Duplicate text in captions imported from .srt file (Premiere Pro 14.9 or earlier)

[chavab1]

I managed to figure out how to get my captions imported from an .srt file. The problem is that, starting from the 2nd caption block, every block displays the last sentence from the previous block along with the next sentence. So it just looks off because the last sentence always gets repeated again in the next block.

I don't know if this is how it's suppose to work or if there's a setting that can be toggled off. I open up the .srt file to compare it with what's being displayed and the original file doesn't repeat the text so it looks like a Premiere issue. I had to go into each block and delete the first sentence to get around this problem, but I was really hoping there's a better solution.

Thanx

[Stan Jones]

This does not occur in the  srt's I have used recently. Please post the first 4 or 5 subtitles here, or link to the srt file so I can take a look.

[chavab1]

The first pic is after I've imported it on to Premiere. All that I do is open up to see the captions.

The second pic is what the raw file looks like when I open in notepad. The only thing I do in Notepad is save it to UTF8 encoding. But I also tried it with the default encoding and got the same results.

The .srt file is being generated from YouTube.

Thank you very much for your quick reply and your help.

[Stan Jones]

The time codes are overlapping. That file won't work correctly. YouTube did not export like that on my last test.

[Stan Jones]

First, I was wrong. YouTube exported exactly like that!

But the timecodes do overlap, because the youtube "style" is credits rolling on, rather than popping on. Premiere imports and repeats a line so it is "correct" as to what is on the screen at any one time. But obviously, NOT correct.

Still playing with this....

[chavab1]

Thanx for looking into this.

Yeah, I figured it might be doing a credits-rolling style thing. That's why I didn't know if this was the way it suppose to display or if there was a setting I could change to display it differently. Because everything else seems fine.

[Stan Jones]

I only see options in PR for rolling (2-4 lines) and pop in if they are closed captions, at least not open captions.

I'm playing with a way to convert the YouTube downloaded .srt so PR will read it correctly (as a pop in).

I think I can also do it with a script, but that takes time...

I wonder if someone in YouTube land has also sorted this?

Little time today, so not much progress!

[chavab1]

OK, well once again thank you very much for looking into this.

I managed to get my project done by manually deleting the first line of each block. But it would sure be helpful if I didn't have to do it this way next time. I'll keep monitoring and doing research on YouTube to see if anyone has a solution ready.

[Stan Jones · Accepted solution]

I had some fun!

The hard way: Notepad++, macros, blah, blah. Sorta worked. Took it to Subtitle edit to renumber...

Easy way (finally found it when back in subtitle edit): Open YouTube .srt in subtitle edit. Tools -> Fix common errors. Retimed! In PR, the times do not overlap, and displays as single line. I did not check the sync, but the times are in the ball park.

Give this a try if you can, or send me your original .srt, and I'll convert it and send back for you to test. (I'll send you a PM.)

[chavab1]

Thank you very much!! This totally worked. I did as you suggested and it works. The sync is a little off in some areas but not bad enough where it would be a concern.

I hadn't used Subtitle Edit. The only captioning tool that I've used is Subtitle Horse  . This is much better because it also does the encoding; I was doing it in plain Notepad. So now I'll just add this tool to my workflow.

Once again, thank you very much!!

[Stan Jones]

Excellent!

[LightUpTheDarkness]

Thanks all...so, is it to be understood that these vertically scrolling (one line rolling up to show the next line simultaneously) captions, commonly found on YouTube videos, are not possible in Premiere Pro CC, at least not yet?

[Stan Jones]

Not as open captions. This thread was addressing them only as open captions.

It appears to work as closed captions. You select all the captions in the caption panel, then set them to "Roll Up (2 lines)" - up to 4 lines.

I have not tested the full workflow. But I was able to burn into an mp4.

I was using a youtube export that had them already set as 2 lines.

[LightUpTheDarkness]

Great, thanks Stan!

[guillaumemajor]

Hi Everybody, Same problem but I do not understand how you do :

- Easy way (finally found it when back in subtitle edit): Open YouTube .srt in subtitle edit. Tools -> Fix common errors. Retimed! In PR, the times do not overlap, and displays as single line. I did not check the sync, but the times are in the ball park. ---> Subtitle edit is a Software. I am on macosx and I see it only for windows ---> I try by using my windows computer waiting for a solution on mac 😉

- Subtitle Horse: Online Subtitle/Captions Editor | subtitle-horse.com don't understand how to use it, I put the link to my video subtitles doesn't appear, I try to insert the srt on the import solution but it don't propose to upload it.

Thank you for your precious help  

[Stan Jones]

I don't think Subtitle Horse will work.

I don't know what to try for Mac. You might try Aegisub, but I did not find a way to search for the equivalent of "fix common errors."

Regarding my comment above "Easy way …." Subtitle Edit has a function that looks at a caption file (e.g. srt), and finds and fixes "common errors." Very useful.

[quirky_day1587]

Hey to all!

The suggested answer is good, although not perfect, so I came up with a better and easier solution. I'm working on Mac OS X and had to use Subtitle Edit on my partner's laptop PC which worked ok but... while it removed the overlapping times, it also messed up the timing a little bit randomly and on a 30 minute talking head video this is a lot of work to readjust the timings.

So ... thinking outside the box - because in Premiere Pro the currently spoken caption is always displayed at the bottom - the simple solution is to apply opacity mask to that caption track which will hide the top line and the duplicate line problem is fixed with perfect timings coming straight from YouTube! It even helps to make the caption background shorter as it seems to stick out far beyond the top of the line by default.

I hope this helps you guys. Have fun!

[momoheim@gmail.com]

Hi All! Thanks for your inputs on this! As far as i understood, the solutions you suggest apply in the case that you have uploaded the video and subtitles? What about when I, as an user, watch a video and choose to auto-translate and this occurs in any language I pick. What can I do about this?

Thanks for any help!

[Stan Jones]

momoheim,

 > What about when I, as an user, watch a video and choose to auto-translate and this occurs in any language I pick. What can I do about this?

You will need to address each file created separately. But that may be as simple as a "save as" to the file. PR also has new options since this 2018 thread ("import settings" button in the Captions Panel).

You may want to start a new thread with your specific issues.

Stan

[ElGuato84VE]

 Beautiful.  I have tried it before but now with your suggestion i notice that you just need to check the box named "fix overlapping times" and it did fix the imported .srt from youtube with just a certain delay in some lines but its fixed!

 PD: Remember to Apply selection in the next step.

[Stan Jones]

ElGuato, thanks for those 2 tips. Very important!

SE opens with that selected; I wonder if I made that change and forgot.

Stan

[TikiTorture]

Hey guys, I read this whole thread since I've got the same problem.  

Where is this 'fix overlapping times' checkbox?  And could you clarify...is subtitle editor (SE) a separate program?  Or where are you making these changes.  I don't see it in premiere pro import settings. 

[Stan Jones]

Subtitle Edit is a free program.

https://www.nikse.dk/subtitleedit

Once in the program, you open the srt file. Then Tools -> Fix common errors...

You will see a lot of checkboxes.

Stan

[TikiTorture]

Thank you Stan!

[OneAsIs]

Hi Stan, when I download the Subtitle Edit there is no "tools" option. What am I doing wrong? I have Windows 10-64 bit and downloaded SubtitleEdit-3.5.14-Setup.zip

Thanks.