Is there a Youtube-supported subtitle format that does positioning + Unicode?

Question

I am trying to add Asian language subtitles that are positioned at the top of the screen, not the bottom, to a YouTube video.

There is a list of subtitle formats that YouTube supports.

Using the program Subtitle Edit, I imported the .sbv file that was automatically generated from my YouTube video, edited it, saved it, and then imported it back into YouTube. The subtitles show up fine, but they are positioned at the bottom of the screen by default.

So, I next attempted to use the Subtitle Edit software to convert the subtitles to a format that supports positioning.

In Subtitle Edit, I have everything set to UTF-8. Then I tried:

• EBU STL (Asian fonts get turned into question marks)
• SCC (Asian text is stripped completely from the file)

I also tried making a WebVTT file and adding code like this: 00:00.000 --> 00:33.000 line:13 position:50% align:end size:100%, but I have been having trouble getting it to work even though the YouTube docs say that positioning is supported.

EDIT:

To experiment with WebVTT, I was using the code generator here, but as far as I can tell the line option is not supported by YouTube.

So how can I change the position of subtitles on YouTube when using a language that requires Unicode formatting?

Answer 1

Google Subtitle Workshop... it's an outdated program, but allows for full flexibility in terms of subtitles, size, language, position, lines, size, color, position, etc.

It's an old program, but it still works, and it can be combined with foot pedals- or a control surface, if you have them, to make transcribing faster.

Answer 2

Based on this Medium post by Michael Lockrey, I have been able to get positioning to work like this:

TIMECODE align:left size:25% position:0% line:50%

Make sure there are NO spaces around the colon: align: left will NOT work. I lost an hour of my life because I didn't realize this.