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VTT to EBU-STL converter, without the upload.

Turn VTT subtitles into EBU-STL. It is converted in your browser, so the file never leaves your device.

Drop VTT files here

or choose from your computer paste with Ctrl V

Ready · several at once0 bytes uploaded, ever

Convert to

How to convert VTT to EBU-STL

  1. Add your VTT subtitles

    Drop VTT (WebVTT) 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. EBU-STL is already chosen

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

  3. Download

    Save the EBU-STL, or download everything as one ZIP if you converted several files.

Why ToAny

  • Private by construction

    The VTT to EBU-STL 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.

VTT to EBU-STL: what to expect

VTT is less widely accepted than SRT by desktop players and editors. EBU STL is the file European broadcasters ask for when subtitles are delivered with a programme. VTT is at home in captions on web pages and in HTML video players; EBU-STL is the usual choice for subtitles delivered to European broadcasters.

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. WebVTT comments, STYLE blocks and region definitions are skipped; the cues, their text and positions are kept. The file is written as STL25.01 in the Latin character set, 25 frames per second, with italics, underline, line breaks, position and justification. Characters outside the character set become a question mark.

VTT vs EBU-STL

VTT

WebVTT subtitles

WebVTT is the caption format of HTML5 video. It looks like SRT with a WEBVTT header and a full stop in the timestamps, but also supports positioning, styling with CSS, chapters and metadata. Browsers display it natively.

Opens in Web browsers (the HTML track element), YouTube, Vimeo, VLC and streaming players

VTT converter
EBU-STL

EBU STL subtitles

EBU STL, defined in EBU Tech 3264, is the binary subtitle file of European broadcasters: a 1024-byte header followed by 128-byte blocks, each holding the in and out timecodes, position, justification and teletext-style text of one subtitle. It is usually named .stl, which is also the extension of 3D printing files, so ToAny tells them apart by the header inside.

Opens in Broadcast subtitling systems, Subtitle Edit, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve

EBU-STL converter
VTT compared with EBU-STL
VTTWebVTT subtitlesEBU-STLEBU STL subtitles
Stands forWeb Video Text TracksEBU Subtitling data exchange format (STL)
TypeSubtitlesSubtitles
CompressionNoneNone (binary)
Introduced2010, by the WHATWG and W3C1991, by the European Broadcasting Union
Opens inWeb browsers (the HTML track element), YouTube, Vimeo, VLC and streaming playersBroadcast subtitling systems, Subtitle Edit, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve
Best forCaptions on web pages and in HTML video playersSubtitles delivered to European broadcasters
File extension.vtt, .webvtt.ebustl

Questions

Are my subtitles uploaded anywhere?

No. The VTT to EBU-STL 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 VTT to EBU-STL?

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

Can I convert several VTT 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 VTT to EBU-STL 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 VTT file, press Convert and save the EBU-STL. 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.