Free & Open-Source subtitle to Text+ tool for DaVinci Resolve. No subscriptions. No paywalls. Just captions that work.
This is an open source tool that uses the DaVinci API to create a Text+ caption track on a DaVinci Timeline using .srt files and a Text+ template.
- OpenCaptions always works with the focused timeline, no need to restart it when you change the timeline.
- OpenCaptions will always create a new Text+ track, it will not overwrite existing Text+ tracks.
- Create Text+ from a .srt file and a Text+ template
- Multi-track support with up to six SRT files with different templates, each generating its own Text+ track
- Export Text+ timeline tracks back to .srt files
- Convert Resolve subtitle tracks into Text+ tracks using templates (experimental)
- Export Resolve subtitle tracks back to .srt files (experimental)
- Remove punctuation (optional)
- Case conversion [none, lower case, upper case, capitalize all words]
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Install DaVinci Resolve 19 or higher.
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Install Python 3.10 or higher.
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Install OpenCaptions by placing the "OpenCaptions.py" file in the following folder:
Windows
C:\ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Fusion\Scripts\Comp\
macOS
/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Scripts/Comp/
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Restart DaVinci Resolve.
- Create a "Captions Templates" folder in your Media Pool.
- Place your Text+ templates in it.
- Write or generate your subtitles track.
- Export your subtitle track to a .srt file. (skip this step if you created the subtitles outside of DaVinci Resolve)
- Run OpenCaptions from the Resolve Workspace menu.
Workspace -> Scripts -> Comp -> OpenCaptions - Select up to five SRT/template pairs.
- Click "Execute"; tracks are generated in order.
- Simple to use
- Totally free
- Totally open source, you can audit the code, and make your own changes
- Cross-platform, you can use it on Windows, macOS, and Linux
- Compatible with both DaVinci Resolve Free and DaVinci Resolve Studio (paid)
OpenCaptionsAuto is a script that can be used as an alternative to OpenCaptions. It automatically converts subtitle tracks to Text+ tracks using templates. It is not a GUI tool; to use it, you name the subtitle tracks the same as the Text+ templates you want to use. It will convert all subtitle tracks to Text+ tracks.
- Python 3.10+
- tkinter (standard library)
"Open" because it's open source
"Captions" because it works on subtitles and captions
And open captions are the name for subtitles burned directly into a video. Since we convert closed captions from SRT to Text+ to be burned in as open captions, it's a fitting name.
The starting point of OpenCaptions is based on one of my older projects, Resolve_TextPlus2SRT.
But TextPlus2SRT was more a custom script for my own use than anything else; it was missing a lot of features, it only worked with Linux, required typing in a terminal, and it only allowed converting SRT to TextPlus, nothing more. OpenCaptions is intended to be a stronger base to work from to make a more powerful and user-friendly tool.
The OpenCaptionsAuto plugin, the subtitle to Text+ conversion, and the subtitle export rely on a bug in the DaVinci Resolve API that allows reading the subtitle text from the subtitle name field. If that bug gets fixed, all plugins that convert subtitle tracks to Text+ will break. Using OpenCaptions with an SRT file is more reliable.
