WebVTT
lastmod 2024-05-24created 2018-10-232 edits
WebVTT (Web Video Text Tracks) is a W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standard for displaying timed text in connection with the HTML5
<track>
element.
An initial draft of the specification was written by the WHATWG in 2010, following discussion about which caption formats HTML5 should support. The main options were the relatively mature XML-based TTML (Timed Text Markup Language) or something entirely new but more lightweight. It is a standard based on the widely used SubRip format. The final decision was for a new standard, initially called WebSRT (Web Subtitle Resource Tracks). It shared the .srt file extension and was broadly based on the SubRip format, but was not fully compatible with it. The prospective format was later renamed WebVTT. In the January 13, 2011 version of the HTML5 Draft Report, the
<track>
element was introduced, and the specification was updated to document the WebVTT cue text rendering rules. The WebVTT specification is a W3C Candidate Recommendation, and its basic features are supported by all major browsers.
Sample
WEBVTT
00:11.000 --> 00:13.000
<v Roger Bingham>We are in New York City
00:13.000 --> 00:16.000
<v Roger Bingham>We're actually at the Lucern Hotel, just down the street
00:16.000 --> 00:18.000
<v Roger Bingham>from the American Museum of Natural History
00:18.000 --> 00:20.000
<v Roger Bingham>And with me is Neil deGrasse Tyson
00:20.000 --> 00:22.000
<v Roger Bingham>Astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium
00:22.000 --> 00:24.000
<v Roger Bingham>at the AMNH.
00:24.000 --> 00:26.000
<v Roger Bingham>Thank you for walking down here.
00:27.000 --> 00:30.000
<v Roger Bingham>And I want to do a follow-up on the last conversation we did.
00:30.000 --> 00:31.500 align:right size:50%
<v Roger Bingham>When we e-mailed—
00:30.500 --> 00:32.500 align:left size:50%
<v Neil deGrasse Tyson>Didn't we talk about enough in that conversation?
00:32.000 --> 00:35.500 align:right size:50%
<v Roger Bingham>No! No no no no; 'cos 'cos obviously 'cos
00:32.500 --> 00:33.500 align:left size:50%
<v Neil deGrasse Tyson><i>Laughs</i>
00:35.500 --> 00:38.000
<v Roger Bingham>You know I'm so excited my glasses are falling off here.