Two Caption Tracks (Premiere 2021)

[jhong75]

Hi there,

So the latest version of Premiere, I've seemed to lost the ability to have two caption track layers. I need that for broadcast delivery for tv commercial spots as I still need to have both 608 and 708 captions embedded.

Is there a fix coming? Until then I'll need go back to Premiere 2020 for this.

[Stan Jones]

PR will embed both tracks even though only one is "active" in the timeline. Some users were having other issues with embed exports, however, so test your full workflow. For me, part of the problem is that MediaInfo was not reporting the presence of embedded caption tracks accurately.

What format are you exporting? Is this for delivery for broadcast?

Give it a try and let us know.

Stan

[jhong75]

Hi Stan,

I can't seem to get a second caption track to go ontop of the first one, when I try to click on the [...] dropdown menu (top right hand side of the caption workspace) to add a new caption track its greyed out.

As for exporting for broadcast, typically we use MXF (XDCAM HD 50 preset) with the captions embedded. Though on rarer occasions I need to export out a QT Prores 422 HQ with captions embedded.

[Stan Jones]

jhong,

To add another caption track, a) right click in the caption header area of the timeline or b) turn off visibility on the current caption track, which will then present options in the Text Panel.

I don't think you can reorder the caption tracks in the timeline. It appears to me that a new track is created at the top of the stack.

I don't see any options for how tracks are selected for embedding, but I assume you'll have one 608 and one 708.

Stan

[jhong75]

My workflow in Premiere 2020 and previous (since...gee, I think since 2014 or maybe 2015)...  After I made the 608 caption track, I'd go into the browser and duplicate it there, then rename it to 708 and modify the caption track to 708 and drag it back ontop of the 608. When I brought in a MXF file with the captions embedded, they would appear as 608 and 708 respectively on the tracks. There never was an option as for which caption track it would export as both would.

I'll try this with 2021 just to see how it goes. So far my 2020 and older workflow worked just fine.

[ah.photo]

Just want to confirm: I ran a test myself with a short sequence with both a 608 & 708 track, and attempted to export as ProRes with captions embedded: only the 608 stream came out.

I'd assume this is as a result of the fact that you cannot more than one captions track enabled at the same time, but lo and behold, even when the 708 is visible and 608 is hidden: the 608 stream was embedded.

Maybe open up a request on Adobe UserVoice?

or, add your vote to this one.

Ideally, it'd be great to have a multi-check checkbox in the export window and be able to select any captions tracks, regardless of if they are active or hidden. There's some functionality like this, when selecting a stream to burn-in, but nothing for embedded it seems.

[ah.photo]

EDIT: Update/correction: MXF ProRes worked fine. Now I can't recall if the .mov container can only support one embedded stream.

Potenitally disregard my above post!

[Stan Jones]

ah.photo, thanks for the tests! 

Here's a post about getting 708 in a quicktime (which PR won't do).

Edit: forgot the link:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/issue-with-captions/m-p/12213109#M359355

Stan

[ah.photo]

Interesting. I see I've posted before on a similar thread (different account) and yeah: someone else had the same issue. Huh! Honestly wasn't aware that QT ProRes struggled with 708 so much (at least in Premiere).

Thanks for the link Stan! Good to know for the future... although odds are I'll completely forget it when this crops up in 6 months again though!

[Stan Jones]

> I'll completely forget it when this crops up in 6 months...

Ain't that the truth! This would be complex even if it was alwas the same version with no updates and fixes!

Stan

[jhong75]

I've tested the 608/708 caption MXF export and I can confirm what ah.photo has stated that it does work. Strangely, QT Prores with 608/708 caption MOV export only does show the 608 captions.

But there is an issue that I'm seeing with the way captions are displayed. Typcially they're displayed with white text over a black background. When I see the caption properties they are set that way, but for some reason what I see on the preview screen is just the white text over a transparent background. I also brought in MXF that I exported from 2021 into 2020 just to see how it looks there and its the same. Strange behaviour from the 2021 version. I'll have to stick with 2020 for now.

[Stan Jones]

In PR 2020 and before there were two settings for the closed caption background: one for color and one for opacity. The same is true now, and it was not intuitive before or now! Here's a screenshot of the current method in the Essential Graphics Panel. Background is Black, but Transparent. I change to "Opaque," and it shows the Black background.

This is from PR 2021.4.1.

Stan