SBV Subtitle Format

What this format can express

Text styling: Plain text only
On-screen positioning: No
Karaoke timing: No
Line breaks inside a cue: Yes
Timeline: Start and end time for every cue
Timing resolution: 1 ms
Timing stored as frame numbers: No
Right-to-left text: Yes

Examples

A typical SBV file, and what is read out of it

File

0:00:01.000,0:00:03.500
The quick brown fox.

0:00:04.000,0:00:06.250
Jumps over the lazy dog.

0:00:07.000,0:00:09.000
Two lines here.
And a second one.

What it holds

3 cues, 4 lines of text

  0:00:01.000 → 0:00:03.500
    The quick brown fox.
  0:00:04.000 → 0:00:06.250
    Jumps over the lazy dog.
  0:00:07.000 → 0:00:09.000
    Two lines here.
    And a second one.

Outside the cues:
  nothing — SBV stores cues and nothing else

The right-hand side is not a converted file — it is what this site reads out of the left-hand side, and what every conversion of that file starts from.

An awkward SBV file, and what is still read out of it

File

00:00:01.000 , 00:00:03.000
Hello, world.

Some stray caption text
00:00:05.000,00:00:07.000
This block had a line before its timecode.

not a timecode at all
just prose on two lines

00:00:09.000,00:00:09.000
Zero length.

00:00:11.000,00:00:13.000
No trailing newline after this one.

What it holds

4 cues, 4 lines of text

  0:00:01.000 → 0:00:03.000
    Hello, world.
  0:00:05.000 → 0:00:07.000
    This block had a line before its timecode.
  0:00:09.000 → 0:00:09.001
    Zero length.
  0:00:11.000 → 0:00:13.000
    No trailing newline after this one.

Outside the cues:
  nothing — SBV stores cues and nothing else

Reported while reading — repaired or skipped, never silently:
  1 × blocks with no readable timecode pair (they were skipped)
  1 × cues whose end time was not after their start time (they were given a 1ms duration)

Real files arrive with a byte-order mark, Windows line endings, a stray line before a timecode, or a timecode that cannot be read at all. None of it throws: whatever cannot be understood is reported rather than dropped in silence.

Convert YouTube SBV to another format

Each of these runs entirely in your browser. The labels say what that direction costs before you open it.

SBV to ASS

Convert SBV to ASS in your browser — dropped: precision.

Precision

SBV to CSV

Convert SBV to CSV in your browser — nothing is lost in this direction.

Nothing is lost in this direction — every feature of the source format has somewhere to go in the target format.

SBV to JSON

Convert SBV to JSON in your browser — nothing is lost in this direction.

Nothing is lost in this direction — every feature of the source format has somewhere to go in the target format.

SBV to LRC

Convert SBV to LRC in your browser — dropped: timing, precision.

Timing
Precision

SBV to MICRODVD

Convert SBV to MICRODVD in your browser — dropped: frame rate.

Frame rate

SBV to SMI

Convert SBV to SMI in your browser — nothing is lost in this direction.

Nothing is lost in this direction — every feature of the source format has somewhere to go in the target format.

SBV to SRT

Convert SBV to SRT in your browser — nothing is lost in this direction.

Nothing is lost in this direction — every feature of the source format has somewhere to go in the target format.

SBV to SSA

Convert SBV to SSA in your browser — dropped: precision.

Precision

SBV to TTML

Convert SBV to TTML in your browser — nothing is lost in this direction.

Nothing is lost in this direction — every feature of the source format has somewhere to go in the target format.

SBV to TXT

Convert SBV to TXT in your browser — dropped: timing, line breaks.

Timing
Line breaks

SBV to VTT

Convert SBV to VTT in your browser — nothing is lost in this direction.

Nothing is lost in this direction — every feature of the source format has somewhere to go in the target format.

Converting into this format

YouTube SBV is one of the subtitle formats this site handles, and this page is its reference: what it can store, what it cannot, and a page for every format you can convert it to.

The table above is the whole of it — there is no hidden feature list. When a row says no, that is exactly what is lost by converting into SBV, and each conversion page linked below says so before you open a file.

Every one of those conversions runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed, which matters for material under an NDA, a patient record or a broadcast embargo.

Frequently asked questions

What is an SBV file?

`.sbv` is the caption format YouTube exports: two timestamps on a line with a comma between them, then the text. It is small and easy to generate, and most players read it.

Does SBV store styling?

No — it stores cues, and a cue is text with two times on it. Nothing in the file declares a font, a colour or a position — the player supplies all of it.

Does every SBV cue store both a start and an end?

Yes, and a moment in an SBV file reads `0:00:04.126`. That is as fine as SBV goes — to the millisecond — and the number is exact, so a cue can be short, long, or overlap the next one without anything being implied.

Which formats can I convert SBV to without losing anything?

SRT, VTT, SMI, TTML, JSON and CSV — everything SBV can express, they can too. The table above is where that comes from: a row that says yes on both sides is a feature that survives. Every other direction drops something, and each of those pages names its own list.

Can I open an SBV file in a text editor?

Yes. An `.sbv` file is one line of two times and then the text, repeated. The two times are separated by a comma and the milliseconds by a dot, which is the part people misremember.