Subtitles (srt) import fine but won't display in the programme monitor

[berndporr]

I've got a problem that my subtitles import fine,

if I double click on them in the project they show up and I can edit them,

however when I drop them on the timeline they won't show up in the programme monitor (I've enabled subtitles in it).

If I export the project as a sceneartist cc file then it's empty.

Any suggestions how to convince Premiere to display / export them?

[dummergold]

Premiere supports Open Captioning srt as noted on bottom of this web Help page I paste here  Learn to work with captions in Premiere Pro

As for having Premiere display the srt - I am not sure - usually after enabling the sub-titles in the program monitor 'wrench' just below 'Enable' is 'Settings' and one needs to choose the proper standard of captions in those settings for Premiere to display. As for srt, I am not sure.

[berndporr]

Thanks for e-mailing.

I've found the problem with the displaying. The program monitor was set to "teletext" but needs to be set to CEA-708 CC1.

However in terms of export that is smelling like a bug. It exports in all other formats but only the scenartist export is always just an empty file.

[dummergold]

I see you have a problem with exporting scenartist closed captions .scc

I also see you have started a new specific thread with this topic.

What I was hoping for was that  monstremoi (hope I tagged properly) would be available for further help

I add this reply Bernd to politely summon monstremoi

[monstremoi]

Thank you for alerting me to this thread. The SRT file is imported as a 708 service 1 closed caption. If you are trying to put this into a SCC sidecar -- the SCC sidecar format does not support 708 data, only 608 data. You can go out as a MCC, XML, or SRT. Hope this helps!

[berndporr]

Thanks again. Yes. It has.

Adobe: it would be really nice to have warning popping up somewhere when rendering it out. Otherwise: great export. It works without any problems and no timing issues.

[ElJayBronx]

Hi, everyone. I'm adding to this thread because I have a .srt problem and it looks like the specialists are all here! I do opera videos. I have been requested to caption one of my videos, and was given a PowerPoint presentation of the "surtitles" for the show. In modern opera houses, the audience will often be given a translation of an opera done in original language. It appears on a screen above the stage (in some very rich houses like the Met Opera in New York City, the translation appears on the backs of the individual SEATS in multiple languages or not based on the wishes of the patron!)

In any case, with the tremendous limitations of the PPro caption editor I am creating the .srt in a software called VisualSubSync, which will take a text file and marry it to a section of the soundtrack. The problem is that the original text from the PowerPoint (via RTF export), even converted to UTF-8, contains certain characters (think curly quotes, curly apostrophe, ellipsis in a single character rather than three periods) that other software (YouTube, VLC Media Player, Handbrake) pass on and use, stop the SRT import feature in PPro in its tracks. The track appears to import without error, but when placed on the timeline it stops before whatever the offending character is, leaving a tiny white mark in the upper right corner of the "clip".

I've tried everything I can think of to remove all offending characters. Better would be if PPro would fix the importer to be more tolerant. If other software can display it, PPro should be able to work with it as well. Thoughts?

[monstremoi]

Thanks for adding to the thread. I'm sorry to hear you are having problems. If you want to share this SRT file .. I will take a look at it .. you can send me a private message here.

[berndporr]

Hi all,

the problems continue but probably that's looking like a bug. I've imported the SCC file into Apple Compressor to create a Pro Res 422 HQ file with closed captions. It imports fine but when I play it back some subtitles just won't show up. When I use eztitles for comparison or SubTitleEdit (drop frame) then they are all there. When I re-import the scc into Subtitle edit it looks pretty corrupted. For now I'm using eztitles (converting from srt).

[monstremoi]

If you want to share your source file -- send me a private message here, and I can take a look at it

[berndporr]

I've sent you a link as well to google drive.

Bernd

[ElJayBronx]

I wonder if you're having the same issue I am. I believe that the inclusion of characters meant to enhance videos but in fact not in the UTF-8 character set might be causing your problems as well. As I indicated to monstremoi, players (YouTube in particular) will deal fine with these characters. It's really nice to see curly quotes and a curly apostrophe instead of inch and foot marks, respectively. But they apparently do not occur in the UTF-8 character set. I use a copy-and-paste model from a “transcript” of my video converted from PowerPoint to RTF. Even though I attempted to save it as UTF-8, the non UTF characters appear and do not get converted (another problematic one is the single-character ellipsis instead of three discrete periods: … instead of ... will give Premiere a problem. Note also that in the quoted word "transcript" this time I typed the " character but the first time I used it I copied/pasted curly quotes). Those are forbidden under UTF-8 rules, but appear in VLC and YouTube no problem. I did note that when I used Handbrake to burn the titles to the video, it worked fine BUT it ignored all those characters, leaving no space where the character occurred. At least that option gives me the ability to review the work and make the necessary changes! Premiere just stops in its tracks, inconsistently. Some characters will cause a caption to display incompletely (stops as soon as the offending character appears). Some will apparently cause the import to stop at the moment of the illegal character. It's very frustrating and unfriendly. If there's an error, there should be a trap for it and notice so it can be fixed, not sitting down in the middle of the road like a stubborn mule and refusing to go on.

