Srt to VTT converter

This script can be used to convert subtitles from Srt to VTT format.

Example workflow: Generate VTT subtitles for your own videos

Upload Video to YouTube and generate Closed Captions

• Upload video: https://www.youtube.com/upload
• Open with the (old) Creator Studio
• Set video as unlisted (if this should not be public)
• Once video is uploaded, select Subtitles/CC tab and wait until CCs are published (auto-generated)
• Then Click on the Generated CC and download the subtitles in .srt format.

NOTE: YouTube supports downloading captions in VTT format as well. But the VTT format used is not supported by all players (e.g. Udemy).

Hence, this script was created to convert .srt to "simple" .vtt.

Convert

Run:

convert-srt-vtt.sh file.srt

This will output a file.srt.vtt file.

Batch convert

To convert all files in a given folder, run:

convert-all-srt-vtt.sh

Overlapping captions

When using .srt, the start and end times for each caption can overlap.

Example input file (notice how the end time of each caption is after the start time of the next caption):

1
00:00:00,030 --> 00:00:04,920
hello and welcome to my course on coding

2
00:00:02,730 --> 00:00:06,930
with flutter by taking this course you

3
00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:09,510
will learn how to use flutter to build

Unfortunately, not all players support overlapping captions.

So this script manipulates the timestamps, so that each caption starts exactly at the end of the previous one.

Example output file:

WEBVTT

00:00:00.030 --> 00:00:02.730
hello and welcome to my course on coding

00:00:02.730 --> 00:00:04.920
with flutter by taking this course you

00:00:04.920 --> 00:00:06.930
will learn how to use flutter to build