How do I export closed-captioned movies from Premiere CS6?

[LesMLunce]

I am using Premiere CS6 (Windows 7) to create a movie with closed captioning. I use the MovieCaptioner software (http://www.synchrimedia.com/) to create the mcc captions dada file. In Premiere I attach the mcc file to a timeline sequence and enable closed captioning display. I can see the movie with captions in the program window. In closed captioning settings I have cc area and service both set to 1. I am having difficulty finding the correct set of parameters that will make Premiere export a movie which includes and displays the captions.

Les M. Lunce. lmlunce@gmail.com

[Charles VW · Accepted solution]

Hi Les,

Unfortunately Premiere Pro CS6 doesn't have the ability to embed the captions into a media file (as closed caption), nor does it have the ability to render the captions as burnt-in subtitles either.  Both of these things we've received as requests from other users and we're considering those among all of our other requests.

For our planning, can you go a little more in-depth about your workflow with MovieCaptioner, what you like/dislike about it, and where the files would go if you were able to do what you're asking for in Premiere

Thanks

Charles

[LesMLunce]

Charles –

That’s not the answer I was hoping for. Can you suggest any alternatives?

As to my workflow, I receive MP4 files of webinars from a university to

which I need to add captioning. I like MovieCaptioner because it is easy to

learn and use. The one thing I dislike about MovieCaptioner is that it does

not export to more formats, e.g. avi, dv or wmv. I am adding captions to

the videos to make the audio content accessible to persons who are

hearing-impaired. As I am legally blind, this project is in my opinion very

important.

Please let me know if you need further details.

TNX!

Les

[cavisto]

Soooooo ridiculous that Premiere cannot do this simple task.  We just upgraded to CS6 mc, a good $2k later and we still don't have broadcast needs met.  We broadcast in over 15 million - TV stations and cable head ends- they will not even talk to us if we don't have CC. 

ADOBE!!!  THIS SHOULD BE PRIORITY #1!!

Just let us output to file with CC!!  Please!!

So for the user above looking for an alternative, CPC or Pixeltools are really your only choice.  The Pixeltools guys were going to make a Quicktime plug in to allow for adding CC, not sure if that ever got made, but yeah, step it up adobe!  Give us actual upgrades for our money, only thing good going from CS5 to CS6 is now the audio does not drift with long renders

[Kevin-Monahan]

cavisto wrote:

Soooooo ridiculous that Premiere cannot do this simple task.  We just upgraded to CS6 mc, a good $2k later and we still don't have broadcast needs met.  We broadcast in over 15 million - TV stations and cable head ends- they will not even talk to us if we don't have CC. 

ADOBE!!!  THIS SHOULD BE PRIORITY #1!!

Just let us output to file with CC!!  Please!!

Make a feature request then: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

Thanks!

[bhansonwdsc]

Just curious as I'm new to Adobe products. I am creating projects in Premier Pro and then sending them to Encore for making them into a DVD. I am captioning videos for a school district's hearing impaired students and English Language Learners. I have been using Encore to add the caption file (.scc) to my project. I did notice that you could attach captions in Premier Pro but, if you can't export them along with the video, what would be the point of even having that option?

The reason I need to attach the captioning files in Premier Pro before creating the DVD is that I am combining multiple short video files with multiple caption files into one DVD project. In Encore, I can only attach one caption file rather than individual files to each piece of video. So I will have to see if my software (CPC) will let me combine all the .scc files into one and then hope that doesn't throw off the timing of the captions. I will submit a feature request but was just curious what purpose the captions serve in Premier Pro. Thanks.

[bhansonwdsc]

And I guess I should have added that I really need to be able to attach separated caption files to individual video clips rather than just one for the whole project. So that would be another feature request. Am I the only one that needs to do this? Thanks.

[Kevin-Monahan]

bhansonwdsc wrote:

And I guess I should have added that I really need to be able to attach separated caption files to individual video clips rather than just one for the whole project. So that would be another feature request. Am I the only one that needs to do this? Thanks.

No, you're not. Keep those feature requests coming!

[Guest]

Thanks Kevin. I made a request as well. This has been very frustrating to me as well.

[paBlw]

We use both Premiere and Vegas Pro. Vegas Pro allows us to get the embedded closed captioning we need now. We got it for the ability to add and edit closed captioning. It will be great when adobe catches up.

[Guest]

paBlw, what version of Vegas do you use? I wasn't aware it had that capability. I'm still sending separate files but stations are starting to ask more frequently to embed it. Also, is Vegas only able to embed CC into certain formats such as MPEG2, etc.?

[paBlw]

I've used Vegas Pro 10 11 and 12. All have similar ability to work with closed captions. Vegas will embed the closed captioning with Mpg2, and XdCam.mxf files. Basically that depends on whether the file type supports it.  It will also allow you to make external caption files for players like Windows Media, Flash, etc.   I don't recall what capabilities the consumer version of Vegas has for closed captions.     With Vegas Pro, you can also correct captions and reposition captions, not just see them like in Premiere.

[GWhizzDobe]

I am IN SHOCK! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? i downloaded the trial of cs6 to merge scc files to my video and export for the tv station.

after fighting for weeks!!! trying to export it!!! Because who the hek would offer such a feature WE COULDNT EXPORT!!! MY GOD. Like we all have editors so we can watch our productions in them and NOT EXPORT and share with the world!!! Geez! its NOT rocket science. No wonder FCP kicks your assets all over the place.@!!@@@@ if you cant export DONT ANNOY us and offer it in a preview only.

