Creating transcripts for audio and video media files is essential for achieving Universal Design; that is making the product accessible to all people regardless of age, disability and other factors.
Trinity College students and faculty are encouraged to generate transcripts for all of their media projects. The easiest way to stream media files with transcripts is to use the Kaltura video streaming platform. All students and faculty can use the platform by logging in using their trincoll credentials.
After a media file has been added to Kaltura, either by using media upload or Kaltura Capture, auto-generated transcripts can be requested. Follow this link for further information.
Trint vs Kaltura
In special circumstances, the Kaltura captioning process is not ideal. This includes media files in a foreign language (not English), or media that contain discipline-specific vocabulary words. In these situations, the STAs can support Trinity College students and faculty by creating transcripts for them using Trint software, which is an automated transcription service. Trint has the ability to optionally use a list of pre-arranged vocabulary words during transcription, which can be very useful for certain projects.
After receiving the media file and optional list of vocabulary words, the STAs will use Trint to generate a transcript. There are many export options for the transcript, including Word or text files, or transcript files that can be uploaded to Kaltura. The standard .srt format is the recommended file type and accepted by Kaltura.
Upon receiving the auto-generated .srt file, students and faculty can easily edit it for accuracy using a text editor such as TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (PC).
There are several export options available from Trint, but SRT and VTT are the most common.
SRT (SubRip Text format) is a widely used and broadly compatible subtitle format which contains the beginning and end times and the text for each subtitle. As a subtitle format, it displays:
- A number indicating which subtitle it is in the sequence.
- The time that the subtitle should appear on the screen and then disappear.
- The caption text.
- A blank line indicating the start of a new subtitle. It is compatible with videos played on most media players
VTT (Video Text Tracks) is modeled after SRT, and is essentially a newer version which accommodates text formatting, positioning, and rendering options (such as pop-up, roll-on, paint-on, etc.). VTT is the caption format used for HTML5 text track rendering, i.e. the editing of external text tracks. It is compatible with videos on cloud-based, HTML5 me
Request a Transcript
To request a transcript, send the audio or video file directly to sta-help@trincoll.edu. For files greater than 10 MB, transfer a copy to the STAs either using Microsoft OneDrive of the Trinity Dropbox service. Any questions, contact the STAs at sta-help@trincoll.edu.