SRT to SBV converter your captions in YouTube's format.
To convert SRT to SBV, paste the captions or drop the .srt file in and click convert. We remove the cue numbers, rewrite each timing as 0:00:04.300,0:00:06.100 and strip italics, colors and position codes, which SBV cannot store. Text and line breaks stay the same.
Free, no sign-upSecond file
For example, the video name and the version up for approval.
This text has no timings. We will build subtitles from reading speed: each line or sentence becomes a block of up to 2 lines.
The JSON has a time for every word. We cut blocks of up to 2 lines of 42 characters, at sentence ends and pauses.
Subtitle report
- Subtitles
- Duration
- Words
- Average CPS
- Max CPS
- Flagged
| # | Time | Duration | Text | Characters per line | CPS | Flags |
|---|
How to convert SRT to SBV
- 01
Paste or drop the .srt
Any SRT works, exported from Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut or anything else. Files saved as Windows-1252 or missing cue numbers are fine too.
- 02
Clean up if needed
Fix overlaps and remove [Music] or (laughs) before creating the SBV. The report shows the reading speed of every caption.
- 03
Download the .sbv
Download the file and upload it in YouTube Studio as captions with timing, or hand it to whoever asked for this format.
Do you really need SBV for YouTube?
To upload captions, no. YouTube Studio accepts SRT, VTT and SBV when you upload a file with timing, so a finished SRT already does the job. It's worth knowing before you convert: if all you want is to publish, the file you have works.
SBV makes sense when someone asks for it. That's common on channels that keep every caption file the way it came out of YouTube's caption editor, in older team workflows and in internal tools that only read .sbv. Some reviewers also prefer SBV because it's leaner: no numbers, no arrows, just timing and text.
- A client or channel manager wants the delivery as .sbv
- A team spreadsheet or script only reads YouTube's format
- You want the caption archive in a single format
- Review is done by someone used to YouTube's caption editor
What happens to formatting in the conversion
SBV is one of the simplest caption formats around. It stores the start, the end and the text of each block, and nothing else. Everything else an SRT carries goes away in the conversion: the cue numbers, italic, bold and underline tags, color set with <font color> and position codes such as {\an8}, which some players use to move a caption to the top.
That matters when formatting has a job. Italics often mark an off-screen voice, narration or song lyrics, and a top position keeps the caption off a name at the bottom of the frame. In SBV those cues vanish and the line shows as plain text. If they matter, keep the original SRT, which holds the markup.
| In the SRT | In the SBV |
|---|---|
| Cue numbers | Removed |
| 00:04:12,300 --> 00:04:15,050 | 0:04:12.300,0:04:15.050 |
| <i>, <b>, <u> | Removed, text kept |
| <font color> | Removed |
| {\an8} (caption at the top) | Removed |
| Two lines in a block | Kept |
| Windows-1252 or UTF-16 | UTF-8 |
The same captions in SRT and in SBV
Here are two blocks from a personal finance video, before and after. The hour has a single digit, a dot separates the milliseconds, and start and end share one line, split by a comma with no space. A blank line separates each block. In videos longer than ten hours, the hour gets two digits.
The first block shows what happens to formatting: the position code and the italics go, and the description in parentheses stays as text. If you turn on sound description removal, that whole block leaves the file, because it ends up empty.
budget-lesson.srt
14
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:05,480
{\an8}<i>(music in the background)</i>
15
00:12:05,900 --> 00:12:08,250
Today we're talking about
your monthly budget.
budget-lesson.sbv
0:12:03.000,0:12:05.480
(music in the background)
0:12:05.900,0:12:08.250
Today we're talking about
your monthly budget.Before you upload the SBV to YouTube Studio
The conversion doesn't touch the timing of any line, so the SBV is exactly as in sync as the SRT was. If the SRT came from another cut of the video, with the intro trimmed or a different frame rate, fix it first with the subtitle sync tool. Then check these points:
- In YouTube Studio, open Subtitles, pick the language and upload the file as captions with timing, not as a transcript without timing.
- Look in the report for captions above 17 characters per second or with lines longer than 42 characters.
- Turn on overlap fixing if two blocks show at the same time in the preview.
- Watch the first few minutes in the Studio preview before publishing.
More than making an SBV. Captions straight from your video.
See also
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert SRT to SBV?
Paste the SRT or drop the file in, leave SBV as the output and click convert. The cue numbers go, timings become 0:00:04.300,0:00:06.100 and formatting is stripped. Download the .sbv in UTF-8. It's free, with no sign-up and no usage limit.
If YouTube accepts SRT, why convert?
To publish, you don't need to: YouTube Studio takes SRT directly. Converting helps when someone asks for .sbv, when the channel's archive is all in that format or when a team tool only reads YouTube's format.
Do SRT italics show up in the SBV?
No. SBV has no way to store formatting, so italics, bold, underline, color and position go away. The text stays the same. If formatting marks narration or music, keep the original SRT for the places that display it.
How do I upload an SBV file in YouTube Studio?
Open the video in YouTube Studio, go to Subtitles, pick or add the language and upload the file with the option that includes timing. The captions come in with the file's timings, and you can adjust individual lines in YouTube's own editor.
The captions run early after uploading. What now?
The SBV has the same timings as the SRT, so the offset was already in the source file. It happens when captions were made for another cut of the video. Use the subtitle sync tool to shift everything earlier or later, then convert again.
What extension and encoding does an SBV file use?
The extension is .sbv and the content is plain text, which opens in Notepad, TextEdit or any text editor. We always deliver UTF-8, with accents intact, even when the source SRT was Windows-1252 or UTF-16.
Don't have captions yet? We make them from your video.
Paste a YouTube link or upload the video. We transcribe every line with its timing, and you download an SRT ready to convert to SBV or upload as is.
See the result on your own recording before adding a card.