SRT generator

What an SRT file is

SubRip Subtitle (.srt) is the most widely supported subtitle format there is — plain text, no styling, readable in any text editor. Each entry has a sequence number, a start and end timecode in HH:MM:SS,mmm format, and one or more lines of text, separated from the next entry by a blank line.

Because it is plain text, an SRT file is easy to fix by hand after the fact, easy to version, and accepted essentially everywhere: YouTube, Vimeo, VLC, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut and every major LMS.

SRT or VTT?

Use SRT for video platforms, editing software and media players. Use VTT for HTML5 video on the web — the <track> element requires WebVTT, and browsers will not load an SRT file.

The two formats are closely related. VTT uses a dot rather than a comma for the millisecond separator, starts with a WEBVTT header, and supports styling and positioning that SRT does not. Both are exported from the same job here, so the choice does not have to be made up front.

Getting the timings right

Most subtitle problems are timing problems rather than transcription problems. Blocks that appear late, linger too long, or break mid-clause are far more distracting to a viewer than the occasional misheard word.

Because recognition returns a timestamp per word, block boundaries can be moved without the rest of the file drifting. If you split a long caption in the editor, both halves keep the true timings of the words they contain.

Translated SRT files

An SRT can be generated in the spoken language or translated into any of the 76 supported languages. Translation happens on the transcript, so the translated file keeps the original timings exactly — useful when you need matching subtitle tracks in several languages for the same video.