There are 2 methods for posting subtitled videos to YouTube.

  • You can export your InqScribe transcript as a SubRip (“.srt”) file, then post it to YouTube using YouTube’s “Captions” feature.
  • You can create subtitles using InqScribe’s subtitling feature, and then use HandBrake to burn your subtitles onto the video track.

There are tradeoffs to each approach. Creating InqScribe subtitles via HandBrake and burning them in to the video track offers you more format and layout flexibility as well as a consistent appearance across platforms. Since the text is burned in to the video track, it is not “accessible” to screen readers, etc. On the other hand, YouTube captioning can be turned on and off, is accessible to screen readers, and there is no loss of text resolution during upload. However, you have no control over subtitle appearance (i.e., format and layout).

We recommend exporting your transcript in the SubRip .srt format when uploading to YouTube. If you're having trouble getting YouTube to recognize your exported SCC transcript, please refer to this article.

Note: This discussion does not apply to standard InqScribe subtitling (i.e., “Save as Subtitled QuickTime Movie…”), which saves the subtitles as a separate text track.

Use YouTube’s Caption Feature

  1. First, prepare your transcript. The InqScribe documentation provides some tips on creating subtitle-friendly transcripts.
  2. Next, export your time-coded InqScribe transcript in either the SubRip or WebVTT format. YouTube supports both of these formats, so the choice is up to you. Here’s how to export:
  3. Open your InqScribe document, and select either “Export > SubRip Format…” or "Export > WebVTT..." from InqScribe’s File menu.
  4. Click the “Choose…” button to select a location to save your exported file, give your file a name, and click “Export.”
  5. For additional tips on exporting InqScribe transcripts, see this help doc.
  6. Finally, follow these YouTube instructions to add your exported SubRip or WebVTT file as a “caption” to your YouTube video.

Note: We recommend exporting your transcript in either the SubRip SRT or WebVTT format when uploading to YouTube. If you're having trouble getting YouTube to recognize your exported SCC transcript, please refer to this article.


Use HandBrake to Burn Subtitles onto a Video Track


This method burns the subtitles onto your video track, which can be useful if you want your subtitles to look consistent across a range of platforms (i.e., Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android). You can then upload your video to YouTube and the subtitles will be preserved. See the article on burning subtitles to a video track for instructions.