Instructional media used in our district is required by law to be captioned. Resources with answers to common issues about captioning include the following: 

Videos in the library media collection are required to be captioned.

New additions to the collection must be captioned prior to their being added, whether by purchase, donation to the library, transfer to the library from another department, or other means.

Due to staffing limitations, SDCC librarians do not handle any aspect of uncaptioned videos, including obtaining copyright permissions, sending out items for captioning, or managing DECT grant paperwork. 

Streaming Video: Be aware that YouTube videos use automatic captioning that may not accurately convey the meaning of the audio. Try previewing those videos with the sound off and see if they make any sense before assigning them to your students. 

DVD: Remember to check for captions when previewing a video for instructional use. Although the Library's media collection is required to have only captioned materials, sometimes non-compliant items slip through. 

So you've got a video and a caption file, but unfortunately the caption file is not in a format accepted by your hosting service. Or maybe your captions are playing out of synch or not playing at all. What to do?

If the caption file is in the wrong format (it's is in .cap and you need it in .srt, for example):

Use a free conversion program like this one: https://transcribefiles.net/other/pages/caption-subtitle-converter.htm. 

If the captions are playing at the wrong time or not at all: 

Open the converted file in Notepad or TextEditor. Check the timestamps. Make sure the timing of the speaking parts synchs up with the beginning of the video. Some videos will start with silence or audio other than a voice before the first speaking part, so make sure the speaking part starts at the right timestamp. See example side-by-side screenshots below, which shows one file converted incorrectly (1) vs its fixed version (2). The first file started the speaking part in the very first section and at the wrong timestamp. The fixed file shows the silence at the beginning when the video itself actually played chirping crickets during that period and the speaking part started in section two. 

To tweak the timing you can use a software package like SubtitlesSynch from the Microsoft Store (for Windows) or your can pull the video and the .srt into Camtasia (or other video editor) to move the caption file on the timeline so it is synched to start at the correct moment. You may have to delete some of the extra time in the timeline prior the alignment point to get the captions and speaking parts to play together correctly. Then save the caption file again with the correct timing (Camtasia will let you export just the caption file as a new .srt file). Finally, upload your original video and your new .srt file to your host. Test the uploaded video to ensure your host platform plays the captions correctly.