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System · Built and used

Caption pipeline

Burned-in, word-timed captions without a subscription paywall.

Built and usedWhisperPillowffmpegPython2026
[ caption pipeline screenshot ]

The job

A popular editor gated auto-captions behind a paywall after two free exports a month, for a feature that is really just a pipeline.

The build

Clean video export, then local Whisper for word-level timing, Pillow to render styled caption overlays, and ffmpeg to composite them onto the video. No cloud, no monthly fee, full control over the look.

What it proves

A paywalled feature is often an assembly of open tools once you can see the seams. Owning the pipeline means owning the output.

Whisper produces word-level timestamps locally, so captions land on the exact word with no per-export fee and no upload of the footage.
No subscription
word-timed captions
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