Convert SRT to SubViewer (.sbv)
SubViewer is the format YouTube Studio's caption uploader expects. This strips an SRT down to it: no cue numbers, no header, and the two timecodes on one line separated by a comma.
Drop a .srt file here
or click to choose one. It is converted in this page and never uploaded.
What changes
- Cue numbers are removed. SubViewer has none, and order comes from position in the file.
- The arrow between the two times becomes a comma, and both move onto one line.
- The hour is written unpadded: 0:00:01.000 rather than 00:00:01,000. This is how YouTube itself writes the format.
YouTube will also accept an SRT directly, so this is worth doing mainly when something in the chain specifically wants SubViewer, or when you are matching files YouTube exported.
Nothing is uploaded
The .srt is read and the .sbv is written in this page, by the same code that builds exports in the editor. The file never reaches a server and no copy is kept. A subtitle file is a transcript, and a transcript is often the part of a project that cannot leave the building.
Frequently asked questions
Does YouTube not accept SRT?
It does. SubViewer is worth converting to when you are matching the format YouTube itself exports, or feeding a tool that expects it specifically.
Are line breaks inside a caption preserved?
Yes. A two-line caption stays two lines.
No subtitle file yet?
Generate one from your audio or video with word-level timing, then export SubViewer directly, no conversion step, and every word individually timed rather than every line. Free for 15 minutes and 5 transcriptions a month.
Transcribe a file instead