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Question

Subtitle timings are off after export a specific clip

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
September 7, 2025
1 reply
586 views

I have a long video that I break up in to smaller clips - essentially chapters.

When I am exporting these out, the subtitle SRT timestamps align with the full original video, not the specific clip I have extracted and therefore do not match up at all.

I can't find a way to fix this.

For example, lets say I have a 15 minute video and I am wanting to export the middle 5 minutes, the time stamps in the SRT file will start at 00:05:00:00 in relation to the full video as opposed to starting at 00:00:00:00 in alignment with the actual clip I have exported.

This seems really silly and I am possibly missing something obvious but are unable to work out why it will not align the timestamps to the extracted clip.

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Stan Jones

Community Expert

@James353365324886,

You can submit an Idea/feature request, but it is really working as designed. This question was asked in 2021 not long after the new caption workflow was introduced, but I don't see a feature request.

Yes, when setting in/out markers to export part of a sequence, the sidecar export will keep the timecodes from the sequence, not the in/out segment starting at zero.

I see 2 workarounds.

1 - Use a third party tool to edit the srt and adjust the timecodes so they start at zero.

2 - Once the sequence is done and ready for exports, duplicate the sequence, set the first out point, and export with sidecar. Then, for each export file segment, target all layers (including captions if you are cutting mid-caption), and cut the video at that "old" out point. Drag select all the tracks and captions from the previous export, and ripple delete. Then set the new out point and repeat. The exports will all start at zero.

Does that work for you as a workaround?

Stan

J

James353365324886Author

Participant

Thanks Stan. I'll definately put that forward as a suggestion because it does seem odd it does work correctly and timestamps do not align.

As for the work arounds - they are what I already suspected but was hoping there would be an actual solution or a more efficient way. Across 3 videos we're probably talking 50+ exports, they all then have to be re-uploaded individually so reality is a lot of work to make them correct using workarounds. I may just have to exlcude the subtitles or chip away at them bit by bit.

Appreciate you commenting though and confirming that I am not missing something obvious.

Stan Jones

Community Expert

@James353365324886,

Right; nothing optimal so far. I explored workaround 1 a bit more. My favorite app is SubtitleEdit. Results below, but quick bottom line: not really an improvement over workaround 2 - unless you already had all your exports. - and maybe not then.

@Mathias Moehl I'm not finding the time the play with Automation Blocks as I would like. Manipulation of captions can be tricky, but what James needs is a method of exporting multiple in/out sections with the sequence time at the in point set to zero for each export. Is that in the library already?

BTW, James, another workaround I tried was resetting the sequence start time for each in/out export, but you can't use a negative.

Subtitle Edit method:

In/out set so that In is 00:12:02. First caption after the in point is 12:11, 9 frames after the beginning of the clip to be exported. Export in/out with sidecar.

To confirm the problem, import the exported clip to PR, make sequence, and confirm that clip starts at zero. Import captions from file using source time, and confirm first caption is at 12:10 - as expected and wrong.

The SRT needs to have its first caption timecode at 00:09. But SRTs use milliseconds, not frames, so assuming 29.97 time, (9/29.97) * 1000 = 300.3.

Open the SRT in Subtitle Edit. The first caption starts at 00:12.375. To make that 00.300, we need to make it 12.075 earlier. So, Synchronization -> Adjust All Times. Enter 12.075, then click "show earlier." You will see the times change. X out the synchronization window. Save the file.

To confirm the fix, import the exported clip to PR, make sequence, and confirm that clip starts at zero. Import captions from the SE edited file using source time, and confirm first caption is at 00:09 - correct and in sync for the whole clip.

Stan

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