Export and Import SRT Subtitle Files

Why Export an SRT

SRT (SubRip) is the most widely-supported subtitle format. Once you have a transcription in Highlight Studio, exporting an .srt gives you:

  • A file you can upload directly to YouTube, Vimeo, or any platform that supports user-supplied captions.
  • A text format that translators, captioners, or accessibility reviewers can edit in any tool (Aegisub, Subtitle Edit, even a plain text editor).
  • A backup of your timing-accurate transcript that's portable across video editors (Final Cut, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve all import SRT directly).

Exporting an SRT

  1. Open your project and make sure a transcription exists. Use Generate Subtitles first if needed.
  2. Open the Subtitles settings panel.
  3. Find the Export Subtitles row (appears only when a transcription is present).
  4. Click Export SRT.
  5. The save panel opens with a sensible default filename based on your recording name. Pick a location and save.

The exported file uses the standard SubRip format with comma-separated milliseconds (HH:MM:SS,mmm). Empty segments are skipped to avoid malformed cues, and end timestamps are forced to come after start timestamps to keep strict parsers happy.

Importing an SRT

You can import any .srt (or .vtt, or .txt) file as the project's transcription — useful for:

  • Bringing back a transcript you edited externally.
  • Loading a translated version someone produced from your English export.
  • Starting from a caption file you already have for a video.
  1. Open the Subtitles settings panel.
  2. Find the Import Subtitles row.
  3. Click Load SRT.
  4. Pick the .srt file. The parser handles CRLF line endings, BOMs, optional cue numbers, and dot-or-comma millisecond separators.
  5. If you didn't already have subtitle styling configured, defaults are applied automatically so subtitles appear immediately on the canvas.

If the file isn't a valid SRT, you'll see an error rather than a silent overwrite of your existing transcription.

Round-Trip Workflow

The export and import together enable a clean edit-elsewhere workflow:

  1. Generate subtitles in Highlight Studio.
  2. Export SRT.
  3. Edit timing or text in your favorite tool (Aegisub for advanced timing, plain text editor for quick fixes).
  4. Load SRT back. The edited transcript replaces the current one.
  5. Continue editing in Highlight Studio with the corrected captions.

YouTube Upload Tips

  • Use Studio → Subtitles → Upload File and pick the .srt.
  • YouTube auto-detects the language, but you can also set it manually.
  • If you have translations, upload each as a separate language track using the same source video.
  • SRTs uploaded to YouTube are searchable as captions, which boosts discoverability.

Common Issues

  • Subtitles don't load on YouTube. Almost always a format issue — make sure the millisecond separator is a comma (00:00:01,500), not a period. Files exported from Highlight Studio always use the comma.
  • End time before start time error. Some upstream tools produce sub-millisecond inversions in segment endpoints. Highlight Studio's export clamps these automatically.
  • Empty cues with no text. Skipped on export. If you see numbered cues with blank text in a third-party file, strict parsers (FFmpeg, some browsers) will reject them.