Merging multiple caption files into a single caption/.SRT file (Premiere Pro 14.9 or earlier)

[fragazzi]

Hello! I am working on a timeline composed from multiple sequences that have been edited individually. While all the clips are now on a single timeline, each of the sequences had their own separate captions/subtitles. As a result my timeline at the moment has patchwork of multiple caption files. I would like to know if there is a way to merge all these caption files into one single caption/.SRT file. Thank you!

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Not that I know of, FRagazzi. Sorry.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Stan Jones]

As I'm sure you're aware, subtitles are best done at the end. But you have subtitles for your original sequences, and how best to get them combined? I do not use PR for captions, and am just playing here.... But it appears to me that Premiere Pro's tools are just not (yet?) designed to make this very functional. For example, if you delete a section of a timeline, the caption timing is not adjusted. You must manually change the timing.

I can't picture your timeline! Are the combined sequences nested? (In which case the subtitles are nested in the track and not editable?) Or copy and pasted? (In which case, you have multiple subtitle tracks, one per original srt file?)

In any event, all I can see is that you have your caption text as you want it, and your timings are changed? You can use a program like Subtitle Edit to join the various srt files together, and probably easier to use it to retime all the captions than to do it in PR.

[fragazzi]

Dear Stan

Thanks for your interest. Let me reply in order, so you get a better picture:

1. Subtitles were done in the editing stage because the editor does not know the language of the original footage. So all the original footage was organized in about 20 sequences (timelines) which were then subtitled, with 20 corresponding SRT files (one per sequence). Clips from these subtitled timelines were then cut/pased into the main timeline of the project, each with their corresponding subtitle clips.

2. The timeline is thus now composed of multiple "clips" of subtitle tracks, each referring to one of the 20 SRT files that were created for  each original footage sequence. There are no nested sequences.

3. All the timings are of course different.

Any advice on how to deal with this in Subtitle Edit or any other software is more than welcome!! Thanks a lot!

Francesco.

[Stan Jones]

I have not done this, so take that into account! And, omg.

Before I suggest options, it would help to know if some/all/none of the sequences overlap each other. For example, in subtitle edit (or any other capable subtitle editing program), you have options to "join" or "append" .srt's. If there is lots of overlap, in the end, you'll have a lot of manual locating of a subtitle to set the timing. If many of the .srt's have all/many/most of their subtitles in a time sequence in your combined timeline, they will be in order when you do the retiming.

[fragazzi]

Hi Stan,

Thanks again for your kind answer. There isn't much overlap: every scene of the film is pretty much an edited version of one of the 20 already subtitled footage sequence. So SRTs will like follow one another. But the point is that the captions of the main timeline will only include a small portion of the original SRT, and it will certainly not start at the beginning of the initially subtitled sequence. Does that clarify?

Thanks!

Francesco.

[Stan Jones]

I am assuming these are open captions. I do not think there is a way to export an .srt from PR in this scenario. It would be useful to export one or more .srt's with only the captions used, but I do not see how to do this.

I'm not happy with what I have, but perhaps it is better than creating a brand new subtitle file. But if you have a lot of subtitles, it will be time consuming.

In subtitle edit (or any other capable subtitle editing program), open the first .srt in the order of your final movie. Then select Tools -> "Append subtitles", and pick the second srt. This gives you a list/srt with the first 2 srt's in that order. Repeat until you have all the srt's.

Once .srt's are added, you can save this list, and, in a text editor, go through and delete all unneeded captions. Or just skip to the next step and delete as you go.

I looked at Tools - "join subtitles," where you can add all srt's at once. But I could not control the order of the srt's, since you would not be able to sort them.

Export your video and you can put this in subtitle edit as the video. Then go through set the start/end time for each subtitle (and delete those you do not want if you have not already).

[fragazzi]

Thanks a lot, I will try that!

[fragazzi]

Dear all, for those of you who are reading this thread, I can confirm that the best solution I found is what Stan Jones suggested: Open the first subtitle in a software like "Subtitle Edit", then append all the subsequent subtitle files, one by one: "

In subtitle edit (or any other capable subtitle editing program), open the first .srt in the order of your final movie. Then select Tools -> "Append subtitles", and pick the second srt. This gives you a list/srt with the first 2 srt's in that order. Repeat until you have all the srt's. "

[Stan Jones]

Thanks for reporting. There have been a couple of other threads recently about similar issues.

[Dachio]

I would like to add my current situation to this thread since it is similar. I hope someone can help me.

So I have this 1 hour movie. We made the subtitles using Aegisub and I have 4 SRT files because 4 different people worked on the subtitles.

I succesfully imported all 4 parts, I succesfully synced, edited, and made final adjustments to them. Now I need to export them into 1 SRT file becuase the person I made this for wants me to send him subtitles in 1 SRT file.

Since I edited the SRT files in Premiere I selected all of them, right click, then selected NEW SEQUENCE FROM CLIP. It merged them together into one element. Then within this new element I adjusted times again, then tried to FILE»EXPORT»CAPTIONS

I was able to save this file as a SRT file, but if I open the file again on Premiere, Aegisub or Subtitle Edit, initial and end times are off by miliseconds.

