SRT exports from Caption panel includes style info in text by default

I have not tested various platforms recently. Youtube prefers SCC and supports only very basic SRT. Vimeo prefers VTT, also accepts SRT (and that's it), but gives no information now about styling.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734698?hl=en&ref_topic=7296214&sjid=6259223605815110843-NA

https://help.vimeo.com/hc/en-us/sections/21954896467601-Captions-and-subtitles

Stan

@Stan Jones this is helpful--I'd forgotten about the File menu export, and haven't used that method for awhile. I'll remind my colleagues of that one too!

I'm curious which platforms do support SRT styles, because I'm finding that most of the social platforms (where we upload a lot of content) don't; hence my complaining about the HTML tags showing up. YouTube is definitely a culprit here.

I am definitely not advocating for removing styles altogether--obviously, it's better to have the option to switch on and off. 

.VTT export would be good too, and I've been surprised it doesn't already exist as well; it seems like its support for styles is more robust. SRT seems to be mostly the standard, but it's good to have the options. 

I'll add a few comments.

A workaround is to set a Keyboard Shortcut for Export Captions (File -> Export -> Captions). This is unassigned by default, and requires a sequence to be selected to be active. The sidecar export here has the styling checkbox, but does not require exporting video/audio.

Many players/platforms accept the extended SRT codes. Not having style codes maximize compatibility, but having them can help function. Except that minimal styling is included in PR SRTs.

PR exported SRT with style includes the common in-text codes for italics/bold. But it also includes font color as an in-line code using 8 character hex (the last 2 are opacity) and this may not be supported even when font color is. (Styles exported in SRT do NOT include font family, caption position, or caption background.) The best option for exporting common styles (caption position, background, font color) is to use a closed caption type subtitle format (608/EBU, etc) and export as xml etc.

There is a popular feature request for .VTT export, but many of its advocates want a no style export (which is easy to get using third party converters), and I'm looking for a robust style export.

Stan

@Kevin-Monahan 

@Stan Jones 

@Blaise Douros 

The best I could find on this is that HTML markup re: style is "unofficially supported" as part of SRT. If that is true, then including HTML markup with the SRT file by default is a bug (with optional inclusion being a nice feature).

Upvoted.

R.

Upvoted. I agree that this is needed. And I have the same reaction: "A feature request that's so obvious and needed, it must be a Bug!"

Stan

Thanks Kevin and Stan; I'm circling back to this late. You're correct in that this is a feature request for the checkbox to appear in the Caption panel Export function--this would solve the problem. Thanks for adding this to the correct forum area.

However, I'll argue that it's also a bug report, in that the default behavior of the Caption panel Export function results in a .SRT file that is unusable. In this sense, it's a bug--a repeatable action that causes an undesired result, without the ability to correct. 

Thanks for your attention to this; hopefully this can be addressed in a future update. 

Moving to the Ideas forum for feature requests. Thanks!
Thank you @Stan Jones!

Kevin

Blaise,

Kevin's right; this is a feature request. And a good one for all the reasons you list.

However, in PR 2022  they added back an easy-enough workaround.

File -> Export -> Captions. There, the styling option can be deselected.

Let us know how this works for you.

Stan