Multiple caption tracks visible for accessibility

[Jp5EA1]

In the previous version of Premiere Pro, I was able to add multiple captions and make them visible in order to have English/Spanish on screen. But in the latest version (Version 15.0.0) only one track of captioning is available.

This makes it hard for those of us who are working on making our videos accessible to multiple audiences. Please bring back the ability to have multiple tracks of captioning visible at the same time.

[MMMNNN]

My need for a second, simultaneously visible subtitle track is critical. The most obvious reason is when someone is talking and there is a bit of on-screen text in the foreign language that needs to appear at the same time as the dialogue but timed differently. My workaround has been to add it as a graphic, but this is really not the best since I always need to output a CSV and SRT file for my clients.

[jbstar76]

I work for an Indigenous Language program on a reservation in Mississippi and we are producing interviews with speakers of our Indigenous language. In 2020, we received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and for our output goals in the application, we submitted versions of videos in which we had burned the transcription and translation tracks on the final edit video. This benefits everyone from the speakers and learners of our language, to the linguists and academics that are studying our language. It made the videos much more accessible for our community. There are plenty of workarounds, but removing the ability to make multiple caption tracks visible has created a lot of extra work. And the decisions we are making about how to provide the same outputs, are impacting the work not just for our program, but for our archivists, the NEH, and the beneficiaries of our project. For example, we can easily produce two separate videos, with two different caption tracks burned in - each one taking 20 minutes to export, doubling the file sizes to be migrated to archives and our communities, doubling the file size needed to publish online, increasing the space needed for viewing side-by-side by language learners and linguists, and multiplying the work for providing metadata on each video. This might not be our final decision for how to process videos but in all cases with this change by adobe, which we didn't foresee in 2020, we are just now feeling the impacts now that the pandemic is over and we are finally in production mode for these videos. The limitation is making it more challenging for our Indigenous language to be shared and learned in this modern world.

[TheOnlyTrueDelano]

I just came back to premiere pro to try it out again and this is instantly the first issue I run into within the first hour. I've had so many issues where the fix is STUPIDLY easy (in this example just ALLOW ME TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE CAPTION TRACK!!!!) while using premiere I can't believe I've wasted my money coming back to it. This app is utterly ridiculous for this kind of thing and Adobe does nothing to fix these problems. Get it together man

[Russ Lickteig]

1 year and 8 months since we were asked what we wanted. We also need to be able to move the Captions where ever we want. Please!

[charlesb4548883]

So this is Adobe's corporate commitment to Accessibility.

[Twalker]

What I need is to be able to export a file with BOTH 608 AND 708 captions embedded for broadcasting purposes. All my TV stations I work with tell me they need both formats of captions embedded into the show file. So how do you do that?

[Francis-Crossman]

This is not a bug, it's as designed. We specifically limit the visibility to one track at a time to avoid accidentally burning in multiple tracks. Also, when exporting to a format that only supports one captions stream like SRT or STL, we need to know which is the active track in order to export the correct track.

But I understand why you might need two tracks visible at the same time.

Multiple speakers:
If we could automatically identify speakers and designate a style associated with them, would that help? For example speaker 1 is blue and on the left, speaker 2 is yellow and on the right?

Multiple languages:
Do you ever need to burn in both at the same time or is it just a matter of being able to see both to aid in translation and alignment?

Thanks for the feedback, we really are listening 🙂

[baaronkun]

Do you have any news about this ? 

It's been so long now and needed for many of us 

[mattyboy1980]

@baaronkun You can change captions to graphics in the new update. If you do that to your whole caption track you can view all tracks on screen at the same time, you can edit the text, and you can use effects on them. This is a HUGE update and the workarounds now are multiple. @Francis-Crossman only thing that would make it ultra ultra perfect if we had the option to export the converted graphics to an srt, or some functionality/workaround that lets us utilise the amended graphic text files for a captions track srt export. I'm assuming the ability to turn them back to captions files is difficult because any effects which are added or anything not editable in the captions essential graphics panel would likely cause errors when transforming them back.  I guess if there was some way to just convert the raw text from graphics to captions so it it can include the timings within the sequence that would be cool. The text and timings within the graphics window are the same format as what is in the captions panel, so hopefully there might be some way to do it. And thanks again for the update - not enough love on these forums for that. The ability to manipulate the captions solves so much problems. THANK YOU!

[R Neil Haugen]

Anything they can formally talk about is already released in the Public Beta .... so I would suggest installing that and keep it updated, check out anything new in captions if and when it appears.

And you can have that installed with the current shipping version no problems. They do appreciate having the widest base of users do some things with the public beta, and posting experiences on the Public Beta forum.

Neil

[baarokun]

@mattyboy1980 yeah but this is a workaround.. not a solution 

[mattyboy1980]

@baarokun it's literally one click of your mouse

[baarokun]

@mattyboy1980 Captions and Graphics are two different things, they are not used the same for embed TV subtitles or for Social Media, the clic away doesn't resolve the core problem 

[mattyboy1980]

@baarokun what are you talking about? Of course they are used the same for social media. It's my job to do captions for social media. Converting captions to graphics has made this process EASIER as you now have more options to manipulate the text with effects and change the position (which can be restricted on normal captions).  And also I can see as many captions tracks on screen as I want at the same time. Works exactly the same for TV subtitles. If you don't want them embedded in your video you can just hide the layer on export. The only thing different at the moment is that you can't export the graphics tracks to an srt, and this is something I mentioned to Francis. There is a workaround for that also, but I'm sure in future updates they will endeavour to help wmake this easier. 

[Longish]

If this doesn't 'do' 608 and 609 captions for broadcast - then the work around is useless for people that want to produce Closed Captions.

Covering for Adobe because you can do socmed captioins doesn't help professional broadcast editors.

[mattyboy1980]

@Longish point taken on closed captions - to clarify I was meaning exporting for any shows where captions are burnt into the broadcast master. 

[andrea_stewart]

Related, but different. 

I have 14 languages of captions. I want to make sure that all caption blocks are landing exactly the same. Even if I ~ to make my timeline full screen, I can't see all caption tracks. And the line that separates caption tracks from video tracks can't be pulled lower like the line separating video from audio. 

My request is to make that line dynamic so that I can pull it down and see however many caption tracks I have.

[baarokun]

This is not implemented yet ? The design is bad, change it please. 
"But I understand why you might need two tracks visible at the same time." You say this but you don't even concider making a bad choice for the "design" of this feature

Adobe should'nt be the one safe guarding mistake, we make the mistakes, we learn. That's how it works

[andrea_stewart]

For me it's being able to see both for timing and translation. I don't aee a circumstance where I'd have more than one kanguage on screen at once. But I see that other oeople could have that need. Why not allow it?

also to be able to have one speaker possbly justified left and the other justified right simultaneously.