[Fixed] Captions burning into video even when not selected to

[JTW Jr]

When I export a video ( h.264 ) I am selecting to create a sidecar file ( SRT ) on the captions tab , when I export, it does create the SRT file, but it also burns the closed captions into the video. When I select NONE for Caption Export options when exporting, it is still burning the closed captions into the MP4 file.

This is happening on all 23 sequences inside my project file. The only way I can get the captions to not burn in, is to turn off the eyeball on the Subtitle track. Which then requires me to re-render the entire timeline.

This is using Premiere v15.4.1 build 6 . Any thoughts ?

[CaSMITH22]

Hi MetaWrap - just staying updated to the latest version fixed it for me. 

Also, here are Adobe's best practices for updates - it may be helpful for you:

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/best-practices-for-updating-premiere-pro.html

Good luck! As a diehard adobe user since CS2, I've come to understand that the cycle of bugs and updates are just part of the ongoing learning experience - when encountering an issue - first step is to just exit and reopen - and if that doesn't fix it - check for an update. 

[MetaWrap]

Thanks. This was with the latest version. I started with Premiere 1.0 and have been using my old outright purchased version of CS6 up until now.

There seem to be a *lot* of bugs in this latest edition. 50% of my workflow time was spent finding workarounds for the various issues I ran into. Not very impressed so far. 

I'm hoping this one will be fixed, but it is by far not the worst. 

[CaSMITH22]

I miss cs6 - especially being able to use encore. You're so fortunate to have your very own copy of it. Those were the days when you learned it, it usually worked the way you expected, and if it didn't, you just restarted and it reset and all was good again. 

I was lamenting with colleagues the very same thing, how much time is spent learning new workflows, counteracting bugs - and we noticed that oftentimes when a new feature is rolled out - the new way is prioritized, so the old way that you're used to doesn't work anymore - you think it's just a bug, restart, doesn't fix it - beat your head against the keyboard, and then you have that moment of realization that it must have changed, you go down the tutorial rabbit hole, and find out in order to do something the old way that you did so much you can do in your sleep now needs you to reprogram a keyboard shortcut or some other workaround... or you have to learn the new way.... but there are so many new ways that pop up that you spend more time learning than actually creating. 

Rant over. I don't have a solution, but if an official Adobe person sees this - please figure out a way to make updates less intrusive to long-time user workflows. 

[ghuff]

Such as?

[CaSMITH22]

Heya Ghuff! How's about.... let's see.... two things come to mind. Considering Adobe says they release about 6 updates of premiere per year - 

1. Cut down the amount of update releases - spend more time in between releases to catch bugs before they release it to the public.

2. When there are substantial changes that will cause workflow disruptions, utilize that dialogue box that pops up to "see what's new" to have a video tutorial that shows the old way/ways people used to do it - and the new improved way that they have developed. 

In truth, a lot of times the "new" way is better - it's just when you know the old way so well, and then it suddenly doesn't work, and you have to go find tutorials on youtube (with varying degrees of accuracy), it's a bit frustrating. Especially on deadline. 

@ghuff did you have any ideas?

[ghuff]

Given that making a bug-free release on multiple platforms and systems is an impossible task, I would prefer they don't cut down the amount of updates.

When you say "substantial changes that cause workflow disruptions", I don't know what you mean by that. What is your best example of this?

I haven't had to find a tutorial on YouTube to find the "new" way of doing things in a Premiere update, even when it's been substantially changed, such as the Export tab (which is trying to be more Resolve-like), I was able to easily figure it out because it's basically the same, just arranged slightly differently and as a tab now, so I really don't know what else you could be referring to that caused you such trouble.

[Wylie_702]

To keep up with the new features/changes, you simply only have to follow one or two of the Adobe Premiere Avengelists on YouTube to see how to use the new features. They are always pretty accurate.
And of course, there is always : https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/tutorials.html

Another thing is to change your settings so it doesnt auto update when working on a deadline. I never update software in the middle of a project. 

[pwmiller]

I've never had this issue until I accidentally upgrade MAC OS to Ventura. I can't say for sure that's the reason why this is happening, but now, I disable captions before rendering.

[Robert2910242162yy]

Been pulling my hair out on the same problem for a half an hour... Found out my issue. 
Make sure your player (in my case VLC Media Player) has subtitles turned off. It was reading the sidecar file.

[James5FC9]

I just started having this same problem in 23.3 in a project that was fine before. 

[M1Storyteller]

This just happened to me in the middle of a project. I'd previously exported two video files from this project before PP started ignoring my export preset caption settings.

macOS Ventura 13.3.1(a)
Adobe Premiere Pro 24.0.3 (Build 2)
Macbook Pro 16-inch, 2019
2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
64GB 2667 MHz DDR4
AMD Radeon Pro 5600M 8GB
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536MB

For now, I will hide the captions track and export the video files and captions independently.

*This is not a VLC issue, as others have referenced.

[CaSMITH22]

OP here - so crazy this issue is still popping up. Thanks for adding this workaround. Happy creating! 

[johnpix]

That's what I do. I block the CC line and export it as a video only. CC SRT file works great when I upload it independently. But this situation is annoying.

[Courtnoski5]

I started having this same problem today, and I found a solution. Important, the problem was not with adobe premiere. Another user posted that the problem was with the vlc media player. So I turned off subtitles with the vlc media player, and the problem with captions went away.

Mod note: Please do not past in all capital letters. It is considered "shouting." We adjusted the text for you. I hope that's OK.

[pwmiller]

VLC will display CC if they exist in the same folder of the video. It fooled me at one time, but the issue was editing a video from a previous version of premiere and or from a different platform (MacOS). 

