SBV to SRT converter
Download a caption track from YouTube Studio and it arrives as .sbv, which most editors will not open. Convert it to SRT here, or go the other way, without the caption text changing.
Browser caption converter
Use this for a caption track downloaded from YouTube Studio, which arrives as .sbv, when an editor or another platform wants SRT.
Conversion happens in your browser. Only the timestamp syntax and cue numbering change. Caption wording, line breaks and cue order stay as they were.
Almost nobody chooses SBV. You end up with one because you downloaded your own captions from YouTube Studio, which produces that format natively, and then found that the editor or platform you wanted to use them in does not accept it.
The format itself is simple and the difference from SRT is narrow. SBV puts both times on a single line separated by a comma, with no cue number and no leading zero on the hour. SRT numbers each cue, puts the times on their own line joined by an arrow, and separates milliseconds with a comma rather than a period. The caption text is identical in both.
That is why this conversion is safe to run on a track you have already reviewed. Nothing about the wording, the line breaks inside a cue, or the order of cues changes. Only the syntax around them does.
The usual reason to be here is reuse. A video already has captions on YouTube, and now the same words are needed somewhere else: a client deliverable, a repost to another platform, a transcript, or an archive. Downloading the SBV and converting it is faster than captioning the video again, and it keeps the review someone already did.
From SRT you can go anywhere. The SRT to VTT converter handles web players, and the SRT to text converter strips the timing for a readable transcript. If the track needs checking first, the subtitle validator reports overlapping cues, reading speed and line length.
For uploading a track to YouTube in the first place, including the UTF-8 requirement that catches non-Latin scripts, see the subtitle track upload guide. To create captions from a video rather than convert an existing file, start in the AutoCaption caption generator.
It is the caption format YouTube Studio produces when you download a subtitle track. A cue is one timing line with the start and end times separated by a comma, then the caption text, then a blank line. There are no cue numbers, the hour has no leading zero, and milliseconds follow a period.
In YouTube Studio open the video, go to Subtitles, use the menu next to the caption track and choose Download. The file arrives as .sbv, which most editors and other platforms do not accept.
Only the syntax. SBV writes 0:00:01.000,0:00:03.000 on one line, while SRT writes a cue number, then 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,000 on its own line. The caption wording, the line breaks inside each cue, and the cue order are untouched.
Yes. Switch the direction and the tool writes SRT or WebVTT back into SBV, which is useful when you have edited a track elsewhere and want it in the format YouTube produces. WebVTT positioning is dropped in that direction, because SBV does not carry cue settings.
No. YouTube accepts SRT and WebVTT uploads as well, so converting to SBV is only needed when something in your workflow specifically expects it. The common direction is the other way, taking what YouTube gave you into a format everything else reads.
No. The conversion runs in your browser. The file is read locally so you can copy or download the converted version.
Transcribe the video, review the wording and timing, then export SRT, VTT, text, or a captioned video.