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I used to create closed captions for a television program that is mastered as an .mpg file, but lately, the captions have been burned into the video so that they can't be turned off and on. When I investigated, I realized that "Embed in output file" is no longer an option for .mpg exports...only Quicktime. The natural workaround was to export as .mov, and then change the extension to .mpg, but it's not working. The files won't play in VLC.
Notably, I am not creating the caption files in Premiere. Captions are being created elsewhere, and I am importing pc.scc (Premiere compatible) captions into the project, and exporting them with the video. Everything works properly in Premiere, but the exports do not have caption files.
I'm under the gun to get this resolved ASAP, as programs will be airing soon. Can someone please offer me some insight as to why, in the previous version of Premiere, embedded captions worked with .mpg exports, but now they don't? It's not even an option. The only options with .mpg export captions are "none", "create sidecar file", and "burn into video".
How do I export .mpg videos with embedded captions in Premiere Pro?
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
OK, so after hours and hours of testing & working with the TV station, I finally found a solution that works. I am posting it here, just in case anyone else is having trouble embedding CEA-708 captions in Premiere. The process is a little convoluted, but it works. Unfortunately, Handbrake did not work for me. This is the process that worked:
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You'll have to use another program to embed in mpg. In PR, you can only embed in moving and mxf. Export as sidecar to get the captions.
There is a feature request for embedding in mpg, but not likely soon.
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Thanks for the response, Stan.
Although that's disappointing to hear. What year is this again? 2019, and Adobe Premiere can't deliver usable closed captions yet? What software would you recommend for adding closed captions to .mpg files?
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I am on my phone until later tonight, and can't look at my notes. I'll report back later.
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Upvote the feature request:
Please add caption embedding for mpeg2 files! – Adobe video & audio apps
My notes add nothing. I think someone explored whether a tool like FFMPEG could create the embedded file
You might contact a company such as 3PlayMedia or another captioning company to see if they can point you in the right direction.
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Thank you, Stan. I genuinely appreciate your taking the time to help. I think I may have found a solution in Handbrake. It's a free program for creating captions, and it seems to be working so far. Thanks again!
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I thought Handbrake would only export an mp4. I think it will embed captions. Let us know what you find.
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OK, so after hours and hours of testing & working with the TV station, I finally found a solution that works. I am posting it here, just in case anyone else is having trouble embedding CEA-708 captions in Premiere. The process is a little convoluted, but it works. Unfortunately, Handbrake did not work for me. This is the process that worked:
I hope this works for anyone else who has been beating their heads against the wall trying to work with captions in Premiere.
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Congrats on finding a way!
Thanks for confirming that handbrake did not work.
The most important bit of info is that the station could take .MXF, since PR can embed to mxf.
Another work flow that works is to set the "import" settings in the caption tab to import .srt as 708.
Then export as MXF.
I cannot test right now, but I believe this should work just fine.
You can see the captions in PR as long as you set the program monitor to show captions, and then set the caption type to 708.
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Thank you, Stan,
I couldn't figure out how to set the captions to show 708 in Premiere. Can you tell me how to do this?
George
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"Wrench" icon in the program monitor. There is one option to turn closed captions on. Another to set which type to show.
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Brilliant! Thank you! I spent half an hour last night trying to figure that out, and got nowhere. That solved it.
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Excellent!
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That is a viable option, use it all the time for stations that take MXF and also H264. If you need an Mpeg file with 608 708 captioning, the only solution i have found is the program Captionmaker Pro. Render the video in Adobe premiere then use Captionmaker Pro/Mac Caption to embed the 608/708 captions into the mpg file.