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SBV
What is an SBV file?
YouTube's own caption format from its export tool.
What SBV is
SBV is a plain-text format you can open in any editor. It is used for subtitling.
The extension is .sbv, and the full name is YouTube Subtitle. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Where SBV came from
Google published it in 2008.
Age is worth knowing here for one practical reason: the older a format is, the more programs have had time to learn it.
The specification is published, but by its owner
It is written down and implementable, though the vendor decides what the next version looks like. In practice that is enough for the file to keep opening; it is not enough to be sure of it.
It is a specialist format
It exists to do one job well for one group of people. Outside that job it is a poor default, and inside it there is usually nothing better.
What opens SBV
YouTube Studio and Subtitle Edit read it, and so do most programs of the same kind.
If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.
Opening it in a browser
No browser reads it.
That is the single most common reason to convert it: not that the format is bad, but that the place you want to show the file cannot read it.
It is a working format
SBV is meant to be opened and changed. Keep the file in this format for as long as the work is going on, and export from it whenever a finished copy is needed.
The facts, in one place
| Extension | .sbv |
|---|---|
| Media type | text/plain |
| Published by | |
| First published | 2008 |