Need to export a windows friendly compressed file with embedded closed captions

[Videoman80]

Hi I need to find an export setting that allows embedded closed captions and is easily played by most modern (7 and later) Windows users.

Ideally something that compresses well like h.264.

I would just use Youtube and use its CC capability, but the end users of the video will be using them in presentations and may not always be able to get online.

I am exporting on macOS with PPro 2019 CC. All with latest updates etc

From what I can tell PPro only allows embedded captions in Quicktime or .MXF files. h.264 is not an option when exporting these file types.

What can I use? If I export Prores .mov files and convert them to h.264 .mp4 will they retain the embedded captions?

[davidarbor · Accepted solution]

When I need to embed captions I export a ProRes file and use Handbrake to convert to H.264, using the x264 encoder (a better encoder than the MainConcept one included in Adobe apps) and embed the captions there.

This link should get you started, but basically you load your video, go to the Subtitles tab, add a track, then click the "Burn In" checkbox. HandBrake Subtitles Guide: How to Add Soft or Forced SRT Subtitles to DVD Videos

[Videoman80]

Thanks very much for responding David. Do you know if this works on windows media player?  I tried something similar with the ffworks software, works great on my mac playing in QT, but when testing on a windows machine WMP doesn't seem to recognise the  captions. Are you on a mac or PC? thanks again.

Edit: I see that VLC player works with all my previous tests I think my work around will be to make sure all users of the videos are advised to use VLC!

Thanks

[davidarbor]

You're welcome! I use both Windows and macOS and yes, the Handbrake method embeds subtitles that show up with no problem in Windows Media Player; QuickTime Player; and, as you saw, VLC.