Hardcoding draws the subtitles into the picture, so they play wherever the video plays and can never be lost or switched off. Burncaps writes the words from the sound, lets you correct them, and hardcodes them into a new MP4 on your own device. Your original file is left as it was, and the video is never uploaded.
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
The words are pixels in every frame, drawn in when the video is encoded again. Any player, app or screen shows them, in exactly the font, colour and animation you chose. Nobody can switch them off. Burncaps makes these.
An MP4 or MKV can carry a subtitle track beside the picture. A player that reads it lets the viewer turn it on or off and pick a language, in the player's own font. Whether it shows at all depends on the player.
An SRT or VTT file is plain text with times, uploaded next to the video wherever a site accepts one. It can be corrected later in any text editor without touching the video. Burncaps makes these too, from the same script.
| The situation | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Short videos for feeds, often watched with the sound off | Hardcode | The words are part of the picture, whatever the app or the viewer's settings do |
| You want your own font, colours and animation everywhere | Hardcode | A player draws a soft track in its own look |
| A video in a presentation, on a shop screen or sent in a message | Hardcode | There is no subtitle setting for anyone to find |
| Viewers should be able to turn subtitles off | Soft SRT or VTT | Hardcoded words cannot be hidden |
| One video in several languages | One soft file per language | A hardcoded video carries one language, so each language is its own export |
| The words may change after you publish | Soft SRT or VTT | Edit the text file; a hardcoded word needs a new export from the original |
| A video on your own website | VTT, or hardcode for a fixed look | WebVTT is the format the browser's own video player reads |
Many people do both: the hardcoded MP4 for the feed, and the SRT for the platform that accepts one. Burncaps exports both from the same corrected script.
An MP4 or MOV of up to ten minutes and 1.2 GB on a computer, or 250 MB on a phone. It opens in your browser and starts listening on your device, or on our speech service if you choose it, which receives only the sound.
Click any word in the script to correct it, and one click fixes every other place it was heard. Pick one of 20 styles, one to six words at a time, the position, the size and the colours.
The video encoder built into your browser writes a new MP4 with the words in every frame. On a computer the whole video keeps its own resolution, and an AAC sound track, the usual kind in an MP4, is copied as it was. The soft SRT, VTT and ASS are one click away.
A hardcoded word cannot be taken out of the picture: cropping or blurring can only hide it. Burncaps never touches your file, it writes a new one. Your last file (up to 400 MB) and its script stay in this browser for three days, so a word you want to change is a correction and one more export, not a fresh start, and exporting the same file again within a day is not counted as another free video.
Free to use: two videos every 30 days with no mark, or $49 once for unlimited videos. The soft subtitle files are free without limit for videos up to ten minutes, and downloading them never uses one of your free videos. Already have an SRT that is right? Burncaps writes its subtitles from the sound and does not load a subtitle file today; the page on burning subtitles into a video has the free one-line command that does.
To hardcode subtitles is to draw the words into the picture of the video itself, so they become pixels in every frame. They are also called hardsubs, burned-in or open captions. Soft subtitles are the opposite: text kept in a file or track beside the picture, which a player shows or hides.
No. Once they are in the picture, a viewer cannot switch them off, and no tool can take them out cleanly: cropping or blurring can only hide them. That is why Burncaps writes a new MP4 and leaves your original file as it was.
Hardcode them when the video will play in feeds, apps, presentations or messages, often with the sound off, and you want one look everywhere. Use a soft SRT or VTT file when a site accepts one and viewers should be able to turn subtitles off, choose a language, or when you may change the words later. Burncaps gives you both from the same script.
The picture has to be encoded again, because the words are now part of it. Burncaps uses the video encoder built into your browser; on a computer it writes the whole video at its own resolution, and an AAC sound track, the usual kind in an MP4, is copied as it was. Keep your original, since words in the picture cannot be taken out later.
Yes. Choose a caption language and the lines are translated into any of the 37 languages before they are drawn in. Only the transcript text goes to our AI for the translation, never the video or the sound. A hardcoded video carries one language, so make one export for each language you need.
Drop an MP4 or MOV of up to ten minutes on burncaps.app, correct any word in the script, choose a style and export. Free to use: two videos every 30 days with no mark, or $49 once for unlimited videos. The soft SRT, VTT and ASS files are free without limit for videos up to ten minutes.
What it is: a browser tool that burns animated word-by-word captions into a talking video, or cuts it to its best 30 or 60 seconds.
Price: free with every feature, for two videos every 30 days with no mark; Pro, $49 once, gives unlimited videos with no mark. Pro is not a subscription.
Privacy: the video never leaves your browser. The sound leaves only if you choose our speech service.
Files: MP4 or MOV up to ten minutes in; an MP4 with the captions burned in out. SRT, VTT, ASS and text files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes. A longer recording, up to 90 minutes on a computer, gives its script and those files: the first ten minutes free, all of it with Pro.
Languages and styles: captions in the language spoken, twelve Indian languages heard on your device, translation into 37 languages, 20 caption styles.
After it listens: correct any word (one click changes it everywhere), add or cut words, one to six words at a time, position, size, text and highlight colours, and names this browser remembers, all free and without listening again.
Made by: Jordan Labs Ltd, UK company no. 17358646.
Against other tools: fifteen caption tools compared, from the vendors' own pages.