Subtitling Tracks Exported as SRT file

I am subtitling a video essay in Resolve 16 and am wondering whether multiple subtitle tracks will get grouped together as one SRT file upon export. The reason why I want to have multiple subtitle tracks is because I want to change the style of certain subtitles here and there throughout the video, but certain track styling options (e.g., background) apply to the entire subtitle track. If I have two (or more) subtitle tracks, I'll be able to have two different track styles, and can input subtitles on the first or second subtitle track depending on what style I need at that particular point in the video.

When I export the final project and click the checkbox next to all the subtitle tracks I have added in the project, will the exported SRT file combine them into one subtitle track (which is what I want) while retaining the specific track styling for the respective underlying subtitle tracks? Thank you.

Bumping this once to see if anyone has exported multiple subtitle tracks on the same project.

What result did you get when you did a test of your proposed workflow?

I haven't tested it yet, since I have a massive project and cannot render it until my new laptop arrives later this week (rendering on my current machine results in tedious render times, imperfect render, crashes on Fusion compositions, etc.). I could start a new test project and input random subtitles on multiple tracks and then just export a black screen with the SRT file, but to test the subtitles, I believe I would have to upload it to a hosting service like YouTube with the SRT file and see how it looks there. Was hoping to avoid doing that by seeing if someone who has already done multiple subtitle tracks can relate whether it all appears as one combined subtitle track in the final SRT file. But otherwise, I will end up testing it that way.

It doesn't ... just create a 10 second test sequence with 2 subtitle tracks... go to Deliver page and export ... you'll get 2 separate SRT files, one for each track.

That said, SRT files follow a very simple human readable plain text format, you could combine them, manually (or, if you have any scripting chops, then a script to combine, sort and reformat automatically should be pretty easy).

Well...darn. I am up to like 10 subtitle tracks so far, and I'm only 10% through the video . The reason for all those tracks is because I keep tailoring the background opacity and size for each subtitle to account for whether the text appears on dark or light parts of the video (and Resolve will only allow me the ability to set a background for a subtitle in the "track style" menu, meaning that if I went distinct backgrounds for various subtitles, I need a separate subtitle track for each one, since there is no background option available otherwise in the "captions" menu, i.e., the menu that is used when the "use track style" checkbox is unchecked. Not sure if this has been changed in Resolve 17 or not (I am still on Resolve 16), or if I am just missing something).

Is it fairly straightforward combining the SRT files? Just plug in the time code in the appropriate order? Either way, I'll probably be up to over 100 subtitle tracks at this rate, which seems absurd to me. Thank you for your reply, by the way.

what if you try this:
cut and paste all the srts into one single .txt file one after the next - now timecode is out of order.
then rename as .srt and import into resolve.
resolve should put all the subtitles into the correct spot according to timecode.
then export again the single track.

another way:
Keep a single subtitle track as reference. then use the text tool and use the subtitle track just to copy and paste the text. the simple text tool gives you more styling options.

still another way:
overlay a black clip and use the crop tool to create a soft shadow. adjust transparency as needed to bring down the parts of video that are too bright so that the subtitles stand out.

what if you try this:
cut and paste all the srts into one single .txt file one after the next - now timecode is out of order.
then rename as .srt and import into resolve.
resolve should put all the subtitles into the correct spot according to timecode.
then export again the single track.

another way:
Keep a single subtitle track as reference. then use the text tool and use the subtitle track just to copy and paste the text. the simple text tool gives you more styling options.

still another way:
overlay a black clip and use the crop tool to create a soft shadow. adjust transparency as needed to bring down the parts of video that are too bright so that the subtitles stand out.

All right, I will try that! When importing the combined SRT file back into Resolve, I imagine that I import it on my project file (i.e., while my project is open), but then only choose to render the SRT (which Resolve should have placed in proper order), as opposed to re-rendering the entire project again as well.

For the text option, do you mean applying a text clip to the subtitle track? I didn’t think it would let me do that. Thanks for the suggestions!

I mean using the simple text tool instead of subtitle track. My understanding is that you want to burn in the subtitles - no?
I wish there would be simple way to convert a subtile to text, just by dragging it onto a video track..., like select all subtitle clips and just drag them onto a video track where they would be transformed into a simple text tool. alas..
You could drag out a simple text over your entire video, then chop it up according to the subtitle clips, and the copy and paste the text. a chore for sure.

Maybe I misunderstanding that want to generate a srt with styling options - but srt is very limited as far as styling and there are no guarantees that any player will honor them. subtitle styles are controlled by the user and vary with each device.

btw- you can export each subtitle track by right clicking on the track header and choose export, no need to render the entire project to get an srt file.

Yeah, definitely not burned in- I’m uploading to YouTube and I believe they take SRT files as standard for subtitles. Otherwise, the text option would be ideal (actually, I’m not even sure why someone would use a separate subtitle track if they only wanted to burn in subtitles, since text clips on a standard video track offer much more versatility).

I’ll try the option of combining them into one SRT file, but as you point out, YouTube might not even display the styles correctly in the first place. Urgh.

If you can crop your video so its wider than 16X9, i.e. 2X1, and export it with letter box stripes, then there would be a black stripe at the bottom where the subtitles would go and no styling issues.

I’ll check out that option too- good to know I can export each subtitle track individually. Much appreciated!