SUB to SRT — MicroDVD subtitles with times instead of frames
Convert a MicroDVD .sub file, timed in video frames, to .srt with real times — with the frame rate read from the file or set by you.
About this conversion
A MicroDVD .sub file does not store times: it says “show this from frame 1440 to frame 1512”. Turning that into seconds needs the frame rate of the video it was made for, which many files leave out. When the first line gives it, it is used; otherwise the file is read at 23.976 and the page says so. If the text is wrong from the very first line, re-read it at the right rate from “Change frame rate”, then save as SRT. Italics and line breaks written MicroDVD-style are kept.
Just want to look inside it?
The same tool without converting anything: open the file and read it.
Fix it before you save it
The file stays open after it is read, so the format is picked at the end: the same subtitles can leave here as VTT, ASS, SBV, TTML / DFXP, SAMI (.smi), LRC, TXT, Word, Excel or PDF. Before that you can move every line earlier or later, stretch the timing to a different release of the film, remove [DOOR SLAMS] and speaker names, put a second language under the first, and see which lines break the rules studios follow — too long, too fast, overlapping.
Questions
- My .sub came with an .idx file.
- That is a different format with the same extension: VobSub, pictures of text ripped from a DVD. It needs text recognition, which is not ready here yet; the page says so instead of producing nonsense.
- Which frame rate is right?
- If you do not know, try 23.976 first and check a line near the end against the video. Text that drifts later and later is a 25 fps file.