Convert YouTube SBV to SRT
Downloaded captions from YouTube Studio as .sbv? Convert them to SRT in one click and clean up the repeated lines typical for auto-captions.
🔒 Runs in your browser. Your files and text are not uploaded.
How to use the SBV to SRT Converter
- Download your captions from YouTube Studio (Subtitles → three-dot menu → Download) in .sbv format, or paste the text of the file.
- Drop the .sbv onto the box. Keep Merge duplicate lines and fix overlaps ticked for auto-generated captions.
- Press Convert to SRT and look at the preview for warnings.
- Download the SRT and use it in an editor, another video platform or a translation tool.
What an SBV file looks like
0:00:01.200,0:00:03.800
Welcome to the channel.
0:00:04.100,0:00:06.000
Today we are talking about
subtitles.Each block has a start and end time separated by a comma, the text, and a blank line. Hours are written without a leading zero and milliseconds with a dot. The converter turns this into the fixed HH:MM:SS,mmm layout SRT requires.
Why auto-generated captions look messy
YouTube’s automatic captions are designed to be displayed as a two-line rolling window. When exported, each line appears in two or three consecutive cues, and cue times often overlap by a few hundred milliseconds. The clean-up option merges repeated lines, trims overlaps and removes empty cues, which turns the file from a stream of repeated fragments into one cue per sentence fragment. For human-written captions the option does nothing harmful, but you can untick it to get an exact conversion.
After converting
- Edit wording and punctuation in any text editor or subtitle editor — auto-captions need proofreading, especially names and technical terms.
- Use SRT to VTT if you publish on the web.
- Extract a transcript with SRT to TXT.
- Run Check SRT to see lines that are too fast or too long.
Uploading captions back to YouTube
YouTube accepts SRT, SBV and several other formats for uploads. If a platform asks for a specific format, convert with the tool that matches, and keep the original SBV as a backup — it records the exact timings that YouTube produced.
SBV compared with SRT
| SBV (YouTube) | SRT | |
|---|---|---|
| Cue numbers | None | Required |
| Time line | 0:00:01.200,0:00:03.800 | 00:00:01,200 --> 00:00:03,800 |
| Hours | No leading zero | Always two digits |
| Support | YouTube and a few tools | Almost everything |
Because the two formats carry exactly the same information, the conversion is lossless — apart from the clean-up that you can switch off.
Frequently asked questions
What is the SBV format?
SubViewer-style caption files used by YouTube. Each cue has a start and end time on one line, then its text. It carries no styling.
Will auto-captions be cleaned up?
Yes, repeated lines and overlapping times are merged by default. You can turn the option off for an exact one-to-one conversion.
Does SBV contain speaker names or formatting?
No. YouTube’s SBV files contain plain text only.
Can I upload the SRT to YouTube?
Yes. YouTube accepts SRT files as caption uploads.
How accurate are auto-captions?
Often good enough for a draft, but they regularly miss names, jargon and punctuation. Always proofread before publishing.
Is the file kept on a server?
No. It is processed locally in your browser.