Free online PAC to TXT converter

Broadcasters, subtitle editors, and archives may require a plain .txt file instead of a professional subtitle exchange file. Converting PAC exposes caption text for proofreading, searching, or migration, but a plain TXT file may lose timing, layout, and broadcast metadata.

What the PAC format is

In video-subtitle workflows, PAC usually refers to a professional subtitle exchange format associated with Cavena-compatible systems. A PAC file can store caption text, frame-based timecodes, character-set information, positioning, formatting, and transmission metadata; many PAC files are binary rather than ordinary readable text.

PAC files are used by broadcast and post-production facilities, subtitle vendors, localization teams, and subtitle archives. Different systems can produce different PAC variants, so compatibility depends on the file's source, frame rate, character set, and embedded metadata.

What the TXT format is

TXT is a plain-text format containing characters without a mandatory subtitle schema. It opens in Notepad, TextEdit, code editors, subtitle software, and document-processing tools, which makes it suitable for proofreading, search and replace, archiving readable dialogue, and transferring text to systems that do not support PAC.

A TXT export may contain dialogue only, or it may include sequence numbers, line breaks, speaker labels, and timecodes such as 00:01:12:05. TXT does not inherently preserve PAC positioning, styling, teletext attributes, frame-rate rules, or broadcast metadata.

How to convert PAC to TXT

Do not merely rename the extension. Changing filename.pac to filename.txt changes the filename, not the file structure; it will not decode a binary PAC file. Use a converter or subtitle application that explicitly supports the PAC variant.

1. Open the PAC-to-TXT converter on 101convert.com. It can be used free without installing software.
2. Upload the PAC subtitle file and select TXT as the output format.
3. Start the conversion and download the generated TXT file.
4. Open the result in a text editor. Choose UTF-8 if the editor asks for an encoding, unless the receiving system requires a specified legacy character set.
5. Compare captions from the beginning, middle, and end of the file with the source. Check accented characters, right-to-left text, multiline captions, speaker labels, and timecodes.

Using desktop subtitle software

When the file contains sensitive material or the online converter does not recognize its PAC variant, use professional subtitle software with documented PAC support. Subtitle Edit and EZTitles can handle some Cavena/PAC workflows, but support varies by version and PAC implementation; verify that the application identifies the file correctly before exporting.

1. Open the PAC file in the subtitle application.
2. Use File → Save as or File → Export, select TXT if available, and choose the required options for timecodes, sequence numbers, speaker labels, and line breaks.
3. If direct TXT export is unavailable, export to a structured format such as SRT first, then create a plain-text copy. This intermediate step can retain timing during editing, but the final TXT still has no standard way to represent it.
4. Save with the required encoding and inspect the exported text before delivering it.

Quality and compatibility limits

Conversion can extract the dialogue while dropping frame-accurate timing, positioning, styling, line-display instructions, character-set declarations, or other broadcast data. A PAC file using an unsupported variant may produce missing text, corrupted characters, empty output, or incorrect timecodes.

Keep the original PAC file as the master. Use SRT, WebVTT, or the broadcaster's specified structured format when synchronization and editable timing must be preserved. Confirm the source and destination frame rates, inspect frame-based timecodes rather than assuming they are milliseconds, and retain a backup before overwriting any subtitle file.