Convert SRT and ASS to srv3: a subtitle conversion guide

YouTube doesn't accept ASS subtitles, and SRT can't store colors or positions. To keep your subtitle styles on YouTube, you have to convert them to srv3, YouTube's own format. This guide explains how to convert with Kara3 and what each format keeps.

How to convert

1. Open the Kara3 editor.
2. Choose your subtitle file with File > Import subtitles, or drag the file into the window.
3. The editor works out the format from the file extension and content, and shows a notice such as "Imported from SRT."
4. Check the content, then export an srv3 file with File > Export srv3 (Ctrl+E). If you want to keep editing later, you can also press Ctrl+S to save a .kara3 project file.

The text encoding of the file is detected too. Besides UTF-8, it can read subtitles in older encodings such as Big5, GB18030, Shift_JIS and EUC-KR.

What each format keeps

Format	What is converted
SRT	Text, timing, and the <b>, <i>, <u> and <font color> tags
WebVTT	Text, timing, bold, italic and underline, <c.color> tags, ruby (<ruby>), position settings (line, position, align), and inline timestamps (as per-character timing)
SBV	Text, timing
ASS / SSA	Style colors, edges, bold, italic, underline and font size; \an and \pos positions; \k, \kf and \ko karaoke timing; inline color and font size tags

ASS effect tags such as move (\move), fade (\fad) and transform (\t) are not converted on import. When the editor finds these tags, it lists the ones it didn't convert instead of quietly dropping them. If you need them, you can add fades, movement and gradual karaoke again in the Animation panel. Vector drawings (\p) are skipped. Font names are not converted, because YouTube only offers a few fixed fonts. If you need to, pick a font again in the style panel.

ASS karaoke timing

Per-character timing marked with \k in ASS is applied directly as karaoke, so the text changes color as it is sung and you don't need to tap the timing again.

If you want the KTV-style layout with two alternating rows, convert again with Subtitles > Convert to karaoke and check Keep per-character timing the subtitles already have. The layout is redone, but the timing is not overwritten.

What you can do after converting

Once your subtitles are in srv3, you can use all of Kara3's editing features:

• Turn ordinary subtitles into karaoke with Subtitles > Convert to karaoke.
• Fix the timing of each character with tap timing.
• Change colors, edges and position in the style panel, or drag the subtitles on the video.

For the full workflow, see "How to make karaoke subtitles".

The other way: exporting srv3 to other formats

With File > Export as you can save the subtitles as SRT, WebVTT, SBV or ASS. These formats can't store everything srv3 can, so before exporting, the editor lists what will be lost:

Export format	What is lost
SRT, SBV	Colors and other styles, position, karaoke per-character timing (each line becomes plain text)
WebVTT	Colors and other styles, position (per-character timing is kept as inline timestamps)
ASS	srv3 markup that couldn't be recognized and was kept as it is

Exporting doesn't change the original srv3 file, so you can safely export for use in other software.