So I came to this post and tried fragazzi 's solutions:

Selected each SRT file, export, captions, saved all 4 new final caption files but surprise... If I open the new SRT files in Subtitle Edit, Aegisub or even notepad, times are off by miliseconds. If I open the new SRT files on Premiere, times are okay.

[Dachio · Accepted solution]

So I must update this for everyone suffering from this. I've finally figured everything out:

How to Import SRT caption files into Premiere:

1- Load the video file in your library.

2- Drag video file into timeline

3- Load SRT file in your library

4- Right click video file in library, properties. Take note of resolution and FPS

5- Right click SRT file in library, modify, captions, choose Open Captions. Change timebase to video FPS and Video settings to video resolution.

6- Drag SRT file into timeline.

7- Double click captions object, copy first caption IN time. Paste IN time into timeline's timer.

8- Drag Captions object to the blue line.

9- Edit font size, color, whatever else you want.

Now your subtitles made elsewhere and exported into SRT will play correctly.

How to merge several SRT files into one SRT file:

10- After doing the steps above for each SRT file, SHIFT+CLICK on every SRT file on your library you want to merge into one.

11- Right Click the last one, choose NEW SEQUENCE FROM CLIP

12- A new timeline object with the name of the new sequence will open, no video available. All caption objects will be inside, maybe in disorder.

13- Place them in desired order. Repeat step 7 and 8 above for each to do so.

14- Close this timeline object, go back to library.

Now all your captions are merged into one big caption in your library.

How to export captions:

15- Select SRT file in library or merged captions file

16- Go to FILE»EXPORT»CAPTIONS and choose SRT

17- Select save location.

Now you have a new SRT file for your captions.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you open your Premiere exported captions file in another software like SubtitleEdit, Aegisub, Notepad, etc. you will probably notice that IN and OUT times don't match. I'm not sure why this happens but it is a visual issue only. If you actually play your video from Aegisub with your exported captions loaded everything will be synchronized. If you play your video and load your captions on VLC player, they will be synced too. I don't know why Premiere shows some IN and OUT times and other software shows different IN and OUT times but in reality everything is synced correctly.

If you notice your captions are not synced, you probably failed at steps 7, 8 or 13.

[Stan Jones]

Thanks for posting! I will try to test when I get a little time. 

Note with the still new-ish Export button in the caption panel, you can get the size/timebase right on import. But your step 4-5 of checking is essential.

Is the time difference you are seeing just the milliseconds vs frames?

[JohnALWong]

Hello Dachio. I tried and followed your instructions and assumed that the "library" you are referring to is the Project Panel, right?

I imported 2 SRT files which were both created using Premiere Pro CC 2019 13.1.

I selected both and right clicked to choose NEW SEQUENCE FROM CLIP. It produced a timeline with both SRT files placed in V1.

You said I was supposed to find "one big caption in your library (which again I assumed is the Project Panel)", but there was none. I still only see the 2 SRT files I imported and selected.

Did I miss a step? I couldn't find the "merged captions file". Please help.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you.

John

[Stan Jones]

I did a brief test. Your method, John, does not add the caption streams to a timeline first, but I don't think it mattered. I could not find a way to move individual captions once they are in the merged stream, other than to reorder entire streams.

Selecting multiple caption streams and "sequence from clip" creates a sequence with the streams placed on the timeline in the order selected. But selecting this sequence in the project panel and File -> Export gives the "caption" option and does allow exporting all the streams into one .srt. The timecodes are unchanged, so the same effect as copy pasting the srts contents in a text editor into one srt.

Dachio, were you able to move captions between streams? I don't see a way to do this.

[Joshua Long]

I just combined two CC's into one .srt file by selecting them in the project bin and making a "New Sequence from Clip."

Highlight that clip in your Project bin then go to file > export captions. 🙂

Happy hunting!

[Patrick Minks]

For anyone still looking for an updated correct answer on how to export a single srt file from an edited sequence containing multiple caption streams:

The trick is that you need to select your sequence in the Project window and then go to File-Export-Captions. You'll get the option to choose between STL and SRT.

Note that if you choose File-Export from the Timeline Window, the Captions option is greyed out. So be sure to select your  sequence in the Project Window.

Of course, you can also use this to merge different SRT's into one by creating a sequence with those SRT's.

PS. I'm now on version 14.2 of Premiere Pro CC

[Stan Jones]

Patrick,

Thanks for posting the correct method. It was just after my last post in this thread that I found that "correct" answer. There are several threads like this one that do not have that best method.

Note that all the caption streams in the sequence must be on the same track. I did not find a way to get multiple streams to work if they were on different tracks.

Stan

[Patrick Minks]

Hi Stan

Good point. All captions indeed need to be on the same track.

[barat munji]

I am in the same predicament, the simplest solution is just to export as a movie with using the option for Captions carrier file (SRT) in the export dialogue.

You can just export a blank black video and heh presto you have an SRT exported simultaneously. Haven't got to that point in my project but surely its as simple as that.