Fix Subtitle Encoding

What this tool does

This tool converts subtitles from older character sets to UTF-8 so compatible players can read the letters correctly. It detects the character set, shows the first 20 lines so you can check them, and saves the same text, times and line breaks as UTF-8.

How to fix subtitle encoding

1. Select Choose files and add one or more subtitle files, or use Paste text.
2. Check the detected character set and the first lines under each file. If the letters look wrong, choose another one in Character set.
3. Select Convert to save the files as UTF-8.
4. Select Download for one file or Download all (ZIP) for several files.

Options explained

• Character set is set for each file. The best match is listed first, followed by the other likely ones.
• Add UTF-8 BOM is off by default. Some older programs need it; most current players and editors do not.
• The output keeps the original format, file extension and line breaks. Files get .utf8 before the extension, such as movie.utf8.srt.

Example

A Spanish subtitle saved as windows-1252 shows “�” in place of each accented letter in players that expect UTF-8. Converted to UTF-8, the same text reads correctly:

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,000
¿Dónde está la estación?

Output:

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,000
¿Dónde está la estación?

Format notes and limits

• Reads SRT, VTT, ASS, SSA, SBV and TXT files. Plain text without times is accepted too.
• Short files with only a few accented letters are hard to detect. The page then asks you to check the lines and choose the character set.
• Letters already replaced and saved as question marks or � cannot be recovered. Text already saved with garbled letters such as é needs a separate text repair or an undamaged copy.
• Up to 50 files, 20 MB per file and 200 MB in total.
• After fixing the characters, you can clean hearing-impaired notes, fix overlaps and timing errors or convert to another format.

Questions