Free online SBV to LRC converter

Music players and karaoke devices that accept timed lyrics in LRC cannot use YouTube-style SBV caption files directly. Converting the file preserves cue start times while changing the caption structure into line-based lyrics that LRC-compatible software can read.

What the SBV format is

SBV, commonly called SubViewer or YouTube caption format, stores subtitle intervals followed by caption text. A typical cue looks like 0:00:03.500,0:00:06.200 on the first line, followed by one or more lines of text. The first timestamp is the cue start and the second is its end.

You encounter SBV files after downloading captions from YouTube or exporting subtitles from captioning and subtitle-editing software. SBV supports multiline captions, blank lines between cues, basic timing, and Unicode text, but it does not use the line-oriented timestamp syntax expected by most lyric players.

What the LRC format is

LRC is a plain-text format for synchronized song lyrics. Each lyric line begins with a timestamp such as [00:03.50]First lyric line. The timestamp identifies when the line appears; LRC normally has no separate end timestamp, so the next timestamp determines when a player replaces it.

LRC files work with many music players, karaoke applications, car systems, and portable devices. They are smaller and simpler than subtitle formats, and can include optional metadata such as [ar:Artist], [ti:Title], and [al:Album]. Standard LRC timestamps usually use minutes, seconds, and hundredths of a second.

How to actually convert SBV to LRC

Using the built-in online converter

1. Open the free converter on 101convert.com; no software installation is required.
2. Upload the source file, for example lyrics.sbv.
3. Select LRC as the output format and start the conversion.
4. Download the resulting lyrics.lrc file.
5. Open the LRC file in a plain-text editor and confirm that each lyric line has a timestamp in the form [mm:ss.xx].
6. Give the LRC file the same base name as the audio file, such as song.mp3 and song.lrc, then place both files in the folder required by the player.

Manual conversion for a small file

For each SBV cue, copy the start time and discard the end time. Convert 0:01:24.370 to [01:24.37], then place the caption text after the timestamp:

[01:24.37]Lyric line begins here

Convert hours into minutes when necessary. For example, 1:02:03.000 becomes [62:03.00]. Keep timestamps in ascending order and save the file as UTF-8 with the .lrc extension.

Automating repeated conversions

A script can parse the first line of every SBV cue, use only the start time, and join multiline captions into one LRC line. The essential transformation is:

SBV: 0:00:12.500,0:00:15.000
Text line one
Text line two

LRC: [00:12.50]Text line one Text line two

When preserving separate lyric lines matters, write each SBV text line with the same start timestamp instead of joining them. Player behavior for duplicate timestamps varies, so one combined line is usually more compatible.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

• End times are not preserved: LRC has start timestamps rather than SBV-style start and end intervals. A player typically displays each line until the next timestamp.
• Subtitle formatting is lost: positioning, styling, speaker labels, and some markup have no standard LRC equivalent. Remove HTML-like tags if the target player displays them literally.
• Multiline cues need a decision: joining lines improves compatibility, while repeated timestamps can preserve line breaks but may display unpredictably.
• Timing may need adjustment: captions prepared for video can be offset from the audio because of an intro, cut, silence, or different media version. Check the first several lines against the audio and apply a uniform offset if necessary.
• Encoding matters: save non-ASCII lyrics as UTF-8. A player that assumes a legacy character set may show accented characters or non-Latin scripts incorrectly.