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Participant
January 24, 2023
Under Review

Multiple caption tracks visible for accessibility

  • January 24, 2023
  • 170 replies
  • 9215 views
In the previous version of Premiere Pro, I was able to add multiple captions and make them visible in order to have English/Spanish on screen. But in the latest version (Version 15.0.0) only one track of captioning is available.

This makes it hard for those of us who are working on making our videos accessible to multiple audiences. Please bring back the ability to have multiple tracks of captioning visible at the same time.

170 replies

Okie Eko Wardoyo
Inspiring
January 24, 2023
I'm so frustating with this limitation, for now, the solution is i have created another sequence for second subtitle. 😞
=======I'm just beginner, not pro :)=======
Participant
January 24, 2023
I am producing an ongoing installation which is updated with new content constantly - I needs to have captions in multiple places, its projected in a 10 meter room and we need to display captions on two walls, which was fine until the recent caption tool update, so I would like to have the ability to see two streams or more. Or is there a work around.
mattyboy1980
Known Participant
January 24, 2023
Would be really useful if we can get an update on this Francis or anyone at Adobe, have a multitude of projects on the go where this captions workflow could be used if there is an update.

Either having the ability to convert the Captions track to a video layer, or to convert to xml like these guys do - https://www.subtitletools.net/subtitle2xml would eliminate many of the problems we are facing.

Also means you don't actually have to add in any new features to the original captions - just means we can position and alter text and how many speakers we can view on screen at any given time.

These limitations of broadcast spec really hinders editors who are trying to use them for 1x1 and 9x16 versioning, and by the sounds of all the comments - in many other ways too.

I think I speak on behalf of everyone by pleading that you add this functionality into a new update.

Many thanks,

Matty
Participant
January 24, 2023
Truly the least accessible and most infuriating update. Did it not occur to the people making this decision that burning in multiple tracks is a very common choice for multilingual institutions?
Participating Frequently
January 24, 2023
Pierre I absolutely agree, and will have to consider 'subtitletools' if it’s not changed (thanks Matty).

Also subtitletools will, I think, resolve the safety area problem too - another crazy thing where Adobe apparently don't understand that broadcast isn't the only game in town...
Known Participant
January 24, 2023
I'm curious why this is still marked as "Needs More Info" two and a half months later. Francis Crossman, you ended your message with "we really are listening", but actions speak much louder than words. This seems like something that could be fixed relatively easily. Will it be another few weeks before it's fixed, or a few years?
mattyboy1980
Known Participant
January 24, 2023
Would the simplest thing not be just to have the functionality to be able to convert the captions tracks to video tracks so we can use effects controls and have more flexibility about how we use the captions? For those like me trying to replicate the in house text styles of certain companies we are limited in where we can position the text etc.

These chaps have come up with this ability which I think would be super super handy if a similar option could be added:

https://www.subtitletools.net/subtitle2xml

Please please consider it! Would save so much time rather than nesting workarounds

Thanks,

Matty


jgibmacu
Participant
January 24, 2023
Another +1 from me as well for this. At the organization I work at, we want to have *both* English and Spanish captions burned into the video (both visible at the same time) so it'd be great to have this feature.
Participating Frequently
January 24, 2023
Sorry, I should have looked at my own logs. Here is the link to Stan Jones' post on the subject of nesting:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/faq-workaround-nesting-to-apply-effect-controls-to-caption-track/td-p/11935335
Participating Frequently
January 24, 2023
Briefly, I will just remind others who continue (rightly) to complain about the recent versions of Premiere having crippled the ability to add multiple simultaneous captioning tracks, that the "nesting" technique Danny mentions below can still be used as a workaround, and it does allow you to set up multiple simultaneous caption tracks in the most logical way (i.e., all together)--hopefully meaning that when Adobe finally makes up its mind to restore this functionality (as I should have thought they would have done months ago) the projects in question should work correctly. It might be useful for Danny, or whoever originally figured out the workaround, to post slightly more transparent instructions on how to use "nesting" in series to achieve the desired results. I had to go back to the drawing board to work it out for myself, and someone may have come up with a slightly less awkward solution than the procedure I have adopted. One of my own desiderate was, hopefully, to try to keep my original project files "forward compatible"--i.e., in a form where some ultimate resolution of the Adobe-induced limitation to "one-caption line-at-a-time" burning will still be able to read the project file.