Can you save caption timecode data from one sequence to apply across language sequences?

Report · Aug 16, 2023

Hello,
Using current version of Adobe on a Mac (M1 Ultra)
I have multiple sequences. Footage is identical, I need to add subtitles in different languages to them all.

I've been given the srts in all the requrired languages but they're not in sync.

Because the timing amends are minimal, I pasted my first corrected caption onto the remaining sequences as a guide to match the position and durartion of the captions.

Is there a preset option to save the caption positions and length (same as text stlye) to avoid manually amending each of them?

I understand this is working backwards as it would make sense to make sure the srts are synced in the first place or export a new srt. But sometimes on shorter edits it feels like less work to match caption layer 1 (English language amended captions) to layer 2 (Spanish language from client, then delete layer 1 and repeat.

My guess is that this isn't possible. If there is a trick i'm missing I thank you in advance for any help!

Report · Aug 16, 2023

@Luke31446762lm5q,

There are continuing improvements in the transcription/captioning workflows. But so far, I think the answer to your question is "no."

Your srt's are not synced, but if they are actually srt's, they have timecodes. There might be other issues. But I am assuming that the actual video had audio in one language, and that was translated into other languages. In this example, the original language is English. It should work the same way if it is a PR supported speech to text language. If not, it may still work.

Using the third-party SubtitleEdit (PC Only), try this workaround:

In PR, use the speech-to-text transcription to create English captions. In the Text Panel/Captions Tab, 3 dots, Export -> SRT.

In Subtitle Edit, open the srt for the first translated language. Now, File -> Import -> Time codes....

The timecodes in the srt will be replaced by the PR-generated timecodes.

In SE, File -> Save as. The type should already be SRT. Name appropriately.

In PR, disable the original caption track, and "Import captions from file" will again be active.

Does that work for your particular srt?

This is a version of this workaround where the translations are not in srt form:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/subtitles-with-translation-from-english-to-s...

Stan

Report · Aug 29, 2023

Hi Stan,

Thanks for your detailed response!
afraid it's Mac only my end but appreciate the workflow sugegstion.

I thought the answer would be no since Pr is reading information from the timecoded srt.
Fortunately, these srts are quite short so my current workflow of amending the EN and using that as a template to quickly drag captions to the correct position and length is fine. Alternitvely I could just amend the timecodes from the new srt across the other languages and save as re-timed versions.

It would be cool if there was a button in Premiere that mimics the timecodes of caption layer 1 and adds to layer 2 though... hopefully one day!

Thanks again!

Luke