Captioning with OBS for Live Streams

Using ZipCaptions with OBS to add Live Captions to your streams

There is more information about other ways to caption using OBS in the Advanced section.

To use this feature there are some steps that you will need to follow in both ZipCaptions, and in OBS. Before we begin you need to ensure that you have the following:

1. ZipCaptions open in a supported web browser

2. OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Download Here for Windows, Mac or Linux

Once you have your pre-requisites out of the way you then need to set up OBS

1. Open OBS and click on the Tools menu and then Web Socket Server Settings

   
2. In the window which opens, check the box Enable WebSocket Server set a port which you can use (the default is 4455 and should be fine), and click Generate Password.

   
3. Now click on the Show Connect Info button and copy the Password shown in the box by clicking on the Copy button next to it.

   
4. Now close the box and go to your browser window with ZipCaptions in it. Click on the hamburger menu and choose settings.

   
5. Click on the OBS Tab on the settings page

   
6. Set the Server IP to localhost (unless you’re running OBS on a different computer to ZipCaptions, in which case you would enter the IP address of the computer running OBS), set the Server Port to 4455 (unless you chose a different port in the setup in OBS, in which case you should enter the port you chose), and finally paste the password that you copied from OBS into the Password box and click on the Connect button. The Captioning will now automatically start.

   
7. You will now see at the top of the screen that OBS is connected. The OBS icon will now appear at the top of the screen with a blue dot. This icon can be clicked on to control the session.

   
8. Click on the OBS icon in the top right, and choose Listen

   
9. This takes you to the captioning screen

   
10. Leave ZipCaptions open and head back into OBS, you can now start your stream and the captions will be sent to the stream from OBS.

Depending on the service that you are using you may need to tell it that you are sending captions with your stream. For example, YouTube Live requires you to check the Captions box before you start your stream.

The captions that ZipCaptions outputs are in the 608 Format. You can see an example of the settings required for YouTube Live below:

To disconnect from OBS, click on the OBS icon in Zip Captions and choose disconnect or, go to settings and choose disconnect under the OBS tab. You can reconnect from the same menu once you have disconnected as long as OBS is still open and the Websocket settings have not changed.