SAMI to SRT Converter

The SAMI to SRT Converter reads a SAMI caption document pasted into the SAMI Content box and returns a clean, sequentially numbered SubRip file. Each <SYNC> block in the source becomes one SRT cue with a full HH:MM:SS,mmm --> HH:MM:SS,mmm timing line, and the finished text can be downloaded straight away as a .srt file.

This is the conversion people need when captions arrive from an older supplier, a university media archive or a Windows-era broadcast library. SRT is the format YouTube, Vimeo, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, Subtitle Edit and virtually every online video platform accept, whereas SAMI is understood by almost none of them. Translators, subtitle QC staff and video editors use a sami to srt converter to get inherited caption files into something they can actually open and edit.

The hard part of the conversion is the end time. A SAMI cue declares only a start, in milliseconds, on its <SYNC> element; the caption is understood to stay on screen until the next <SYNC> appears. The parser therefore reads the whole document in order and derives each cue's end from the following block's start, so the resulting SRT has genuine, non-overlapping in and out points. Along the way the surrounding markup is stripped - paragraph and font elements, class attributes and the SAMI header - leaving readable caption text, while line-break markup inside a cue is turned back into real line breaks so multi-line captions keep their original shape. Blocks that contain no text after stripping, which SAMI often uses purely to blank the screen, do not become empty SRT cues.

Everything runs locally in your browser, so no caption file is uploaded, and even a long feature-length document converts instantly.

• Automatic end-time derivation: because SAMI stores only a start value, each cue's out point is taken from the start of the next <SYNC> block, producing a valid SubRip duration for every caption.
• Markup stripping: paragraph tags, font elements, class attributes and the SAMI style header are removed so the SAMI Content you paste comes back as plain caption text rather than a wall of angle brackets.
• Line breaks restored: break markup inside a caption becomes a real newline in the SRT, which preserves the two-line layout subtitlers deliberately chose for reading speed.
• Clean renumbering: cues are indexed from 1 upwards in playback order, so gaps or duplicated numbering in the source document do not carry through to the output.
• Standards-correct timestamps: millisecond values are formatted as HH:MM:SS,mmm with a comma separator, which is what SubRip requires and what strict validators check for.
• Single-field simplicity: the tool has one input, the SAMI Content textarea, plus Run, Copy and Download - there are no settings to misconfigure.
• Local processing: the convert sami to srt online workflow never uploads your document, which matters for pre-release or rights-restricted material.

1. Open your .smi file in any plain text editor and copy its entire contents, including the header, then paste it into the SAMI Content box.
2. If you just want to see how the conversion behaves first, click Load sample to drop a small SAMI document into the same box.
3. Press Run; the converter walks the document in order, pairs each SYNC start with the next one to form an end time and prints the SubRip result.
4. Read the last cue in the output carefully - it is the one whose end time has no following block to derive from, so it is worth confirming it stays on screen long enough.
5. Scan a few cues for stray markup or unexpected blank captions, which usually indicate a hand-edited source document rather than a conversion problem.
6. Click Copy to move the SRT into your editing tool, or Download to save it with the .srt extension.
7. Load the saved .srt against the video to spot-check sync before you send it on.

Example 1 - two consecutive SYNC blocks. The second block supplies the end time for the first.

Input (SAMI):
<SYNC START=1000><P>Welcome to the harbour tour.</P></SYNC>
<SYNC START=4500><P>Our first stop is the old lighthouse.</P></SYNC>

Output (SRT):
1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,500
Welcome to the harbour tour.

2
00:00:04,500 --> 00:00:07,200
Our first stop is the old lighthouse.

Note that cue 1 runs right up to the moment cue 2 begins - that is the SAMI timing model made explicit, not padding invented by the tool.

Example 2 - a two-line caption with break markup. A source block written as <P>Mind the gap<BR>between train and platform.</P> comes back as two genuine text lines under one timing line, so the subtitle still breaks where the original subtitler intended instead of running off the edge of the frame.

• Unlocks stranded caption libraries: archive material that only exists as .smi becomes editable, translatable and uploadable without re-transcribing a single word.
• Meets platform requirements: YouTube, Vimeo and most OVPs accept SubRip directly, so a converted file can be published the moment it downloads.
• Saves hours of cleanup: stripping markup and renumbering automatically avoids the tedious find-and-replace pass that hand conversion always turns into.
• Prevents timing mistakes: deriving end times programmatically removes the guesswork that leads to overlapping cues and validator failures downstream.
• Keeps material confidential: nothing is uploaded, so legal, medical and pre-broadcast content can be converted without a data-handling review.
• Works on any machine: a browser is the only requirement, which helps freelancers and reviewers who cannot install subtitle software on a managed laptop.