How do I remove burned-in subtitles from a video?

Upload the video to Valmera and type "remove the burned-in subtitles". The agent measures where the subtitle band sits in the frames, repaints those pixels with the background that was behind them, and measures the region again to confirm the text is gone. Review the preview, then export.

Is this really removing the text, or just blurring it?

Removing it. A blur leaves a smeared patch where the text was, and a box hides the picture too. Valmera rebuilds the background from other frames where it was visible, reconstructs anything never seen clean from the surrounding picture, and feathers the edge. Blur and black boxes are still available for when you want a visible censor.

Can I replace burned-in captions with my own?

Yes, and it is the most common reason to erase them. Ask "erase the burned-in captions, then add new captions in Anton, karaoke style". The frame is cleared first, so the new captions never stack on the old ones.

Will the background look right where the text was?

On subtitles and corner watermarks it usually does, because moving footage shows the background in other frames. A large mark on a busy, moving background can leave a soft patch; the agent measures the result and tells you, and you can restore the region or switch to a blur.

Can it remove a moving watermark?

Only by covering its whole path. An erase region is a fixed rectangle, optionally limited in time; there is no motion tracking. Most watermarks sit in one corner, which is the easy case.

How long a video can it repaint?

The repaint works frame by frame, so each erase window is capped: up to about 10 minutes of footage, around 7 minutes at 1080p and under 2 minutes at 4K. Limit the window to when the text is on screen. Every other edit still works on uploads up to 100 GB and 3 hours.

Yes. Your upload is never modified. Ask to put a region back and the original pixels return instantly, for one region or all of them.

Can I remove a watermark from a video I did not make?

The tool cannot tell whose footage it is; the responsibility is yours. Removing captions or a logo from your own footage, or a client's at their request, is ordinary post-production. Removing someone else's watermark to reuse their footage is different: stock previews are licensed as previews, and in the United States removing copyright management information is prohibited under DMCA section 1202. This is not legal advice.

Remove Burned-In Text, Subtitles and Watermarks from Video

To remove burned-in text from a video, upload it to Valmera and type “remove the burned-in subtitles” or “erase the watermark in the top-right corner.” The AI agent measures exactly where the text sits in the frames and repaints those pixels with the background that was behind them, so the text is gone rather than blurred or boxed.

After repainting, it measures the region again and only reports the text removed when the pixels agree. Every erase is reversible.

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Erase Burned-In Text

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How to Remove Burned-In Text in Valmera

1
Upload the footage
MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV or WebM, up to 100 GB and 3 hours. Indexing already detects text burned into the frames.
2
Find the text (optional)
Ask “where is there text burned into this video?” The agent returns each region, labeled as captions, watermark or other text, with the time it is on screen.
3
Ask for the removal
“Remove the burned-in subtitles” clears every caption band. For one mark, name it and, if you can, the time: “the username bottom left, 0:12 to 0:40.”
4
Check, then export
The reply reports each region before and after. Watch the erased area at full size in the preview, then export a full-resolution MP4.

PROMPTS TO PASTE

Where is there text burned into this video?

Remove the burned-in subtitles.

Erase the watermark in the top-right corner.

Remove the username at the bottom left between 0:12 and 0:40.

Erase the old captions, then caption it again in Anton, karaoke style.

Blurring and covering are censoring: right for a face or a license plate, wrong for a subtitle band you want gone. Ask for the outcome (“hide his badge” or “get rid of the subtitles”) and the agent picks the right one.

How the Repaint Works

Find. The agent measures text regions directly from the frames rather than guessing a rectangle, and classifies each one: subtitles change from line to line, a watermark stays identical in every frame, everything else is on-screen text. That is what makes “remove the subtitles but keep the logo” work.
Rebuild. Subtitles move, so a pixel hidden behind a letter in one frame is clean background a moment later. Valmera builds the background from those clean frames, reconstructs anything never seen clean from the surrounding picture, and feathers the edge so no rectangle shows. Whole-box repaints also get matched film grain, and captions sitting on a solid bar get the whole bar removed, not just the letters.
Measure again. The region is re-measured on the repainted footage. If letters still register, the agent widens the region or repaints the whole box instead of claiming success.
Keep the original. Each erase is a reversible patch over your untouched upload. Exports rebuild it at full resolution, and cuts, captions and timings are unaffected.

Settings That Matter

Setting	Default	How to change it
What to remove	Subtitle bands	“The watermark,” “all burned-in text,” or a named mark: “the handle bottom left.”
When	Whole video	“Between 0:12 and 0:40.” A tight window is faster and repaints less.
What gets repainted	Only the letter strokes	“Repaint the whole box” for a logo shape, a sticker or a caption bar.
Where	Measured from the frames	If nothing is found, say where: “bottom-left corner, from 1:05.”
Undo	—	“Put the watermark region back.” The original pixels return instantly.

Common Problems and Fixes

A soft patch where the text was. The background was busy or never visible. Narrow the time window, or switch to a blur for that stretch.
A faint ghost of the letters. Usually an outline or drop shadow just outside the region. Say “the ghost is still there, widen it.”
A grey bar left behind. Ask to repaint the whole rectangle rather than the strokes.
Nothing was found. Tell the agent where the text is and roughly when; it erases that region directly.
The patch looks worse than the mark. Put it back, then blur it, or reframe: cropping 16:9 to 9:16 often removes a corner watermark entirely.

Limits

Each erase window can span about 10 minutes of footage, less at higher resolutions: around 7 minutes at 1080p and under 2 minutes at 4K. Regions are fixed rectangles with no motion tracking, so a drifting mark needs a region covering its whole path. A large translucent watermark across the entire frame leaves no clean background to recover. Burned-in subtitles cannot be extracted to an SRT or VTT file; Valmera can transcribe the speech and burn fresh captions instead.

When to Use Something Else

For a single hero shot that needs hand-drawn masks and frame-level control, After Effects' Content-Aware Fill is the professional tool. DaVinci Resolve Studio offers patch replacement and object removal if you already work in Resolve. For a small static logo over a soft background, ffmpeg's delogo filter is free, though it smears the box from its edges rather than rebuilding it. Valmera fits when you want the text found, removed and checked from one sentence, alongside the rest of the edit.

Related Tools

After erasing, add new captions in your own style or new titles. To remove a solid object, see remove an object from video; to censor on purpose, blur faces and plates. Repurposing footage is covered on the social media managers and YouTubers pages. The same erase is available to Claude and ChatGPT through the Valmera MCP server as find_burned_text, erase_burned_text, erase_region and remove_erase. More in the effects and captions docs and on the AI video editor page.