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Captions Sidecar File not Created

Participant ,
Mar 15, 2023 Mar 15, 2023

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I'm running 23.2.0 and no combination of settings in the export window seems to create a matching .SRT file. I've tried in the app itself, and in media encoder. No .SRT file is ever created. The media file is there and looks great. No .SRT.

 

Yes, the captions "create sidecar file" is checked. And yes I can go up to the Captions window and export. But that's not "wtih sidecar file" means, is it?

 

What am I missing?

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Error or problem , Export

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Community Expert ,
Mar 15, 2023 Mar 15, 2023

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When reported in the past, this was due to one or more empty caption lines, and generally it was the first caption (a space or period character do not work). The symptom is as you describe: the media file would export, but no sidecar file.

 

BUT, this would also generally fail if the export was of srt from the caption tab, 3 dots menu.

 

And we did not sort every instance where this would fail.

 

I assume you have a Subtitle type caption track, and that you are selecting sidecar/srt in the export captions tab .

 

Stan

 

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Participant ,
Mar 15, 2023 Mar 15, 2023

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Thank you for your reply.

 

There are no empty captions. The exported SRT file from the Captions tab is perfect.

 

The captions look wonderful if I burn them in. I've been burning in forever, finally trying the .SRT file method since YT seems to prefer that.

 

Yes, the Sidecar option is on in the captions tab. And as I noted, the behavior is the same in PP or ME. The ONLY way I can get an SRT file appears to be to use the captions tab and manually export.

 

If this matters, I'm on an M1 Max Mac Studio.

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Participant ,
Mar 15, 2023 Mar 15, 2023

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OK, here's a fun one. Separate project. Similar style, identical settings.

 

It both burned IN the subtitle track AND gave me a sidecar file. What's up with that?

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Participant ,
Mar 16, 2023 Mar 16, 2023

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I have fully diagnosed the problem. It is a bug dealing with presets and the Create Sidecar File setting.

 

I have a preset for export with sidecar captions. It is based on my normal export with all my regular settings, but instead of "Burn Captions into Video" it has "Create Sidecar File" set in it.

 

When I choose export using that preset what happens depends on my export tool. If I export from within Premiere, it both burns in the captions AND creates a sidecar file. If I export from AME with that preset, it burns in the captions and does not create a sidecar file. I have tripled checked and yes, the preset does have "Create Sidecar File" checked.

 

When I select that preset in the export window, however, something broken happens. When I scroll down to captions, "Create Sidecar File" is already checked. But if I click on "Create Sidecar File" (it is already checked) the User Interface changes the preset to "Custom" above. So "rechecking" the Create Sidecar File setting appears to have changed something.

 

When I export using that "Custom" setting (again, it's my preset with nothing changed except I re-selected "Create Sidecar File") then two different options happen. If I export using this "Custom" setting from within Premiere, I get the desired results: no captions burned in and a .SRT file is created. If I export with AME, I get burned in captions and no .SRT file.

 

So the bug is in the handling of the Create Sidecar File setting both in the Presets and in transmission of that setting to AME.

 

How do I report this bug? Or is this good enough?

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Community Expert ,
Mar 16, 2023 Mar 16, 2023

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A moderator can move this to the Bugs forum. I'll try to test.

 

Excellent detective work!

 

Stan

 

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Participant ,
Mar 16, 2023 Mar 16, 2023

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quote

A moderator can move this to the Bugs forum. I'll try to test.

 

Excellent detective work!

 

Stan

 


By @Stan Jones

Thanks! Given that the export takes 20mins, it was a lot of time and testing 🙂

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Community Expert ,
Mar 16, 2023 Mar 16, 2023

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My simplified tests did not replicate your results. I have been unable to replicate some similar issues in the past, so no problem there. But not replicating may make it harder for staff to pin it down. I tested PR 23.2.0 and AME 23.2.1.

 

Here is what I did.

 

I used a simple sequence with one 17 second video. I create a transcript and captions. Then I used Ctrl+M to enter export mode, and created 3 presets - no captions, burn in, and sidecar. The base was just a match source, high bitrate H.264. Each time I started from the previously created preset to create another one. And I exported from PR right after creating each preset. After the first round of creating presets and exporting, I cycled back through, this time simply selecting each preset and exporting from PR. Then I selected and queued to AME and exported. I closed AME after each export.

 

All 9 of the exports produced the correct result.

 

Note that the change of a preset name to "custom" happens anytime you select any setting in a preset - whether a change is made or not.

 

I renamed every export at every step. This prevented the problem I had in earlier tests of similar issues when playing back in VLC player - VLC was using an old exported srt that made it appear captions were incorrectly burned in.

 

Any thoughts about what I may have done differently?

