text: FCPX Captions : Apple Final Cut Pro X
  FCPX Captions
  on Sep 15, 2018 at 9:57:08 pm
  I have been using FCPX to QC closed captions created by an outside vendor. I imported the .scc file over the image and I've noticed a number of anomalies. This is a 90-minute feature.
  In approximately a dozen instances, I have 2-line captions where the bottom line is not visible. The text is there in the inspector, but it simply doesn't appear on-screen. This is not a consistent problem, because most of the 2-liners are fine. FCPX does not flag any errors with these captions.
  The vendor has an online proofing player and these captions appear fine within their tool. Thoughts?
  Re: FCPX Captions
  on Sep 16, 2018 at 12:22:47 am
  [Oliver Peters] "Thoughts?"
  on Sep 16, 2018 at 1:35:13 am
  [Jeremy Garchow] "It's busted."
  That's what I was afraid of. Neither FCPX's nor Premiere's captioning feature seems terribly reliable. Good for quick QC checks and some simple captioning, but still not completely ready-for-prime-time, I suppose.
  on Sep 16, 2018 at 2:13:56 am
  To be honest, how much have you really looked at captions until now?
  The whole system is imperfect and could be better. But it's also good.
  on Sep 16, 2018 at 12:48:01 pm
  [Jeremy Garchow] "To be honest, how much have you really looked at captions until now?"
  In the past I have worked with captions in the SD world, where info was embedded into the vertical interval. Far easier, since it could be generated and then manipulated as video. Until the caption feature was introduced in Premiere, I had mainly QC'ed finished results for HD captions generated by caption houses. I haven't used Avid's implementation. Premiere's implementation has been very unreliable. FCPX's looked better at introduction, but in practice is only a little bit better. From what I've seen so far, I wouldn't trust either to deliver captions correctly.
  on Sep 17, 2018 at 3:07:29 pm
  [Oliver Peters] "From what I've seen so far, I wouldn't trust either to deliver captions correctly."
  But ti sounds like the captions are there but FCPX isn't displaying some of them correctly, but they display elsewhere correctly.
  Maybe this is just a little snag in FCPX? Definitely worth reporting to Apple.
  on Sep 17, 2018 at 3:35:17 pm
  I'd be curious to read your follow-up messages on how you found and fixed this problem.
  At a guess, I'd posit that there's an extra space or invisible character in the bad caption lines somewhere, or a glitch in the metadata for those segments. Doesn't mean I know what to do to FIX it, of course... but that's my theory as to why the line drops out.
  Might try shifting the start or end of that particular caption box by one frame, see what changes?
  on Sep 17, 2018 at 3:45:15 pm
  [Mark Suszko] "I'd be curious to read your follow-up messages on how you found and fixed this problem. "
  In my case, I have no follow-up. This was just for QC. The caption company's own QC viewer displays it, so I'm going to cross my fingers that it's there. When I tried to fiddle with it in FCPX, that caption disappeared entirely. It's quite simply not ready for prime time.
  on Sep 17, 2018 at 3:57:30 pm
  You can double check the captions in QT or VLC.
  on Sep 17, 2018 at 5:59:47 pm
  The captions aren't embedded. Sidecar .scc file.
  on Sep 17, 2018 at 6:15:39 pm
  VLC can add sidecar files. There's a whole "Subtitle" menu.
  on Sep 18, 2018 at 1:07:45 am
  I don't think VLC does SCC.
  Oliver have you tried to export with embedded captions?
  Or internally convert to ITT and back?
  on Sep 18, 2018 at 1:32:37 am
  Last Edited By Oliver Peters on Sep 18, 2018 at 1:33:25 am
  [Andreas Kiel] "Oliver have you tried to export with embedded captions?
  Or internally convert to ITT and back?"
  No, I haven't. It's a feature film and embedded captions aren't requested. I was only using FCPX to QC the captions. Unfortunately I don't have the time to really troubleshoot all of this, since it's a side project. Maybe later, when I have some downtime.
  But Andreas, what have been your experiences with the new FCPX caption feature?
  on Sep 19, 2018 at 5:07:21 pm
  As a follow-up, I had a chance to check the movie with the .srt version of the captions in Telestream Switch. Looks OK there. FWIW - the .scc comes up with wrong timing in Switch, but OK in FCPX. But FCPX won't import .srt files. Sure would be nice if everyone were on the same page ☺