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SMI to SBV converter, without the upload.

Turn SMI subtitles into SBV. It is converted in your browser, so the file never leaves your device.

Drop SMI files here

or choose from your computer paste with Ctrl V

Ready · other file types work too0 bytes uploaded, ever

Convert to

How to convert SMI to SBV

  1. Add your SMI subtitles

    Drop SMI (SAMI) files onto the box above, or click it to choose them. ToAny reads the file's contents to detect the type, so a wrong extension does not matter.

  2. SBV is already chosen

    Press Convert. There is nothing else to set. The work happens in this tab.

  3. Download

    Save the SBV, or download everything as one ZIP if you converted several files.

Why ToAny

  • Private by construction

    The SMI to SBV converter is part of this page and runs inside your browser. Your subtitles are never sent to ToAny or to anyone else.

  • No upload, no queue

    Nothing has to travel to a server and back, so the conversion starts the moment you press Convert, even on a slow connection.

  • Free, without an account

    No sign-up, no email address and no watermark. Add several files and download them together as a ZIP.

SMI to SBV: what to expect

SMI is HTML-like and many players outside Windows and Korea do not read it. SBV imports directly into YouTube Studio. SMI is at home in subtitles for Korean-market players and multilingual files; SBV is the usual choice for uploading and downloading YouTube captions.

The text is read as UTF-8 or UTF-16, whichever the file is. An older file in another code page is read using the charset it declares, or as Windows-1252 if it declares none, so accented letters in an unlabelled legacy file can come out wrong. A file that is not text, such as the picture-based subtitles of a DVD, is refused instead of being converted to nonsense. Of the styling, only italic, bold, underline and the position on screen (top, middle or bottom, left, centre or right) travel between formats; fonts, colours, outlines and effects do not. A SAMI file can hold several languages; only the first one found is read. YouTube's SBV has no styling and no positions, so the result holds the text and times only.

SMI vs SBV

SMI

SAMI subtitles

SAMI is an HTML-like subtitle format from Microsoft, with each cue a SYNC tag holding the start time in milliseconds. It can hold several languages in one file, selected by style class. It is most common in South Korea.

Opens in Windows Media Player, KMPlayer, PotPlayer, VLC and Korean-market players

SMI converter
SBV

YouTube SBV subtitles

SBV is the plain caption format YouTube exports and accepts: a time range such as 0:00:01.000,0:00:04.000 followed by the text. It carries no styling and few other programs read it.

Opens in YouTube Studio and some caption tools; few media players

SBV converter
SMI compared with SBV
SMISAMI subtitlesSBVYouTube SBV subtitles
Stands forSynchronized Accessible Media InterchangeYouTube caption file
TypeSubtitlesSubtitles
CompressionNoneNone
IntroducedThe late 1990s, by MicrosoftThe late 2000s, by Google (YouTube)
Opens inWindows Media Player, KMPlayer, PotPlayer, VLC and Korean-market playersYouTube Studio and some caption tools; few media players
Best forSubtitles for Korean-market players and multilingual filesUploading and downloading YouTube captions
File extension.smi, .sami.sbv

Questions

Are my subtitles uploaded anywhere?

No. The SMI to SBV conversion runs inside your browser, on your own phone or computer. The file is not sent to ToAny or to anyone else.

Is anything lost when converting SMI to SBV?

No further quality is lost: SBV stores the decoded audio exactly. The result is identical in content.

Can I convert several SMI files at once?

Yes. Add as many as you like, convert them together and download each result or all of them as one ZIP.

How do I convert SMI to SBV on Windows, Mac, iPhone or Android?

The steps are the same everywhere because ToAny runs in the web browser: open this page in a current version of Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, add the SMI file, press Convert and save the SBV. There is nothing to install.

Is there a file size limit?

Yes, but a subtitle file is small. Files up to 50 MB are accepted, far more than any real subtitle file. Beyond that the limit is your device's memory, since nothing is uploaded; a computer copes with large files better than a phone.