- Supported Bit Versions
-
- 32-bit
- 64-bit
- Source Code URL
- https://github.com/ratwithacompiler/OBS-captions-plugin
- Minimum OBS Studio Version
- 28.0.0
- Supported Platforms
-
- Windows
- Mac OS X
- Linux
Provides closed captioning via Google Cloud Speech Recognition API as a standalone OBS plugin, no other tools required.
It's fully optional to viewers and uses Twitch's built in caption support which works on livestreams and in VODs on PC, Android and iOS, no Twitch extension required.
Features:
Captions should be off by default for most viewers but Twitch does sometimes have them enabled for some viewers for unknown reasons so occasionally some will be confused on how to turn them off and might need it explained.
Known Issues/Downsides:
Does NOT support native caption output for languages with foreign character sets like Japanese or Russian, that isn't possible the way Twitch and OBS captions work. Transcripts and Open Captions do work.
Does NOT appear to work with the AMD Hardware encoder in OBS on Windows (other hardware encoders like NVEnc and even AMD on MacOS seem fine)
This uses the built in captions support of Twitch's video player so viewers only get the limited amount of positioning options that the player provides. Viewers can choose between top/bottom and left/center/right for the captions box but can't freely move or resize it or put it into a corner. It's also not possible for streamers to pick a good custom default position for it, the default will be center bottom for all viewers that have captions enabled.
It's fully optional to viewers and uses Twitch's built in caption support which works on livestreams and in VODs on PC, Android and iOS, no Twitch extension required.
Features:
- Completely optional for viewers on all platforms
- Captions only when the microphone source is unmuted and active to ensure safety
- Works live and in VODs, no Twitch extension required
- Requires no extra tools or website open
- Supports many common languages with western character sets
- Supports OBS delay
- Open Caption support via OBS Text Sources for sites that don't support closed captions
- Saving captions transcripts as SRT Subtitle files (.srt)
- Text filtering with custom word and phrase removal and replacement
- Supports captioning all stream audio instead of just a single source
- The caption delay is usually less than half a second and should not be noticeable to viewers.
- The plugin only captions the selected audio source when it's not muted and when it's used on the current active scene to ensure safety and avoid any captioning when the mic is muted for the stream.
- Only tested on `Twitch.tv`, other streaming services with native caption support might work but not very likely.
- You can enable and disable the caption preview dock in OBS under `View -> Docks -> Captions`
- Some video players like MPV can show embedded captions on downloaded VODs but very few support that.
- The quality of Google's Speech Recognition heavily depends on the speaker and what is being said. The results are usually be pretty good in normal conversational settings like talking to chat but the recognition quality can go down noticeably when using ingame terms or other specialized vocabulary or during hectic speaking.
- SRT transcript files are generally recommended for saving captions for local recordings. They are supported by many video players, websites and tools and are easy to edit.
Captions should be off by default for most viewers but Twitch does sometimes have them enabled for some viewers for unknown reasons so occasionally some will be confused on how to turn them off and might need it explained.
- On PC viewers can turn captions on and off using the CC button on the bottom right of the player.
- On iOS it's a system wide setting: Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Subtitles & Captioning -> Closed Captions + SHD
- If it's already off but viewers still see captions they have to turn it on and off again (appears to be a bug on some iOS versions)
- On Android it's Closed Captions under the player settings options right beneath the quality selection. The option will only show up once the streamer has talked.
Known Issues/Downsides:
Does NOT support native caption output for languages with foreign character sets like Japanese or Russian, that isn't possible the way Twitch and OBS captions work. Transcripts and Open Captions do work.
Does NOT appear to work with the AMD Hardware encoder in OBS on Windows (other hardware encoders like NVEnc and even AMD on MacOS seem fine)
This uses the built in captions support of Twitch's video player so viewers only get the limited amount of positioning options that the player provides. Viewers can choose between top/bottom and left/center/right for the captions box but can't freely move or resize it or put it into a corner. It's also not possible for streamers to pick a good custom default position for it, the default will be center bottom for all viewers that have captions enabled.