Burn Captions in Premiere

[kristij29811572]

I am new to closed captioning but I created the captions and am trying to export and burn them to my video.

However, they don't seem to be burning because my Quicktime player doesn't see any closed captions.

HELP!

[Stan Jones]

In the export dialog, make sure you have the caption tab set to burn in.

Also, if you had burn in set, try to "export" directly from PR, rather than queuing to AME. There is a bug that may be an issue.

[kristij29811572]

Yes I made sure the captions tab was set to burn in and I exported through Premiere...I still can't get it to work.

[Stan Jones]

608 or 708?

If you are burning in, you generally want Open Captions since you have more options for formatting. It gets complicated...

But Closed Caption have the option to burn in and should work.

What specific dot version of PR are you using?

What format/preset are you exporting to?

[kristij29811572]

I'm using 708...I have tried exporting H264 and QuickTime Apple ProRes422 HQ

Premiere version 13.0.2...

More and more clients are asking for closed captioning.

I usually have REV give me a srt file and I just layer it with my video in Vimeo...I tried building my own captions from scratch in Premiere but I can't get them to work.

[Stan Jones]

For backup and a test: select the 708 stream in the project panel and file export captions as an SRT. Does that work? Also, file export media in the captions tab set it for sidecar and see if it will export an SRT.

If your goal is to burn in, there's no reason to be using closed captions. Right click on the 708 stream in the project panel, Modify -> Captions: change it to open captions. Then try to burn in.

There's a problem that I believe was that related to being able to embed 708 vs 608 captions, but I don't believe that should be an issue. So what you were trying to do should in fact work.

[kristij29811572]

I tried to export the srt file and import into Vimeo and Vimeo didn't recognize it.

Now when I try to export using, "Burn captions" I see the captions on the exported file even though they are turned off in the timeline.

[Stan Jones]

I was just proposing a test, which appears to have worked? lol. The PR exported srt may require modification before you are able to use it with Vimeo. See this thread:

Re: premiere 2018 caption sidecar file .srt not accepted by vimeo

There are many formats in use.

kristij29811572  wrote

Now when I try to export using, "Burn captions" I see the captions on the exported file even though they are turned off in the timeline.

Turned off how? There are differences between Open and Closed. You probably just need to select "none" in the export caption tab.

[kristij29811572]

They are not enabled [going into the wrench and making sure they are not seen]

I realize that Open captions are on the video at all times and closed captions are the ones the viewer can turn on and off.

I need closed captions.

[Stan Jones]

Yes, this is the sort of confusion that captions create!

Your original post said burned in, and I kept wondering...

Just to clarify: as you say, Open Captions can only be burned in or not. Also, they can be exported from the project panel. Closed Captions can be embedded (but only to some format types), burned in (in which case they cannot be turned on and off), or exported as sidecar.

You don't need Closed Captions per se to turn them off if the platform using them provides the "on/off" option using a sidecar file.

For example, Vimeo is not using true closed captions, but similar to YouTube, using a sidecar file that the user can turn on or off. One difference (some of the time) between Closed Captions and side car subtitles is that subtitles can have more formatting options. But the PR default versions of such sidecar files may or may not be what the final application needs.

Is your final goal Vimeo? Multiple on line platforms? Etc.

[kristij29811572]

I believe my clients want to use the captions for YouTube, Facebook or other social media outlets.

It seems like as long as they have the srt file and the video, they can do their own closed captions in Vimeo and then publish to social media.

I don't know why they want a file with embedded captions...it's not like we're burning to DVD anymore.

[Stan Jones]

If they are using a sidecar file to play captions on vimeo/youtube, you are right: they do not need an embedded closed caption.

If they are asking you for a file with embedded closed captions, have you gotten that from PR now?

If they understand they can use srt and video (without burned in or embedded captions), you may have to use another app (e.g. SubtitleEdit or Notepad) to modify the PR exported srt differently for each platform.