Avid’s Import Caption Data won’t take your SRT file
Avid SubCap Import Caption Data won’t open an SRT
Seen in: Avid Media Composer
What is actually wrong
The SubCap effect’s Import Caption Data dialog reads the Avid DS caption format: a plain-text file with frame-based timecodes and a specific header. An SRT has millisecond timestamps and numbered cues, which SubCap does not parse, so the file is greyed out in the dialog or imports with no captions.
Fix it here: SRT to Avid TXT
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Conversions …
Drop EDL, SRT, VTT, .prtranscript, or transcript files
Any caption, transcript or timeline file: CutConvert picks the converter and shows what survives · up to 100 KB per file
The fix, step by step
Know your sequence frame rate
Avid caption TXT uses timecode, not milliseconds. Pick the frame rate of the sequence you will apply SubCap to: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97 drop or non-drop, 30, 50 or 59.94.
Convert the SRT
Drop the SRT here and choose the frame rate. The converter writes the Avid DS caption header and one timecode-in/timecode-out line per caption, snapping each cue to frame boundaries.
Import into SubCap
Apply the SubCap effect to a filler clip on a top video track, open the effect editor, choose Import Caption Data and pick the .txt. The captions appear on the timeline.
What SubCap actually reads
Media Composer’s built-in captioning path is the SubCap effect, and its importer was written for Avid DS captions: a text file where each caption is a pair of timecodes followed by the caption lines, with a short header identifying the format and frame rate. Avid never added SRT to that importer. Newer Media Composer versions can import SRT as a caption track through a different path, but many facilities are on versions or workflows where SubCap is still the tool, and SubCap wants the .txt.
Why milliseconds are the real problem
An SRT cue starts at 00:01:02,500. A frame at 25 fps starts at 00:01:02:12 or 00:01:02:13; there is no frame at half a second. Every cue in the SRT has to be snapped to a frame, and which frame depends on the sequence frame rate. Snap at 25 when the sequence is 29.97 and every caption drifts a little more the further into the show it sits.
That is why the converter asks for the frame rate rather than guessing. At 29.97 it also asks whether the sequence is drop-frame, because drop-frame timecode skips frame numbers and a caption placed by non-drop math lands early by a growing amount.
What is kept and what changes
- Text and line breaks inside a caption are kept exactly.
- Start and end times are snapped to the nearest frame at the chosen rate. The change is never more than half a frame.
- Italic and colour tags are stripped. SubCap styles the whole track, not individual words.
- Overlapping cues are preserved; SubCap shows them stacked, which is usually not what you want. The SRT validator flags overlaps before you convert.
In the browser, at the frame rate you choose
The conversion runs locally in your browser. Change the frame rate and the preview re-renders immediately so you can check the first few timecodes against your sequence before you download.
FAQ
- Which frame rate do I pick?
- The frame rate of the Avid sequence you will apply SubCap to, not the frame rate the video was shot at. For 29.97 sequences, check whether the sequence timecode is drop-frame.
- Do italics survive?
- No. Avid caption TXT has no inline styling. The tags are removed and the text is kept.
- Can I go the other way, from Avid captions to SRT?
- Yes. The TXT to SRT converter reads Avid DS caption files and writes SRT with the timecode converted back to milliseconds.