Exporting Open Captions to .SRT Files (Premiere Pro 14.9 or earlier)

[sghadden]

Hi, I'm new to creating my own captions. I created open captions in Premiere Pro and would like to export an .SRT file. However, when I click Export>Captions, the option is greyed out. When I Export>Media> Captions, it still won't let me selected >SRT.

How do I export the .SRT files?

[Stan Jones · Accepted solution]

You must select the caption stream you want to export in the project panel. Then you should see the captions option under export. You cannot export an open caption stream from the timeline.

[sghadden]

Can I change the caption stream after I've already made the open captions?

(And how do I do that)? What should the caption stream be?

Thank you!

[Stan Jones]

Open captions to anything else. You can convert almost any other format to open caption. Another option is to export your stream, and converted in some other programs such as subtitle edit.

Edit: On the road and did not edit my voice to text! Should have been: "You cannot change Open Captions to anything else."

[sghadden]

Can I not change the caption stream after I made the open captions? I chose

open captions because they were the only ones that would actually appear in

playback.

[Stan Jones]

Before answering, I am still not clear why you do not have what you want. You can export your Open Captions as .srt.

Now, re your question, short answer, "no." Longer answer...

Closed Captions do appear in the Program and Source Monitors. But to do so, using the "wrench" icon for each monitor, selection Captions, then "enable," and also under Caption settings, select the particular Closed Caption type (608, 708, teletext, open subtitles) and any other particular required for that type (e.g. line 1, 2 etc).

The bigger problem is that Open Captions, because a big reason for their use in PR is to burn in, have many format options not present in most other captioning formats in PR. Closed captions often have limited colors, opacity options, etc. Little is lost to convert closed to open. A lot might be lost to convert open to closed. It is possible, but would require a feature update.

A workaround is to export the Open Caption stream to an srt, convert in Subtitle Edit or similar to .scc (closed caption), then import that to PR. Depending on your purpose, that may help, or just be a long way to demonstrate that you really do want Open Captions.

[sghadden]

I cannot change the caption stream:

And I cannot export the open captions to an .srt.

[Stan Jones]

sghadden  wrote

I cannot change the caption stream:

Correct. An Open Caption stream in PR cannot be converted to any other stream type.

sghadden  wrote

And I cannot export the open captions to an .srt.

You should be able to. In the Project Panel, locate the Open Caption stream. Left click (once). Now File -> Export -> Captions and select .srt. Does that not work?

[sghadden]

Ok! So clicking on the captions ONCE in the project panel ALMOST did the

trick. I am now able to export an .srt, but when I bring it back into

Premiere to check the captions, it only has :40 of captions, not the full

10 minutes. In this screenshot, the caption stream is on v2 and the

exported .srt is on v3. Do you have any idea why this is happening?

[Stan Jones]

No screenshot... It might help.

Can you upload the exported file to dropbox or similar?

[sghadden]

Here's a google drive folder with the .srt and the screenshot:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=13zRhV1P-CLt_igacJ3Hu4LwZvnAZu6OT

[Stan Jones]

Got it. There is an extra CR/LF at the end of caption 5. When I delete it, the whole file loads.

This could be an editing error; an error in the original imported file that PR imported okay, but exported wrong; or an error in PR export or reimport.

Use a true text editor to avoid corrupting the file, rather than something like Word. I use Notepad++. I'll send you the file if you have a problem.

[sghadden]

What do you mean by an extra CR/LF? How do I delete it? I am COMPLETELY new

to captions, so if you could explain how to delete this and avoid it next

time, I'd really appreciate it. I need to get this to my film's distributor

and I will be making another set of captions in another language and would

like to avoid this.

[Stan Jones]

In route home, so a bit limited. I will try to send you the fixed file tonight.

But in a text editor, such as Notepad, but with enhanced features, such as notepad++, when you open the SRT file, and show view special characters, you will see the carriage return/line feed, and that there is an extra one right before the caption numbered 5. Just delete, save, and you're good to go.

[Stan Jones]

Exchanged PM, but the last bit of info worked!