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi @johnpix,

Thanks for the comment. Another user says that this issue is fixed in 22.4. That isn't the case? Let me know what's going on. A bug is closed on this matter, but I'd love to get your feedback for the team. It's possible for bugs to arise even after they are fixed, so let the team know. I'm happy to advocate for another fix.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Community,

This bug has been marked as fixed in Premiere Pro 22.1 and later. If this fix is still not working for you, please let us know.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Barry-KOMOTV]

Kevin-Monahan This is still hapopening for me. The latest Premiere and Media Encoder as of August 7, 2024. This is an old project that I update quarterly for my client. I need access to the old edits so I cant just start a new project from scratch without re-editing several years of work. No matter what I try I constantly get burned in captions on export. One exception was exporting by sending to media encoder to get files without those burned in captions, but that worked in the previous project and not the one I just created by importing in the old project into a new project file. I did a screen capture of my process, showed the export preset settings, program versions and how I am doing this. Note that at the end the demo file did finally export with burned in captions again. I had to compress the piss out of the video to get it undr your 47 MB limit, so its a little soft. This project has 4 or 6 videos each quarter, so my export process is this wayt to try and avoid exporting each video 2 times individually through Premiere only. And that works for all my other projects. But that is what I had to do yesterday to get any video that was clean. Note also I have cleared teh caches as well.

[Barry-KOMOTV]

Adding another screen capture with the computer and program settings in case that might help.

[Stan Jones]

John, thanks for continuing to be responsive. The videos were helpful. I got reasonable detail by downloading and playing back. This project and export workflow is more complex than many. This thread is old, and involves a problem/bug I could never replicate, and that was probably fixed. In any event, let me see if I understand the main features of your situation correctly.

Most projects work correctly? This project was started multiple PR versions back, and for the reasons you state, creating the project new is a problem. You have taken other steps, e.g. copying the sequence into a new sequence. I was not clear: have you tried importing the old project into a new project created in the current version?

The sequence has 608 captions that are (must be) enabled when exported. You are exporting via AME, by dragging the sequence from PR Project Panel to a preset folder in AME. (In preferences, "import sequences natively" is on - I think that generally produces the best results.)

The preset folder generates 2 items in the queue: H.264 import with captions turned off; mxf op1a export with captions embedded. These come from 2 custom presets in your list. (You scanned their settings in the video; I did not pay close attention except to note that the caption settings were as intended.) The actual result is burned in captions in both exports. You can see the captions in the export preview window - which you should not unless they are being burned in.

There are multiple possibilities including a bug (that so far can't be replicated by others), a corrupt PR project, or corrupt AME presets.

I assume a test of a new project, with a simple one clip sequence, would work correctly? And I assume you are convinced that the AME presets are okay because other projects (other sequences in the same project?) work correctly when using the same export workflow/presets?

One test of the problematic sequence would be to simplify a duplicate by deleting everything but the primary clip, creating captions, and exporting. Does that show the problem?

My regular troubleshooting for unusual problems, is resetting Workspace (particularly if you have Import Workspaces from Projects turned on) and , if unsuccessful, resetting PR preferences (with the usual cautions about losing customization. See this page:

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/reset-preferences.html

But I suspect you've tried all of those things.

@EckiAME We've looked at some other threads on similar reports. Any suggestions? AME does not always follow the "hold shift down" to start a reset for me. Any comments on how to reset AME preferences without losing customization?

Stan

[Barry-KOMOTV]

Stan,

Responding to your questions in order:

This project has had this issue for about 1 year, but dates back to about 2020.

 I have taken a completely new project file and imported the entire project twice now, including the same day I posted on this thread.

Copying into a new sequence also has not solved the issue. I tried that most recently in one of the screen captures I posted, but I may not have called that out.

Yes, dragging to AME shows this issue, but it also happens when exporting through Premiere.

The presets work properly in all my other current projects, roughly 30 other projects this year so far, and this is the only one where this issue remains. Note that there are no captions for the H264 preset, only the .MXF preset as that is intended for broadcast.

 Yes, a test of a new project does not produce this issue, and again the presets are not corrupted.

I just tried simplifying the project to just 1 video layer and VO track. I deleted the existing subtitle track, then eliminated the adjustment layer, music, graphics, and bottom video layers. I cut some of the VO and corrected the mistakes Premiere made when transcribing the new VO. I ten exported by dragging to AME. The issue persists on both exports. What did work this time was exporting through Premiere to the same H264 preset. But that did not work the day I made the screen captures. This has worked some of the time, but not all the time and this is how I had been able to get clean exports the last 2 times I updated this project. But again this did not work the day I posted.

I have reset preferences plus uninstalled and reinstalled both Premiere and Media Encoder multiple times, more times than I remember due to either this issue or other problems with Premiere. The Macbook I used in the screen captures has had every Adobe folder removed in a tech support call, with an Adobe tech in an unrelated problem and later was completely wiped and rebuilt from scratch and the problem persisted. The issue even happens across 2 computers including my iMac Pro.

[Barry-KOMOTV]

@Stan Jones, @Kevin-Monahan 

Note that a co-worker here at the station has the same issue with 2 projects that originated about a year ago. Closed captions are getting burned in on all exports regardless of settings- the same issue that I have been experiencing. He is not on this forum. Same computer, its an identically configured MacBook pro, same Adobe product versions as I am using. He has also done all the steps I have to try and remedy the issue- deleted preferences, reinstalled apps, and recently the computer was wiped and rebuilt from scratch.

[Stan Jones]

Thanks, Barry for both additions. Helpful.

Stan

[Barry-KOMOTV]

@Kevin-MonahanAgain, this is still happening for me. See my 2 posts from 10 days ago.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Sorry about that. Thanks for tagging me, though.

@Stan Jones , can you reproduce this issue?

Thanks,
Kevin