Getting Started

This guide walks you through your first Closed Caption Converter session, from signing up through to running your first conversion. Closed Caption Converter is available as a web application, an API, and a CLI tool. All three share the same underlying conversion engine, the same format support, and the same filter library — only the interface differs.

Creating an Account

To use the Closed Caption Converter web application or API, you will need to create an account at app.closedcaptionconverter.com. A free 7-day trial is available with no credit card required, giving you full access to all features including API calls, filters, and access provider integrations.

Once registered you will be taken to the main dashboard. From here you can submit jobs, manage API keys, configure Access Providers, create and store presets, and review job history. The CLI does not require an online account — it runs entirely offline with a locally-provided license file.

Using the Web Application

The web application runs entirely in your browser. Caption files are never uploaded to any server — all decoding, filtering, and encoding is performed locally using WebAssembly. This makes the web application suitable for sensitive content and air-gapped workflows that still have internet access for the application itself.

To convert a file, click Select File and choose one or more caption files from your computer. Closed Caption Converter will automatically attempt to detect the source format based on the file extension and content. You can then select your Target Profile (the output format), adjust the Frame Rate, and optionally enable any Filters you want applied before encoding.

Once you are satisfied with the configuration, click Convert to process the file. The output file will be available for download immediately. No data leaves your device at any point.

Selecting Profiles

The Source Profile tells the engine how to read your input file. In most cases the web application will detect this automatically, but you can override the selected profile by opening the source profile dropdown and choosing from the full list. The Target Profile determines the output format. You can pick any encode-capable profile from the dropdown regardless of what the source format is.

For a complete list of all supported source and target profiles, see Profiles & Formats.

Configuring Filters

Filters are optional transformation steps that run between decoding and encoding. To add a filter, click the Add Filter button and select from the list. Filters are applied in the order they appear. You can drag to reorder them and remove any filter individually using the remove button on its row. Each filter expands to show its configuration options inline.

For a full description of every filter and its settings, see Filters.

Encoding & Decoding Options

Many profiles expose format-specific configuration that controls how they read or write files — for example the character encoding of a text file, the channel assignment for SCC data, or language metadata for EBU-STL. These options appear automatically when you select a profile that supports them. See Encoding & Decoding Options for more detail.

Your First API Job

If you plan to use the Closed Caption Converter API, begin by generating an API key from the dashboard. Navigate to Settings → API Keys, then click Generate New Key. Your API key is used as a Bearer token in every request.

The base URL for the API is:

https://api.closedcaptionconverter.com

A minimal conversion job can be submitted with a single POST request containing a Job Description. See API — Getting Started for a full walkthrough including authentication, your first request, and the Postman collection.

Your First CLI Job

The CLI is a single binary executable available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It accepts a Job Description JSON file (the same format used by the API) and processes caption files locally on your machine. No internet connection is required after the binary is deployed.

See the CLI page for download instructions, installation, and your first conversion command.

Next Steps

Once you have completed your first conversion, explore the following areas to get more out of Closed Caption Converter:

Topic	Description
Profiles & Formats	Browse the complete list of 30+ supported source and target formats.
Filters	Learn how each filter works and when to use it.
Encoding & Decoding Options	Understand the format-specific options exposed by each profile.
Access Providers	Set up BYOK integrations for transcription, translation, storage, and platform delivery.
API — Job Types & Descriptions	Understand the full Job Description schema and all supported job types.
API — Presets	Save frequently-used configurations as named presets for reuse in code.
CLI	Deploy the CLI for on-premise and offline workflows.