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roadiedude
Participant
August 31, 2013
Question

Importing Subtitles to Premiere Pro

  • August 31, 2013
  • 16 replies
  • 116765 views

Hello everyone! I've been lurking around for sometime now looking for answers on how to import subtitles to PPro.

So far, as of writing this post, PPro does not handle subtitle files. Fortunately, I found a quick and dirty workaround to importing all kinds of subtitle formats to PPro as PNG. But firstly, please know that there are 3rd party plug-ins that lets you import srt files into PPro and let's you edit it in PPro, but there's a price, and my solution is free

NB: Subtitles are better as a seperate file. But in case you really need to burn your subs on the video, then follow the steps below.

Steps:

1. If you have a long project and and don't want to use PPro's title module, then you must go and download Subtitle Edit. - it's a great FREE software that has an video monitor and audio waveform where you can scrub to the specific time you want.

2. Once you're done subtitling, go to File > Export > Final Cut XML + PNG (i know it's FCP but it works well with PPro too) You can then set the desired style for your subtitles, font color, size, etc. Once you've exported, it's going to output 2 main files: one, the PNG files and two, the XML file.

3. Import the XML to PPro. It's going to generate a Sequence with the subtitles as PNG in it.

4. Relink the PNGs. For whatever reason, when you import the XML, the PNGs are not linked yet.

5. Place your subtitle sequence on your main timeline. Reposition and reframe as needed.

6. Render. Might take 10% longer than usual.

That's it! I hope this has been helpful.

My software:

Subtitle Edit

Premiere Pro CC. I'm pretty sure it would work on older versions too.

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    16 replies

    Show previous replies
    MarkWeiss
    MarkWeiss
    Inspiring
    March 25, 2015

    Results: 25 frames PAL standard definition only. Can't do 1080. Subtitles also appear smack in the middle of the screen, which is showing only a 720x576 window of the 1080 video that the subs are overlaid on. Tried to change the sequence settings, but they're all greyed out. And the subtitles are rendered too small for HD.

    P
    Pedrober
    Participating Frequently
    March 25, 2015

    It's necessary to change "Sequence settings" for the subtitles XML file (Project window), after import.

    Editing mode: custom

    Frame size: 1920x1080

    Pixel aspect ratio: Square pixels.

    Then:

    1. Open the subtitles file in the Timeline.

    2. Select the first subtitle, go to the Effect controls (Motion: modify vertical position).

    3. Copy that subtitle.

    4. Select the rest of the subtitles and paste atribute (Motion only).

    Now, I drag the video to the timeline and everything is OK.

    I hope this helps.

    MarkWeiss
    MarkWeiss
    Inspiring
    March 26, 2015

    1. Subtitle Edit

    Font size: 55

    Video res: 1920x1080 (custom)

    Border style: Normal width=2

    Line height: 65

    The resulting PNG size is 800-1000 pixels width, 142 pixels height.

    2. Premiere

    First, import the subtitles and modify the sequence settings. Then, import the video.


    After some experimentation, I found that setting the border width to '5' and then rendering the titles, resulted in the correct HD size titles, even though the sequence that resulted was still PAL 576. I simply lifted the titles off that sequence and pasted them into my HD sequence. Seems to work and no timing problems.

    Subtitle Edit needs some refining though. Unexpected output that doesn't follow the settings is the main thing.

    Y
    yasinozen
    Participant
    March 9, 2015

    Thanks!

    I've been looking for a solution this simple for a very long time!

    P
    Pedrober
    Participating Frequently
    March 18, 2015

    Beautiful trick. Anyhow, I have problems with FCP+image files generated by SubtitleEdit if they are more than 1000 pixels width, due to the fact that I am working in HD (1920x1080) but Première reads the XML ouput as PAL. If I change the subtitles Sequence settings to HD, no problem, but now, when I carry the XML to to timeline, the second part of the subtitles (the last 300 subtitles) is ignored and they don't appear. Any suggestion?

    P
    Pedrober
    Participating Frequently
    March 18, 2015

    Solved. The trick is to use "Open in the timeline". Then, no missing subtitles. Afterwards, it's necessary to apply a Motion effect to set the right position for the subtitles in the screen. After applying it to the first subtitle, it's possible to paste the effect and to apply it to the rest of the subtitles.

    J
    João Leão
    Participant
    March 24, 2014

    Hi Roadiedude and All

    Can you send me thin link you used to download the Subtitle Edit. I can't find it!

    I had tried with Jubler and Aegisub and any of these programs worked.

    I'm on a Mac OS X 10.9.2 using Adobe Premiere CC.

    Any help would be fantastic!

    João

    bobwhitemedia
    bobwhitemedia
    Participant
    October 22, 2015

    + 1 for Jubler.  I'm on Mac and Jubler has much improved over the years.   It a little tricky to get used to but now it's my go to app for srt editing.

    S
    snowmaker
    Participant
    February 18, 2014

    Hi Roadiedude, All

    When I import the XML file, it then askes me to re-connect. All that works great, but it does not generate a sequence with the subtitles.

    I have a company create subtitles for my company and they use swift/softel program. They send me the XML + all associated PNG files. We've been using Final Cut for years, but are trying to switch to AP. In FCP it generates a sequence that matches the timecode they exported.

    I'm on a Mac OS X 10.7.5 using Adobe Premiere CC.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Dennis

    UncleBCA
    UncleBCA
    Participant
    October 11, 2013

    A superb tip that solves a problem I've been trying to figure out for months.

    One note, in case anyone else encounters this weird behavior:

    On my machine (Windows 7 x64), when exporting the XML/images, the Subtitle Edit program usually crashes about 250ish images in.  However, as I figured out, it will continue to export all the images the XML if you just hold off on closing the program until it's finished.  (You can look in the output folder and make sure the right number of images are there along with your XML file.)

    I'm not sure why it crashes, but at least it does complete the work in the background. 

    ezza_ahmed
    ezza_ahmed
    Participant
    January 6, 2015

    Thank you for this valuable assistance

    (Excuse the mistakes, I only translate from French to English)
    When I first matter on pro cc xml file Final Cut, Premiere Pro imports just 240 image!
    In the folder or there is the xml and images, I find all this images. All images are referenced in the xml file.

    How to import all the images on the Premiere pro cc?

    thank you very much

    E
    excited_Genie16B8
    Legend
    September 1, 2013

    Subtitles that can be turned on and off typically handled by Encore in the Adobe work flow.  Subtitles that are always there are just 'titles' and typically use the titler for the job.

    Closed Captions can be handled by PP.

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