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  4. The Captions Editor has:
    1. The video on the right.
    2. The caption edit box on the left.
    3. Language at the top.
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  5. To edit caption text, hover over the caption and then click on the corresponding text. 
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    1. Change caption timing by clicking on the dots next to the caption text, then clicking Edit.
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    2. After editing the caption start time and/or end time, click Save.
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    3. Delete captions by clicking on the three dots next to the caption text and clicking delete. Note that if you delete an entire caption, the timestamp for that caption disappears, so only delete a caption if that exact time in your video should not show captions.
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  6. After editing captions, click Apply in the top right of the video editor.
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  7. Refresh the video and play it to check your work.

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Sharing Videos for Caption Editing

To allow someone else to edit Panopto video captions, you must share its folder with them and grant Creator access. Viewers and Publishers can watch or share videos, but only Creators can edit captions. Sharing edit access is best done at the folder level when collaborators will work on multiple videos, as this ensures consistent permissions and avoids issues with ownership or missing features.

Note that My Folder cannot be shared with other people. To create a folder to share:

  1. Create a new folder inside My Folder. See: How to Create a New Folder.
  2. Go to the new folder. 
  3. Click the Share button to pull up the folder’s sharing permissions.
  4. Under People and groups, click Change.
  5. In the Stop inheriting users and permissions pop-up, click Stop Inheriting.
  6. The folder will no longer inherit permissions from the parent folder, allowing you to add others to your folder. 
    1. The Creator role allows access to editing captions.
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  7. Once you add people to the folder:
    1. Type a message and click Send to notify them or
    2.  Toggle the Send an email to notify people option off, then click Save.

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Downloading Caption File

Captions exist in a separate TXT file and don't automatically download/upload with the associated video.

To download captions: 

  1. Navigate to the video and select Settings.
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  2. Click on the Captions tab on the left.
  3. Under Available Captions, click English (United States) to expand the options.
  4. If needed, click Change language to update the language for the caption file download.  
  5. Next, click Download file.
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  6. Save the caption file to your computer.

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Viewing and Searching Transcripts

  • Captions appear on screen and are synced with the video.
  • Transcripts have the same words, but in a separate, searchable document. 
  1. From Panopto, click on a video thumbnail or title to go to the video.
  2. Click on Captions in the left toolbar, and the transcript will appear to the left of the video.
  3. Search your transcripts by entering a key term in the Search this recording field to find where the term appears in the video.
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Getting Help

If you need help with Panopto in general:

If you still have questions:

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