Here's another anomaly. If I use the Caption Editor in Premiere to create a CEA-708 file, and then export it as an SRT, it exports and imports with HTML-like tags. I tried it with two captions each of which had "illegal" characters, and each one read just fine from the imported SRT. I stripped the HTML tags and it still read fine! A sample is available here: This example is the 2 lines I tested with illegal characters (that works fine, writen in CEA-708 Caption Editor, exported to SRT and the HTML code stripped, contains curly quotes in the first text entry and a single-character ellipsis in the second, neither work in the second file, both do here):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ilowst448wjlrew/Act%201T_Sub_02.mp4.srt?dl=0

This one is up to where I am in the project, from VisualSubSync:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqkdthqghc84shy/to%20Constitution2.srt?dl=0

Why does #1 work and #2 fail, and on the same controversial characters?

If anyone is interested, the text is from Act 1 of the opera LA BOHEME of Puccini, in an English translation.

[monstremoi]

@EUayBronx: As I mentioned before -- if you give me a SRT file you are using, I can evaluate the file, and give you feedback. It is hard to comment on issues, or what might be the issue, without a file to look at.

[ElJayBronx]

I've sent it to you privately and if you'll look at the message dated Feb 5, 2016 12:23 PM, it's right there in the public forum. What am I doing wrong not to get it to you? Thanks...

Jay

[dummergold]

I have acquired your two dropbox srt - Act 1T,,, and to Constitution2 - it took me some time to get to an adaquate internet with compatible browser for dropbox. I have them both inside Premiere and viewing as standard CEA-708.

[ElJayBronx]

OK but check the text file and then see how much actually imported into Premiere, and see if there are captions missing text and whole lines missing from the end of the file. That's what I'm experiencing. And it has to do with apostrophes, quote marks and ellipses.

[dummergold]

i post screen shot of one caption from the to 'Constitution'. I do see the problems with the Act 1T

[ElJayBronx]

You're right, for different reasons: there should not be three substantial lines in a subtitle! I split it differently across the line. It does work better; thanks. But that doesn't approach the issues of these "illegal" characters (none of which are in that selection!)

-Jay

[dummergold]

yes, I have read before that Premiere Pro, or maybe a captions standard only supported 32 characters, which is shown in the Act 1T srt sample, so I am confused with the amount of characters and lines in the Constitution
srt sample.

As for the characters that are not shown correctly, do they show up when I open the srt as a text file? I am not seeing them. At what timecode should I be looking? The txt file for the above attached screenshot has the same characters when I open it as a txt, so I believe you are refering to a different caption that possibly I view diffferently with my computer.

[ElJayBronx]

Let's take this one as an example:

78

00:07:41,213 --> 00:07:43,463

- Be gone!  Let’s prepare the table.

Premiere only imports the caption to the word "Let". That apostrophe after "Let" to make "Let's" appears to be illegal. The version in the sentence before this one wouldn't be.

82

00:07:52,054 --> 00:07:56,508

…"When do we start?"

The ellipsis at the beginning of this line seems to make Premiere stop in its tracks.

This caption:

84

00:08:02,072 --> 00:08:05,649

“When do we start the lesson?”

won't read in Premiere at all, apparently because of the curly quotes.

My understanding is that there is an "extended" SRT that would incorporate that character (in the upper ASCII chart but apparently NOT in UTF-8). If I download a professionally created SRT file it seems not to contain these characters. BUT if I create a CEA-708 file in Premiere and then EXPORT it as SRT those characters come in just fine. Look at my very small second example, (reproduced in its entirety below) with double-quotes around "Red Sea" and a single-character ellipsis in the second caption.

From that file (actually the complete text of the file):

1

00:01:17,143 --> 00:01:20,647

This “Red Sea” makes me feel damp and cold.

2

00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:21,381

…idly sitting on its rear like royalty!

THIS WORKS. It was written in Premiere's caption editor set to CEA-708, and exported as SRT. Note

the same characters PPro rejects in an imported SRT from foreign source. It's a simple text file! No secret handshake here...what makes the difference!!!???

