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briand1740798
Participating Frequently
May 19, 2020
Question

.SCC File Won't Start at First Frame of Video

  • May 19, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 2445 views

Help! This is DAY 18 of me trying to solve this problem...

 

I've been captioning in Premiere Pro CC 2019 with 608 closed captions for .SRT and .SCC.

I've encountered all kinds of bugginess, which primarily was user education for me at the beginning but also encountering bugginess I just cannot seem to get around.

 

Right now, I have a timeline mastered in 23.976, which I laid non-drop 29.97 .SCC captions on top and edited them all to time. The original file came from Rev.com. I've spent roughly over 40 hours into just this timeline alone, ensuring every single caption was longer than 1.5 seconds for readability. 

 

Now when trying to export out as a sidecar file, I notice (2) strange occurences: One is that for music lyrics, the musical symbols are missing in various spots. I'll honestly live with that at this point. The second... is that my captions NEED to start at 00:00:00:00 or they will fail QC.

 

When I drag my first caption to the first frame of video, it doesn't actually appear in my Program Monitor, until about 15 frames in. Even if I set the starting timecode at 00:00:00:00, it will actually start at 00:00:00:15.

 

I am desperate at this point...If anyone knows how to edit my .SCC so it can start at 00:00:00:00, I would be incredibly grateful.

 

Brian

 

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Stan Jones
Community Expert
Stan JonesCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 19, 2020

I think it is Premiere. Perhaps it has something to do with the oddity of using 29.97 in a 23.976 sequence.

 

Look at your .scc export in a test editor. Even though the text is unreadable, you can see the timecode. I think you will find it starts at zero. However, when you import it to PR, PR sets that first caption to a beginning timecode of 15 frames.

 

My other test was looking at the exported .scc in SubtitleEdit. I pulled in a  piece of random video, and the exported .scc starts at the first frame. So you are probably good. I suggest pulling your movie into SE and checking the sync also. I have never really understood the 23.976/29.97 issues with .scc, and you can get sync issues.

 

My method in PR was what I assume you did. I added the originally exported file, set the caption stream so it was at the beginning, and changed the first caption so its start point was zero (instead of the 15 frames it showed). Even though caption one now starts at zero, PR does not display it on screen until the half second mark - a further indication that what you are seeing is a PR oddity. Then I selected the sequence in the project panel and File -> Export -> Captions and selected .scc. The only options for .scc ( as we discussed before) are 29.97 drop or non-drop.

 

Let us know (in the other thread) how this project ends when you submit it!

 

Stan

B
briand1740798Author
Participating Frequently
May 19, 2020
Hi Stan,

Thank you for this. I've been up all night worrying about it! I've never
used SubtitleEdit before but I trust your assessment of the file starting
at 00:00:00:00. Is the 15 frames in PR a known bug? Just curious, if it's
specifically with .SCC files or just a fluke in my project.

I may make one more round of edits, assuming this behavior is predictable
at this point, I can disregard the first 15 frames.

On top of my other troubles, I was having problems with the .SRT in
Premiere 2019 but when I promoted the project to Premiere 2020 on my
roommate's computer, I had no issues upon export.

I deliver in two weeks to Amazon and iTunes, so I'll follow back up when
the delivery is complete!

Best,
Brian
B
briand1740798Author
Participating Frequently
May 19, 2020
Apologies Stan,

One final question...

Keeping in mind that PR may not be accurately displaying the captions
starting at 00:00:00:00, I was just wondering if the caption editor within
Premiere itself mattered, that it has that start time at 00:00:00:15... As
opposed to in my properties column, I have a media start time at
00:00:00:00 and visually on the timeline, you can see first caption at
first caption...

I included a screenshot here in case that didn't make any sense.
A
ah_photo
Legend
May 19, 2020

Now when trying to export out as a sidecar file,

 

What format are you exporting your sidecar file as?

 

Secondly, when you import a captions file into Premiere, it essentially becomes a caption clip with a captions stream (CEA-608, 708, etc.). This captions stream has its own independent resolution/frame rate/etc. seperate from that of your sequence. If you right-click your captions stream/clip in your project panel and go to Modify > Captions, does the timebase match your sequence timebase?

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