Web Captioner can only listen to audio coming from a microphone. To make it listen to audio coming from another program, like a prerecorded video playing in a browser tab, you will need to reroute that program's audio into a microphone input.
If you follow these instructions, Web Captioner will only be able to hear this program's audio and NOT your microphone at the same time. If you need Web Captioner to caption both this program's audio and your microphone at the same time, see captioning audio from another program and your microphone at the same time.
Windows
- Download VB-CABLE for Windows.
- Right-click on the file and select Extract all. Extract the files into their own folder.
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Right click on VBCABLE_SETUP_x64 and select Run as Administrator.
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Select Install Driver.
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If this Windows Security message appears, select Install again to confirm. This will install the VB-CABLE audio output device and input device on your computer for rerouting audio to Web Captioner.
- Restart your computer.
- Open sound settings (press the Windows key, type Sound Settings, select it).
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Under Output, select "CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)".
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Scroll to the bottom and select "Sound Control Panel". It may also be on the right side of the Settings window.
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Select the Recording tab, select "CABLE Output", and select Properties.
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Select the Listen tab. Check the box for "Listen to this device", and in the dropdown, select the device that you use to listen to audio.
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Go to the Levels tab. You can use this to adjust the level of the audio if you need to. For now, keep it at 100. Click OK and OK again to close the sound settings windows.
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In Google Chrome, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site Settings and under Permissions, select Microphone.
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In the microphone dropdown at the top, select "CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)".
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If you are using a program with its own speaker/output device setting, make sure it is using "CABLE Input" as its output device.
Web Captioner will now caption audio coming from your computer instead of your microphone.
MacOS
- Download and install VB-CABLE for MacOS.
- Open Audio MIDI Setup (press Cmd + Space, start typing Audio MIDI Setup, and select it).
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Click the plus button in the lower left corner and select Create Multi-Output Device.
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On the Multi-Output Device that you just created, check the boxes next to the VB-Cable audio device and the device that you use to listen to audio normally.
In this case, I use "Built-in Output" to listen to audio normally. If I use Logitech Wireless Headset to listen to audio, I would have checked "VB-Cable" and "Logitech Wireless Headset".
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Open System Preferences > Sound. Select the Output tab. Select Multi-Output Device.
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In Google Chrome, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site Settings and under Permissions, select Microphone.
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In the microphone dropdown at the top, select VB-Cable.
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If you are using a program with its own speaker/output device setting, make sure it is using "VB-Cable" as its output device.
Web Captioner will now caption audio coming from your computer instead of your microphone. Note that you won't be able to use your system's volume controls to change the volume while you are using the Multi-Output Device, but you can still use the volume controls of the program sending audio (for example, YouTube's video player volume controls).