What's sad is that those characters look much better on screen (the curly quotes and apostrophe) than the alternative " and ' marks. As I've said, YouTube and VLC will display them fine. Handbrake will ignore them if I use it to burn them in (but makes lovely subtitles, white with a black drop shadow); Wondershare will declare an access violation if I try to load an SRT with those characters.

I think I'm going to have to use Premiere to check the validity of the SRT, Handbrake to burn them in permanently on an MP4, then Premiere to export that MP4 (using MPEG2-DVD preset as my base format) to Encore to make the DVD the client (JUST THIS MORNING told me he) actually wants. Premiere does a TERRIBLE job of burning in the captions as subtitles. They are spindly and ugly, pretty close to what the Program Monitor shows, no apparent choices to get better appearance. Handbrake makes the best burn-in titles.

Titles will be burned in, not to be turned on and off. There is no easy way I've found to get an SRT file to Encore to use for subtitles for DVD, the two formats apparently are completely inimical. What a pain.

[dummergold]

My acquired srt 'to Constitution2' ends at timecode 7:47:27 --> 7:51:26

Caption 81

...He hired me. Then I asked him...

- Cold roast beef. - Pastries!

What is with that srt timecode going to three digits in the frame count?

When I open the same srt in Windows WordPad, I see 92 captions, up to timecode 8:33:573 --> 8:35:874

Caption 92

- Here's an idea!...

- The "Constitution!"

Why does Premiere Pro stop my import of the srt after Caption 81?

So, with:

Caption 78

00:07:41,213 --> 00:07:43,463

- Be gone!  Let’s prepare the table.

I see that Premiere only shows - Be gone! Let

As for the word Let's, I see that sample again in caption 75, caption 71, caption 61,,,

But what about Caption 35?

4:13:786 --> 4:16:389

Here's the first act.

- Give it here.

Caption 35 displays fine

But I see what you mean with the character ', because when I remove it from Caption 61

It's and only have Its, the full Its crackling...curling

So, I see the difference now between Caption 61 and Caption 35

The difference is the character ' and its other variation that I cannot seem to display with my keyboard (like you have been describing)

Changing that ' character repairs the srt import for me and I can see the full It's crackling...curling

------------------------------------------

As for your Act 1T and working - I see it only display the first 32 characters and not display properly

This "Red Sea" makes me feel damp and cold.

displays as

This "Red Sea" makes me feel da.

or maybe I should be exporting to see the full caption?

[ElJayBronx]

OOPS sorry I wasn't referring to the display (which should go more than 35 characters on an HD picture; it does in Handbrake where I now am ultimately using it...) the main reason for putting that in is to show that the "illegal" characters (which I think are NOT illegal in CEA-708, by the way) WORK here. They won't display in my other (imported) SRT.

My immediate action when I saw what you were talking about (in my 720p video track it actually displayed up to "col", dropping of the "d.") I put a line break before "damp" in the Caption Editor. Then it displays correctly.

I just wish this was not so difficult. I can't charge my client what it's going to be worth to finish this. VERY annoying.

I do very much appreciate everyone's attention to it. I hope Premiere cleans up its act with a more robust way of doing captions and subtitles (and a nice bonus would be to include an export to Encore for subtitles). Thanks...

[dummergold]

that is very strange how the quotation marks that stop the caption characters in 'to Constitution2.srt' work in the 'Act 1T.srt'

the text file shows them as (my words to describe the quotation marks) italic quotation marks, and Premiere Pro displays them as italic quotation marks. If I change the text file to one 'italic quotation mark' and one 'regular quotation marks', Premiere Pro displays them both properly - both different as test intended

so, it is very strange how those 'italic quotation marks' stop the caption display a certain situation

[ElJayBronx]

Now you're beginning to understand my conundrum. It's VERY frustrating. As I've discovered with the rest of Premiere's captioning approach, it is one of the worst parts of what is otherwise a marvelous editing program. You should see what it looks like when you use the export function to burn the titles in. Just as spindly and disgusting as they look in the program monitor as you write or edit them. That's totally unnecessary. This level of inconsistency is also a royal pain.

Thanks, again, for looking at that; I'm glad I'm not the only one coming to the conclusion that the program is hopelessly inconsistent with regard to these captions. I hope they fix it. We deserve better.

[dummergold]

I can get Premiere Pro to import the 'to Constitution.srt' beyond Caption 81, if I remove the Caption 82 first three period markers, that are spaced closer then usual (replacing with three regular period characters)

but, the srt gets halted again at Caption 84 - likely because of the 'italic quotation marks'

it is my belief that one could fix the whole srt by substituting with regular keyboard characters, but also believe regular keyboard characters are not all desired