Timelines in fetched Subtitles are overlapping each other!

[perpi]

youtube-dl --write-sub --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en youtube.com/watch?v=OVHE6C3XQy0

The below snippet is a part of the subtitle of above link. As you see there are duplicated lines. The main problem is that they overlap each other on boundaries! It happens in both vtt and srt versions.

00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:01.930 align:start position:0%


<c.colorE5E5E5>greetings</c><c.colorCCCCCC><00:00:01.329><c> and</c><00:00:01.459><c> salutations</c><00:00:01.490><c> thanks</c></c>

00:00:01.930 --> 00:00:02.330 align:start position:0%

<c.colorE5E5E5>greetings</c><c.colorCCCCCC> and salutations thanks
</c>

00:00:02.330 --> 00:00:03.009 align:start position:0%

<c.colorE5E5E5>greetings</c><c.colorCCCCCC> and salutations thanks</c>
for<00:00:02.419><c> clicking</c><00:00:02.570><c> on</c><00:00:02.790><c> the</c><00:00:02.870><c> video</c><00:00:02.909><c> today</c>

00:00:03.009 --> 00:00:03.409 align:start position:0%
<c.colorE5E5E5>greetings</c><c.colorCCCCCC> and salutations thanks</c>
for clicking on the video today


00:00:03.409 --> 00:00:04.250 align:start position:0%
<c.colorE5E5E5>greetings</c><c.colorCCCCCC> and salutations thanks</c>
for clicking on the video today
we're<00:00:03.679><c> going</c><00:00:03.709><c> to</c><00:00:03.870><c> take</c><00:00:03.990><c> a</c><00:00:04.130><c> look</c><00:00:04.250><c> at</c>

00:00:04.250 --> 00:00:04.400 align:start position:0%
for clicking on the video today
we're going to take a look at


00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:04.620 align:start position:0%
for clicking on the video today
we're going to take a look at
the

00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:05.020 align:start position:0%
we're going to take a look at
the


00:00:05.020 --> 00:00:08.080 align:start position:0%
we're going to take a look at
the
unity<c.colorCCCCCC><00:00:06.129><c> desktop</c></c><00:00:06.980><c> in</c><c.colorE5E5E5><00:00:07.080><c> a</c></c><c.colorCCCCCC><00:00:07.129><c> boon</c></c><c.colorE5E5E5><00:00:07.410><c> to</c></c><00:00:07.910><c> and</c>

00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:08.480 align:start position:0%
the
unity<c.colorCCCCCC> desktop</c> in<c.colorE5E5E5> a</c><c.colorCCCCCC> boon</c><c.colorE5E5E5> to</c> and


00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:09.500 align:start position:0%
the
unity<c.colorCCCCCC> desktop</c> in<c.colorE5E5E5> a</c><c.colorCCCCCC> boon</c><c.colorE5E5E5> to</c> and
talk<00:00:08.639><c> about</c><00:00:08.760><c> some</c><c.colorCCCCCC><00:00:08.990><c> things</c><00:00:09.179><c> that</c><00:00:09.500><c> you</c></c>

As you see, each line is repeated twice and also is combined with the next line somehow!

---

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• I've verified and I assure that I'm running youtube-dl 2016.03.27

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• Searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones #8869

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• Bug report (encountered problems with youtube-dl)

[jaimeMF]

Unfortunately that's what YouTube provides, so it's a problem on their side. The ttml version doesn't seem to have this problem, you can use --sub-format ttml --convert-subs vtt to get the correct vtt file (note that the converter is not perfect, it may have some problem).

[ryancwalsh]

YouTube just exported captions with overlapping timings for me, too. I wonder why that would ever happen.

[Hitaro]

--sub-format ttml --convert-subs vtt

This doesn't work anymore! Any other solution?

[saurabhshri]

@Hitaro did you find any other solution?

[nickaein]

@saurabhshri Downloading subtitle with vtt format fixed it for me.

[thisisramzi]

This fixed my subs for me: I edited the SRT file with overlapping timings. Uploaded it to YouTube and saved. Then went back to edit the subtitles on the video. So I clicked Edit.

Got the questions pop-up if I want to overwrite. Clicked "overwrite".

And then clicked "Publish edits". Now

my subs are not showing in the roll-up karaoke format.

[perpi]

@thisisramzi wrote: This fixed my subs for me: I edited the SRT file with overlapping timings.

How did you edit it?

[thisisramzi]

@perpi Hi, I meant I edited the original .srt file, generated by YouTube in textedit or notepad, to adapt some mistakes.

[Hitaro]

@saurabhshri, nope. It downloads a messy unusable file generated by Youtube! The converter (ttml --> vtt) does not work unfortunately. I tried for this video and let us now your result for fetching the subtitle.

[perpi]

Try downsub.com and lilsubs.com