I cant believe Charles asking that mundane question above "

"

For our planning, can you go a little more in-depth about your workflow with MovieCaptioner, what you like/dislike about it, and where the files would go if you were able to do what you're asking for in Premiere

are you joking ;;; where would they go??? to broadcast... to tv.... to the world!!!! ANYWHERE BUT SIT IN OUR PREVIEW WINDOW!!! DUH. anyone else feel the same way??

HELLO VEGAS. HELLO FCP. GOODBYE CS6.. thank god it was a trial!!!!

[nw42]

would like to step in with a typical usecase:

--> Question: CC is the new buzz word because tv broadcast needs it - but - technicaly subtitles and closed captions are the same thing - a text stream added to the video - so PP sould support both for loading - editing - showing - exporting...

1. We use PP to check projects in realtime during mastering stage (playing 2K DPX, checking 12 channels of audio for sync and also subtitles and CC

2. We have to assemble features from reels - so we get one sub or CC file per reel

3. We have to split Subs or CC into Reels

4. We have to fix errors in Subs or CC on the fly (please insinde PP...)

5. We have to conform them to 24p/25p (video duration changes here)

6. We have to create burn in versions

7. We have to check character and font settings for D-Cinema XML Subtitles

so we hope for some progress here because we don't know of a good external Plugin for CS6 or CC7 to support this and the current workflow doesn't make any sense for us...

--> convert D-Cinema XML Subs or CC to Premiere CC-Format - load it to the programm monitor - check for problems - fix in external XML-Editor - convert - reload in Premiere...

[_Paz_]

It looks as if Adobe Encore CS6 will export subtitles when burning a DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXSPLG1edW0

I have been playing around with the trial of Movie Captioner this morning.

I can't figure out how to add the .scc file to Premiere Pro CS6 so I can see it.  Any suggestions?

thanks,

Paz

[nw42]

If I load Subtitles to PP CC7 - the font rendering is strange - character spacing much too high - line breaking doesn't matches the source - text is clipped...

hmm - I can't preview the subs this way...

Who is using the CC function - and how is the workflow?

[rmartin215]

OK, folks, it has been a year since the problem was raised and it appears that nothing has been done.

In a tutorial by Jeff Sengstack re to adding captions via Encore CS6, on the other hand, he says that it can be done. 

http://blog.infiniteskills.com/2012/07/adobe-encore-cs6-tutorial-closed-captions/

For me, it didn't work.

What's the deal?

[cavisto]

Yeah that only works for burning to DVD.  Long story short Adobe still sucks when it comes to CC.

Booo.

[rmartin215]

I burned it to a DVD -- it didn't work using either Encore CS6 or CS5.  I followed the instructions in the tutorial, attached the SSC file as he said to do .... All closed caption options enabled .... Nothing!!!

Am I doing something wrong?

[cavisto]

My only guess would be that in the video he uses a .m2v video file and a .ac3 audio.  Are your files in that format?    HEY ADOBE!!!!  ARE YOU LISTENING?!!!!  WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO EXPORT MPEG FILES WITH CLOSED CAPTIONS!!!!  This is silly.

[rmartin215]

Cavisto,

Using an .m2v video file (only) did produce subtitles on the DVD -- but the video is really screwed up!

I'll keep trying.

Thanks very much for your help!

[cavisto]

Right click the video > make sequence from file

[Kevin-Monahan]

cavisto,

cavisto wrote:

HEY ADOBE!!!!  ARE YOU LISTENING?!!!! 

This is a user to user forum, so it's not likely the people on the product team are reading this thread. My suggestion is to file a bug report to make sure the right people see your complaint. Here is the link: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

Others on this thread can do the same.

Thanks,

Kevin

[rmartin215]

Actually it does work, at least for m2v and mov files.

I'll try to explain what happened as concisely as possible.  To see if the DVD was working, I exported and burned only a portion from the middle of the video-caption clips; that resulted in the captions not showing up at the correct times on the DVD, displaced beyond where I watched. 

If the exported file started at the beginning of the premiere clips, all was OK. 

Perhaps more sophisticated users would have understood this, but unfortunately I didn't, and turned to the forums for help, and I want to thank those who replied, hoping it didn't take up too much of their time.

Whether this qualifies as a "bug" can be debated, but it does seem a complication that might not have to be there.

Thanks again.

[Guest]

Kevin, I sent a bug report. Here's what I wrote, followed by their response...

I WROTE:

I'd like to bring you attention to all of us frustrated editors who have to deal with closed captioning, and are expected to export media with CC embedded. Some of us have turned to FCP on a Mac for this task. Please see the Adobe forum thread on this subject:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/5860002#5860002

______________________________________

ADOBE'S RESPONSE:

That forum isn’t very productive to be honest.

We are not adding features to CS6 apps other than supporting them on current operating systems.   Premiere Pro CC adds embedding of Closed Captions and a full fledged editing captures feature.  It embeds captions into mxf and .mov files.   It also allows export of .scc and .mcc external side car files. 

Cheers

Dave

______________________________________

At least they responded quickly. This is a nice start, but IMHO, they should have made this a priority way back in 2007 when the FCC requirements for CC went into effect!  If and when their Cloud version gains the ability to embed CC into MPEG2 files, then I’ll consider upgrading if Sony Vegas doesn’t beat them to it. I'm so disappointed that this hasn't been more of a priority for Adobe, Sony, or even FCP.  BTW, earlier I meant to mention Apple's Compressor, not FCP. As far as I know FCP still doesn't embed CC.