Free tool
VTT to SBV converter
Drop a .vtt file here to convert VTT to SBV: the header, cue settings, notes and styling are dropped, and each caption is written as a SubViewer timing line followed by its text, with every time kept to the millisecond.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Nothing is uploaded
Nothing is uploaded: your browser reads the file.
Captioning recordings you made yourself? NoteOwl transcribes them on your Mac, unlimited, and saves SRT files you can turn into any of these formats.
How it works
How do you convert VTT to SBV?
Open the .vtt file and keep SBV selected. Everything only a web player uses is removed: the WEBVTT header, cue IDs and settings, NOTE and STYLE blocks and tags. Each caption becomes a comma-separated timing line and its words. Download the .sbv.
- 1
Open the VTT
Drop the .vtt file, choose it, or paste its contents into the box.
- 2
Look over the SBV
It appears on the right. Voice tags turn into “Name:” labels unless you untick Keep speaker names.
- 3
Download it
Save the .sbv file under your VTT file’s name and use it where SubViewer captions are wanted.
What happens to a styled VTT file in SBV?
This VTT file positions one caption at the top, colours another with a STYLE block and tags a speaker. In the SBV this page writes from it, only the times, the words and the speaker’s name are left.
WEBVTT
STYLE
::cue(.note) { color: #ffd479 }
intro
00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:03.000 line:0 align:center
<b>PRODUCT DEMO</b>
00:00:03.400 --> 00:00:07.800
<v Sam Patel>Let's start with search & filters.</v>
00:01:05.250 --> 00:01:09.000 position:20%
<c.note>Filters you save appear in the sidebar.</c>0:00:00.500,0:00:03.000 PRODUCT DEMO 0:00:03.400,0:00:07.800 Sam Patel: Let's start with search & filters. 0:01:05.250,0:01:09.000 Filters you save appear in the sidebar.
What does SBV leave out that VTT can hold?
Nearly everything except time and text. SubViewer has no header, no caption IDs, no positions and no styling, and YouTube reads no markup in it. So placement, colours, bold and italic tags, comments and regions are all removed.
- Times
- In the SBVKept, to the millisecond
- Words and line breaks
- In the SBVKept
- <v Sam Patel> voice tags
- In the SBV“Sam Patel:” before the words, or nothing
- Cue settings: line, position, align
- In the SBVRemoved
- <b>, <i>, <u> and <c.class>
- In the SBVRemoved, words kept
- STYLE, NOTE and REGION blocks
- In the SBVRemoved
| VTT feature | In the SBV |
|---|---|
| Times | Kept, to the millisecond |
| Words and line breaks | Kept |
| <v Sam Patel> voice tags | “Sam Patel:” before the words, or nothing |
| Cue settings: line, position, align | Removed |
| <b>, <i>, <u> and <c.class> | Removed, words kept |
| STYLE, NOTE and REGION blocks | Removed |
When does SBV make sense instead of VTT?
When something only takes SubViewer files, or when you want captions with no placement at all. YouTube reads VTT positions, so a caption pinned to the top of the frame stays there. As SBV, every caption sits in the default place.
For video editors and most other software, SRT is the safer choice: the VTT to SRT converter keeps italics and bold, which SBV can’t.
How are VTT times written in SBV?
With one digit for the hour and a comma between start and end. A VTT cue at 00:01:05.250 --> 00:01:09.000 becomes 0:01:05.250,0:01:09.000 in the SBV. Short VTT times with no hours, like 01:05.250, are filled out the same way.
If the captions need to move before you convert, the subtitle shifter shifts a VTT file and leaves its settings and styles alone.
How do you make subtitle files without typing them?
Let your Mac transcribe the recording. NoteOwl imports audio and video files, transcribes them with on-device AI models and saves SRT subtitles timed from the speech, which these converters turn into VTT, SBV or ASS. Nothing is uploaded. Subtitles from a recording.
FAQ
Questions about converting VTT to SBV
Will my VTT caption positions survive in SBV?
No. SubViewer files have no way to store a position, so every caption is shown in the player’s default place. If you need positions on YouTube, upload the VTT file itself.
Does YouTube accept VTT files?
Yes. YouTube’s help lists WebVTT among the caption formats it supports, with positioning and the <b>, <i> and <u> tags. SBV and SRT are the basic formats it recommends for simple captions.
What happens to speaker voice tags?
A voice tag naming Sam Patel becomes “Sam Patel:” at the start of the caption. Untick Keep speaker names to drop the names and keep only what was said.
Are the times rounded?
No. SBV writes milliseconds, like VTT, so each caption keeps its exact start and end. Only the layout of the timing line changes.
Is anything uploaded when I convert VTT to SBV?
No. The file is read and converted by your browser, and the .sbv download is made on your device.
Keep exploring
More subtitle converters
- Subtitle converterConvert subtitles between SRT, VTT, SBV and ASS, or to plain text, in your browser; SSA scripts and meeting transcripts work too
- SRT to VTT converterConvert SRT to VTT, VTT to SRT, or either to clean text with each speaker’s lines merged, in your browser; Zoom and Teams transcripts work
- ASS to SRT converterConvert ASS or SSA subtitles to SRT in your browser: italics and bold kept, positions, colours and drawings dropped, signs optional
- SRT to ASS converterConvert SRT to ASS with your choice of font, size and position, ready for Aegisub or burning into a video
- SRT to Word converterTurn an SRT subtitle file into a Word document in your browser: a table of captions with start and end times, or a clean transcript
Related
- YouTube transcript to textPaste the transcript YouTube shows under a video and get clean paragraphs, with or without timestamps, as text, Word or SRT; nothing is fetched from YouTube
- Subtitle shifterMove every caption in an SRT, VTT, SBV or ASS file earlier or later, or re-sync it from two points; only the times change
- Online subtitle editorEdit an SRT or VTT file in your browser: change text and times, add and delete captions, catch overlaps and over-fast captions, download
Subtitles from your recordings, written on your Mac
Free to download. Runs entirely on your Mac.
macOS 26 or later · Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) · 16 GB memory minimum, 24 GB recommended
About NoteOwl
NoteOwl is private AI meeting notes and memory for the Mac. It captures meetings without a bot joining the call, labels every speaker, writes summaries and action items, and builds a memory of every conversation that you can chat with — fully offline, because the speech recognition and the AI run on the Mac itself. Dictation into any app is free; Pro is a one-time purchase.
NoteOwl pricing: what’s free and what Pro adds
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