# Closed Captioning formatting

**URL:** <https://community.wowza.com/t/closed-captioning-formatting/94031>\
**Category:** Wowza Streaming Engine\
**Tags:** closed-captioning\
**Created:** [October 27, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/closed-captioning-formatting/94031 "2021-10-27T18:27:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rich\_Sokol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Rich\_Sokol](https://community.wowza.com/u/Rich_Sokol)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/closed-captioning-formatting/94031/1 "2021-10-27T18:27:24Z")

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For the life of me, I can not get our closed captions to appear centered and on one line. For some reason, regardless of what I do, they show up right justified and break over 2-3 lines. I’ve seemingly tried everything, without any success. Are there any devs out there that have experienced this issue?

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**Author:** ![video\_streaming](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/22d042/32.png) [@video\_streaming](https://community.wowza.com/u/video_streaming)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/closed-captioning-formatting/94031/2 "2021-10-27T21:10:59Z")

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Hi Rich, that sounds annoying. I saw some suggestion in a few support tickets:

**1)** Please set the “cupertinoVODCaptionsUseWebVTT” to true. We have an article on how to do this.

> **[Wowza WebVTT subtitling](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-stream-webvtt-subtitles-to-ios-for-closed-captioning#configure-webvtt-for-vod-streams)**
>
> Use Wowza Streaming Engine to convert closed captions in VOD and live streams to WebVTT subtitles for playback on Apple iOS devices.

From the article:

> ### Configure WebVTT for VOD streams in Wowza Streaming Engine Manager
> 
> 1. Click the **Applications** tab, and then click the name of your VOD application (such as **vod** ) in the contents panel.
> 2. Click the **Properties** tab, and then click **Closed Captions** in the **Quick Links** bar.
> 
> > **Note:** Access to the **Properties** tab is limited to administrators with advanced permissions. For more information, see [Manage credentials](https://www.wowza.com/docs/How-to-get-started-as-a-Wowza-Streaming-Engine-Manager-administrator#signinManager).
> 
> 1. In the **Closed Captions** section, click **Edit**.
> 2. Enable the **cupertinoVODCaptionsUseWebVTT** property, and then set the property value to **true**.
> 3. Click **Save** , and then restart the application.

**2.** From your application, set the following property under Root\>Application\>TimedText\>Properties

 ![Screen Shot 2021-10-27 at 3.06.50 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/wowza1/original/1X/a60822a679db9762a877035a3d84301c348d7bed.png)

You can also set this from the Manager UI by selecting your application, selecting the Properties tab, and in the Closed Captions section, enable cupertinoVODCaptionsUseWebVTT property. You will need to have advanced settings enabled for your Manager login account in order to view the Properties tab.

> **[Get started as a Wowza Streaming Engine administrator](https://www.wowza.com/docs/how-to-get-started-as-a-wowza-streaming-engine-manager-administrator?625-How-to-get-started-as-a-Wowza-Streaming-Engine-Manager-administrator)**
>
> Create and manage live and VOD streaming applications in Wowza Streaming Engine.

Save your changes and try your captions again.

**3.** The formatting kind of depends on the player. Have you tried it in JW Player? Some people have had better luck with the captions display in there vs a native Apple player. You didn’t specify what player you were using though.

Also. you can go to the spec here and when you scroll through. it shows some ideas on positioning the captions in the CSS.

[https://www.w3.org/TR/webvtt1/#styling](https://www.w3.org/TR/webvtt1/#styling)

* * *

I have found that more devs interact in out public streaming slack channel if you want to ask in there- should you still not get it to work. Definitely try it in JW player first and check the settings for captions in there and in the spec.

> **[The Wowza "LiveStreaming" Slack Group](https://www.wowza.com/community/t/the-wowza-livestreaming-slack-group/95725)**
>
> Greetings and welcome to the Wowza Forums! You may be wondering what happened to the Wowza “LiveStreaming” Slack Group, at the end of 2022 the decision was made to retire that medium and consolidate all of the insightful information and great...

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**Author:** ![video\_streaming](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/22d042/32.png) [@video\_streaming](https://community.wowza.com/u/video_streaming)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/closed-captioning-formatting/94031/3 "2021-10-27T21:11:48Z")

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One additional tip for you to check:

For VOD content you either want your captions embedded in the file or in an external file. Having both of those can and will cause problems with formatting. Please either remove the captions from your MP4 file or remove the WebVTT file.

I am assuming this is VOD but you didn’t say in your post. Good luck!

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**Author:** ![Rich\_Sokol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@Rich\_Sokol](https://community.wowza.com/u/Rich_Sokol)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 12:00pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/closed-captioning-formatting/94031/4 "2021-10-28T12:00:03Z")

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OH MY GOSH!!! YOU ARE AWESOME. I banged my head soft this past week. Systematically eliminating all the variables in the equation b/c our service has many moving parts, the web front-end, encoding service, network storage, db cluster, etc, etc. And I was struck that one of these piece might be impacting us. #LoveSimpleFixes. Thanks so much, this forum is fantastic and has been an invaluable source for solutions our team. I sincerely posted this question as a hail mary attempt, nothing ventured, nothing lost, you made my week!

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**Author:** ![Rose\_Power-Wowza\_Com](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/rose_power-wowza_com/32/431_2.png) [@Rose\_Power-Wowza\_Com](https://community.wowza.com/u/Rose_Power-Wowza_Com)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 3:09pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/closed-captioning-formatting/94031/5 "2021-10-28T15:09:41Z")

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Hey Rich, that was me, I forgot I was logged in under my other account. Your response makes me so happy ,you have no idea! I don’t get a lot of feedback here on whether or not this forum is helpful, so thanks so much and I am THRILLED it’s working.

I appreciate you in here too! Always ask and take a chance, If I don’t know, I will always dig for some hints on a resolution. 😀
