SRT to VTT Converter

Why convert subtitles?

A subtitle file holds the lines of a video's dialogue with the time each one shows and hides. Video players, editing programs, and websites each take some subtitle formats and not others, so a file often needs converting before it can be used where you need it. The formats also time the lines in their own ways and keep more or less of their look, such as italics, colors, and where the lines show on the screen.

The styles are italic, bold, underline, and strikeout, except in WebVTT, which has no strikeout. Every format keeps the times and the text, and all but LRC keep its line breaks. SAMI and LRC files give only the time each line starts, and MicroDVD files count time in video frames.

Tool description

This tool converts subtitles between SRT, VTT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SBV, TTML, DFXP, SMI, and LRC. Every subtitle converter here works the same way, from the general Subtitle Converter to the ones for a single pair, such as SRT to VTT, VTT to SRT, or ASS to SRT: it starts on the formats in its name, and the Source and Target menus switch to any other.

The converters take subtitle files or subtitles pasted as text, and give files or text. Pick which with the File and Text tabs at the top of the source side and of the target side. Both start on File.

• File in: pick or drop one subtitle file or many. Browse files lists only files in the source format, but files dropped on it can be in any of them, and each one converts from its own format, so a VTT file converts even on the ASS to SRT converter. Each file converts as soon as it's added, and again whenever you pick another target or frame rate.
• Text in: paste or type subtitles, and they convert as you type.
• File out: the converted files show up in a grid, each with its own Download button, and keep their original file names with the new extension. Pasted subtitles give one file named converted, such as converted.vtt.
• Text out: the converted subtitles show as text, ready to copy. When several files are converted, the File menu above the text picks the file it shows.

The swap button turns the conversion around: the target format becomes the source, the two sides swap tabs, and the converted subtitles become the new input.

Subtitles are converted on your device and never uploaded.

Convert many subtitle files at once

On the File tab, pick or drop as many subtitle files as you like, and add more at any time: this is a batch subtitle converter, so the subtitles of a whole series convert in one go, whether it's ASS to SRT, SRT to VTT, or SUB to SRT.

• The files convert one after another, in the order they were added, and the progress bar counts them.
• The converted files show up in a grid, each with its own Download button.
• Download All saves every converted file in one ZIP file, or a single converted file as it is.
• When two files would get the same name, a number is added to the later one, as in episode (1).srt.
• If a file can't be converted, an error message names it, and the others still convert.

Settings

Frame Rate (fps) shows up in Settings, under the target format, when converting from or to SUB, as MicroDVD files count time in video frames rather than seconds. Pick the frame rate of the video the subtitles go with: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, or 60 frames per second. It starts at 23.976.

• A MicroDVD file whose first line names its frame rate, as in {1}{1}25, is read at that rate, whatever Frame Rate says. Other MicroDVD files are read at the Frame Rate picked.
• The MicroDVD files the converter writes start with that line, naming the Frame Rate they were written at.

How it works

Each file, or the pasted text, is read into its cues, the lines of text that show at one time, which are then written in the target format.

• A file's text is read in the character encoding its byte order mark names, or else in UTF-8 when it's valid UTF-8, or else in the encoding chardet finds most likely, such as Windows-1251 for Russian subtitles, Shift_JIS for Japanese ones, or EUC-KR for Korean ones. UTF-16 files without a byte order mark are recognized too. The converted files are always UTF-8, with Windows line endings (CRLF).
• A file is read as the kind of subtitles it holds, whatever its extension says, and so is pasted text, whatever the Source menu says. An .xml file of TTML subtitles reads as TTML, an SRT file saved as .txt reads as SRT when you drop it on the file picker, and a .sub file of SubViewer subtitles, which are timed in hundredths of a second, reads as SubViewer rather than MicroDVD.
• The times and the text always carry over, and so do the line breaks, except in LRC files. Italic, bold, underline, strikeout, colors, and position carry over as far as the target has them, as the table shows. Fonts, font sizes, outlines, animations, karaoke timing, speaker names, drawings, notes, and comments are left out.
• White text is written without a color. WebVTT keeps only the colors it names: white, lime, cyan, red, yellow, magenta, blue, and black, as classes such as <c.yellow>.
• Cues at the top or middle of the picture, or at its left or right, keep their place: SRT and ASS files get tags such as {\an8}, whose numbers are laid out like the keys of a numeric keypad, so 8 is top center, SSA files tags such as {\a6}, VTT files line and align cue settings, and TTML and DFXP files a region for each place. MicroDVD, SBV, SAMI, and LRC files have no places, so their cues lose them.
• ASS, SSA, and LRC times are rounded to hundredths of a second, and MicroDVD ones to the nearest frame.
• In ASS and SSA files, each Dialogue line is read in the italic, bold, underline, strikeout, color, and alignment of its style, and its override tags change them. The ASS and SSA files the converter writes have one style, Default: white Arial at size 16, at the bottom center of a 384 × 288 script.
• SAMI and LRC files give only the time each caption starts. A caption lasts until the next one or until an empty caption clears it, and the last one lasts 5 seconds, or in an LRC file until the song length its length tag gives, when that's later. As these formats show one caption at a time, cues that overlap are split where one starts or ends, and each part shows the text of every cue on the screen then.
• LRC files are read at every time a line has, lines with the same time show together, as in files with translations, and the offset tag moves every line. Word times, as in <01:23.45>, are left out. The LRC files the converter writes put each cue on one line, with a space between its lines.
• A SAMI file with captions in several languages is read in the first language that has captions. The SAMI files the converter writes have one language: the one the source names, such as the language of a TTML file or of another SAMI file, or English when it names none. Its class is named after it, as in KOCC for Korean.
• In TTML and DFXP files, times can be clock times, frames, ticks, or offsets such as 1.5s, and the times of the body and its divs count too. Styles are read whether they're set on the text or named in the head. DFXP files are TTML files, so the converter reads and writes both the same way, and only the extension differs. The files it writes have clock times with milliseconds and styles set on the text.
• In WebVTT files, notes, style blocks, regions, and cue identifiers are left out, and a "Language:" line in the header, which some files have, gives the language.
• In MicroDVD files, control codes such as {y:i} for italics and {c:$0000FF} for colors style a line, or with a capital letter the whole cue, and so does a / at the start of a line for italics. MicroDVD can't style part of a line, so the files the converter writes keep the styles that whole lines or cues have.
• SRT files convert even when they leave out the cue numbers, have blank lines in cues, or have dots instead of commas in their times.
• SUB files that come with an .idx file (VobSub) hold pictures of the subtitles rather than text, so they can't be converted.

Tips

• For video on a web page, convert to VTT: the HTML <track> element takes WebVTT files.
• If a MicroDVD file shows too early or too late, and more so as the video goes on, convert it again with the frame rate of the video it goes with.
• If letters come out wrong, such as Ïðèâåò in place of Привет, the file's encoding wasn't recognized. Open it in a text editor, save it as UTF-8, and convert it again, or copy its text and paste it on the Text tab.