ParrotNotes

SBV to SRT Converter

Turn a YouTube .sbv caption file into an .srt that video editors, players and other platforms accept. Paste the captions or open the file, check the preview, and download SRT, VTT or plain text. Free, no account, and the text stays in your browser.

Drop a .sbv or .txt file on the box, or paste the text.

Output

Paste SBV captions or open a .sbv file to see the result here.

The captions are converted in your browser and are not uploaded.

How to convert SBV to SRT

The output updates as you type, so a fix to the SBV shows up in the preview straight away.

  1. 1

    Paste or open the .sbv

    Paste the caption text into the box, drop the .sbv file on it, or click Open file. Files up to 5 MB are read, in UTF-8, UTF-16 or Windows-1252.

  2. 2

    Pick the output

    SRT is selected. Choose WebVTT for a web video player or plain text for a transcript without times, and Windows line endings if an older program needs them.

  3. 3

    Check and download

    The page counts the captions, lists any lines it could not read with their line numbers, and shows the first captions of the result. Copy the text or download the file under the same name.

SBV and SRT side by side

Both are plain text with one block per caption. The converter changes the parts that differ and keeps the words as they are.

SBV (YouTube)SRT (SubRip)
Caption numberNone1, 2, 3 … before each caption
Timing line0:00:01.000,0:00:04.00000:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,000
Between start and endA commaAn arrow, -->
Before the millisecondsA full stopA comma
HoursOne digit or moreTwo digits
Text and blank lineText lines, then a blank lineThe same
YouTube calls the .sbv format SubViewer and lists it among the basic caption formats it accepts.

What one caption looks like before and after

In the .sbv file a caption reads 0:00:05.250,0:00:08.900 on one line and the words below it. In the .srt the same caption gets a number on the line above, and its timing line becomes 00:00:05,250 --> 00:00:08,900. The text lines and the blank line after them do not change.

Choose WebVTT and the file starts with the WEBVTT header, the timing keeps its full stops, and characters such as < and & are written the way WebVTT needs them. Choose plain text and the times are dropped, with captions joined into paragraphs at pauses longer than three seconds.

Have an SRT that needs to be WebVTT, or the other way round? The SRT to VTT Converter does that for several files at once.Only have a script with no times? The TXT to SRT Converter spreads it over the length of your video.

What the converter puts up with

Caption files that have been edited by hand or passed between programs are rarely tidy. These are read without complaint.

  • Long videos

    Hours of any width, so a caption at 10:15:00.000 in a long livestream converts to 10:15:00,000.

  • Short or missing milliseconds

    0:00:07 reads as 7 seconds and 0:00:07.5 as 7.5 seconds; the SRT always gets three digits.

  • Windows files

    CRLF line endings, a byte order mark at the start, extra blank lines and spaces around the comma are all fine.

  • Lines it cannot read

    A block whose first line is not a timing line, a caption that ends before it starts, or a timing line with no words is left out and listed with its line number, so you can fix it and convert again.

Sources

For transcripts of videos and podcasts: how to transcribe a YouTube video, how to summarize a YouTube video, podcast transcript format.

The captions came from a transcript

A caption file is a transcript cut into timed pieces. When the recording is yours, ParrotNotes records it on your phone and gives you the transcript and a summary directly, free for 100 minutes of recording a month.

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Related tools

SBV to SRT FAQ