 

Stan

 

 

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Participant ,
Mar 16, 2023 Mar 16, 2023

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Well, I guess I need to do more testing to confirm my results. I too renamed each output to avoid the problem you describe with VLC.

 

My case was a preset I've been using for many months that had "burn in". It's a straightforward derivative of the 1080p base that changes to CBR20 and had captions burned in. Works fine in both PP and AME.

 

I then took that and made a single change: to Create a Sidecar and named it something new.

 

Using that preset gets the behaviors I described: I get BOTH (burn and SRT) when I export from PP and burn in w/ no SRT when I export from AME.

 

If I load that new preset, and then simply click on the Create Sidecar option and then do the export from there, I get the correct output from PP and still the same from AME (burn w/o SRT).

 

Note these presets were created weeks/months apart. Don't know if that matters. Also note that I have restarted PP (even rebooted) many times between the various outputs. Again, don't know if that matters.  Also, I'm using the Export tab, is that the same way you got there?

 

I'll create a smaller test and see what I can replicate. I had run six tests yesterday on a video that takes 20 mins to export making quick testing hard.

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Participant ,
Mar 16, 2023 Mar 16, 2023

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OK, I created a 4 second sequence with a single caption in it. I also altered the caption font dramatically so I could tell when I was seeing VLC picking up a SRT file and when it was burned in. I was able to test more robustly from that.

 

I took my old "Burn in Preset" and got a good file with burned in captions from both PP and AME. And not an SRT file to be found. All good.

 

I used my existing "Sidecar file preset" and it worked fine in PP and not in AME. In PP I got a video without captions and a working SRT file. Good. In AME, I got a file with captions burned in and no SRT file. I can confirm this because VLC shows no subtitle track available under the Subtitle menu and the font is my font.

 

I then used the standard built-in "High Quality 1080p HD" preset. It has captions burned in by default. The results were the same as above. PP creates a file with burned in captions and no SRT file. AME does the same. Fine.

 

I then used that built in preset, changed nothing but "Sidecar". PP worked fine (no burn & created an SRT). AME created a video with burned in captions and no SRT file.

 

I then saved that preset (built-in 1080p with sidecar selected) as "Test Side" and ran the tests again. Same results PP worked fine, AME burned them in, No SRT.

 

I then restarted AME, ran the test again (Test Side), again AME is creating a file with burned in captions and no SRT.

 

TL;DR: I can't get AME to work (no burn in and create a sidecar file). I also can't replicate my previous behavior with PP, my guess is that I was mistaking SRT captions for my burned in captions.

 

Thoughts?

 

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 31, 2023 Aug 31, 2023

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I have the same issue and exported 17x ten min videos expecting to get a sidecar and got burned in instead. It wasted a lot of time that I just do not have this week. There is of course a work around but for something that once worked it's super annoying and not what you expect from pro software. 

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 14, 2024 Mar 14, 2024

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I am also having this issue.  Using AME does not create a sidecar file.  If I export the SRT file using Premiere Pro, it exports, but completely loses all my styling that I did in Essential Graphics.  I would like captions, but don't want to burn them on the video (that seems to work).    When exporting from Premiere Pro, I chose to create the sidecar file.  It worked, but also completely lost all the formatting I did in Essential Graphics.  

 

Has anyone found a fix for these issues?  I really would like to have nice looking closed captioning, but not burned on my video.  I am using Premiere Pro 24.2.1 (build 2)

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Community Expert ,
Mar 14, 2024 Mar 14, 2024

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@pioneerbankroswell,

 

I just tested on 24.2.1 (on Windows 10), and I get an SRT sidecar exporting H.264 via PR or sending to AME. Can you provide more information?

 

It is true: almost no styling information is carried by PR to the exported srt. If you are usikng a closed caption format, you may get more styling in a different sidecar type. See this post and other discussion in that thread:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/captions-size-and-style-change-when-i-export...

 

Stan

 

 

 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 12, 2024 Oct 12, 2024

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2024-10-13_083036.png

In AME I set to create sidecar, but nothing appears.

This is on windows 11 with AME and Premiere 24.6.1. Also, the setting to create sidecar and not burn in the captions is not transferred from premiere to AME, it has to be set again (with no effect). It's a bug. 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 12, 2024 Oct 12, 2024

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Actually, even if you set in AME to create sidecar and then go back to check it, the option is not saved. This happens if you select either the H.264 button or the Custom button in AME. Saving this option simply does not save it, so it is not surprising that the sidecar is not created.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 13, 2024 Oct 13, 2024

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I tried again, this time setting the option in premiere, and then in export selected AME. This time the option was saved to AME and worked correctly. There is some bug, perhaps in premiere losing this option. Anyhow, with some persistence I got it to work in AME finally. Just set the sidecar option in premiere, then perhaps you need to save the project in premiere before exporting to AME... not quite sure.

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