Video to SRT for every common format
Videos come from many places, and each tends to use its own format. RocketScribe reads the audio from all of these and builds the subtitles from it, so you do not need to convert anything first.
- MOV from iPhones and many cameras.
- MP4 and M4V from Android phones, editors and most exports.
- MKV, often from OBS and other screen recorders.
- WEBM from browser-based recorders.
- AVI and WMV from older Windows software and cameras.
- MPG, MPEG and TS from camcorders, TV recordings and DVD rips.
- 3GP from older mobile phones.
Subtitle files versus burned-in captions
An SRT or VTT file is a sidecar file. It sits next to the video, and the viewer or platform decides whether to show it. Viewers can turn it on and off, search engines and platforms can read the text, and you can fix a typo without exporting the video again.
Burned-in captions are part of the picture. They always show, and they are common on short social clips that autoplay without sound. RocketScribe creates sidecar files only. To burn captions in, import the SRT into your video editor, style it there, and render the video. Doing it this way means the words are checked once and you can reuse the same file for every version of the video.
SRT or VTT: which one to download
Both formats hold numbered or listed cues with a start time, an end time and the text. The practical difference is where they are accepted.
Download SRT for YouTube, for importing into editing software and for most upload forms that ask for a subtitle file. Download VTT if you host the video yourself. The HTML video element reads subtitles through a track tag, and that tag expects WebVTT. Many web players built on it use VTT for the same reason. You can export both from one transcript at no extra step.
Honest notes on timing and accuracy
Subtitle timing comes from the speech recognition. RocketScribe cuts the transcript into cues of up to two lines and breaks them at sentence ends, pauses and speaker changes. You cannot change these rules, and there are no settings for characters per line or subtitle styling. If a platform has strict caption rules, adjust the cues in your editor after import.
Accuracy depends on the audio inside the video. A presenter close to the microphone transcribes very well. Gameplay with loud effects, vlogs with music under the voice, conference talks recorded from the back of a room and several people talking over each other all produce more errors. Check those parts in the synced player and fix them before you export.
Practical tips for long or large videos
Long recordings such as webinars, lectures and streams can be large files. Uploads are resumable, so a dropped connection does not mean starting again. If a file is still too large for your plan, export an audio-only copy from your editor and upload that. Keep the start point the same as the video, or the subtitles will be offset.
Speaker labels are useful in interviews and panels. They are available on paid plans or with a Minute Pack, and you can include or leave out the names when you export the subtitles.
Screen recordings often capture both your microphone and the computer's sound. Notification chimes, video clips playing on screen and background music all reach the transcript as noise. If your recorder can save the microphone on its own, use that recording for the subtitles. For older formats such as AVI or 3GP with low-quality sound, expect to spend a little more time correcting the text before export.