AI Captions Setup · VSLStats Knowledge Base

VSLStats uses Whisper AI to automatically transcribe and caption your video sales letters. Captions keep viewers engaged, improve accessibility, and can meaningfully lift watch time - especially on mobile where autoplay is often muted.

Enabling Captions for a Video

Captions are generated per video. Once you upload or connect a video in VSLStats, you can kick off transcription from the video's settings panel.

Open your project and select the video you want to caption.
Click the Captions tab in the video settings sidebar.
Select Auto-generate with Whisper AI and choose your video's primary language.
Hit Generate Captions. Transcription typically takes 1–3 minutes depending on video length.
Once complete, you'll see a confirmation and a preview of the caption track.

Tip: For best accuracy, ensure your video has clear audio. Background music mixed too loud can reduce transcription quality. If accuracy is critical, consider cleaning your audio before uploading.

Choosing a Caption Style

VSLStats ships with three caption display styles you can switch between without re-generating:

Subtitle Style

Classic two-line subtitles at the bottom of the frame. Clean and unobtrusive - ideal for long-form VSLs where you want minimal distraction from the message.

Karaoke Style

Words highlight in sync as they're spoken. Great for fast-talking presenters and high-energy offers where you want viewers' eyes locked to the screen.

Hormozi Style

Large, bold, centered words that pop one or two at a time - popularized by short-form content creators. This style works exceptionally well on social clips repurposed from your VSL and on mobile viewers.

Adjusting Caption Timing

Whisper's timestamps are accurate but occasionally drift by a frame or two. You can correct this in the caption editor:

Click any caption segment in the timeline editor to select it.
Drag the segment left or right to shift its timing, or type exact start/end values in the fields provided.
Use the Sync All button to apply a global offset if every caption is off by the same amount (e.g., if your video has a silent intro).
Preview your changes with the built-in player before saving.

Editing Caption Text

Whisper is highly accurate, but technical terms, brand names, and numbers sometimes need a light edit. Click any caption segment text to edit it inline. Changes are saved automatically as you type.

Best practice: Run a Find & Replace pass for your brand name and key product terms after generation. Go to Captions → Edit → Find & Replace to fix recurring transcription errors in one step.

Exporting SRT Files

You can export your finalized caption track as an SRT file for use in video editors, YouTube, Vimeo, or any other platform.

In the Captions tab, click Export.
Choose SRT (.srt) from the format dropdown.
Click Download. The file downloads to your device immediately.

VSLStats also supports VTT export for web-based use cases. Both formats include your timing adjustments and text edits.

Displaying Captions on the Player

Once captions are generated and styled, you control whether they appear automatically (burned-in / always on) or as a toggle viewers can switch on themselves:

Auto-on: Captions display by default. Recommended for muted autoplay environments (Facebook, Instagram, email embeds).
Viewer toggle: A CC button appears in the player controls. Viewers choose to enable captions. Recommended for long-form sales pages where some viewers prefer a caption-free experience.

Troubleshooting

If captions aren't generating or displaying correctly:

Check that your video file is fully uploaded - partial uploads produce incomplete transcriptions.
Ensure the video's audio track is not empty or corrupted.
If captions appear out of sync globally, use the Sync All offset tool rather than adjusting individual segments.
Contact support@vslstats.com if transcription fails multiple times - include your video ID from the URL.