Add your SAMI file
Drop one or more .sami files onto the converter above, or browse for them. They load into browser memory only — nothing is uploaded, so there is no size-based pricing and no server queue.
SAMI to ITT
Converting a .sami file to .itt extracts the document's content from its office package into a portable form. Free, private, and validated — the file never leaves your browser.
Private for supported formats — processed in your browser
Runs on your deviceConvert supported files
Drop SAMI files here
Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.
Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.About converting SAMI captions to iTunes Timed Text
Converting a .sami file to .itt extracts the document's content from its office package into a portable form. A .sami file is the same Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange caption document as .smi, written with the long form of the extension. The contents are identical — <SYNC Start=…> elements inside an HTML-like SAMI document — and the long extension is chosen mainly to avoid colliding with SMIL files, which also claim .smi.
An .itt file is an iTunes Timed Text document: a constrained TTML profile that Apple defined for subtitle delivery to the iTunes Store and Apple TV. Its defining trait is timing — cues are addressed in SMPTE timecode (HH:MM:SS:FF) against a frame rate declared in the document header. For this route the practical draw is frame-accurate timing that lines up exactly with an edit timeline and a narrow, validatable profile with far fewer interoperability surprises than full TTML — balanced against frame timecodes are meaningless without the declared frame rate, so a mis-set header shifts every cue, which is worth knowing before you commit a large batch.
Why convert SAMI to ITT?
The practical trigger for this conversion is usually a mismatch: with .sami, some players recognise only .smi and must be given a renamed copy. Switching to .itt buys you frame-accurate timing that lines up exactly with an edit timeline, which is why it is the better fit for delivering subtitles to Apple's ingest specifications. Because the conversion runs locally, trying it costs nothing but a few seconds of compute on your own machine.
SAMI vs ITT at a glance
| Aspect | SAMI captions (.sami) | iTunes Timed Text (.itt) |
|---|---|---|
| Format type | Text-based — characters and structure, so there is no visual quality loss | Text-based — characters and structure, so there is no visual quality loss |
| How it stores data | byte for byte the same format as .smi: <SAMI>, <HEAD> with a <STYLE> block, and <BODY> with SYNC elements | timing is frame-accurate: begin and end are HH:MM:SS:FF timecodes resolved against ttp:frameRate, optionally scaled by ttp:frameRateMultiplier for drop-frame rates such as 23.976 |
| Strongest at | storing SAMI captions where .smi would collide with SMIL files | delivering subtitles to Apple's ingest specifications |
| Weak spot | some players recognise only .smi and must be given a renamed copy | frame timecodes are meaningless without the declared frame rate, so a mis-set header shifts every cue |
| Metadata | as with .smi, the style block and language classes describe presentation; only cue timing and text are carried into other formats | the frame-rate parameters are read because timing depends on them; styling attributes are dropped, since millisecond caption targets have nowhere to record them |
Pick ITT as the output
Select .itt in the output menu next to each file. The menu only offers targets this engine can genuinely produce, so if ITT is selectable, the route is real and validated.
Convert on your device
Press Convert. The package is unzipped in memory and its XML content parsed locally; nothing is uploaded.
Verify and download
Each result is signature-checked before the download unlocks, so a failed encode can never masquerade as a valid ITT file. Outputs keep the original filename with the .itt extension.
SAMI to ITT questions, answered
Will converting SAMI to ITT lose quality?
There is no visual quality to lose — sami is text-oriented and itt is text-oriented, so the question is structural fidelity. Text, ordering, and basic structure are preserved; complex layout, embedded objects, and styling beyond the target's model are simplified.
Is it private to convert SAMI files here?
Yes — the .sami file is processed inside your browser tab and never uploaded. The package is unzipped in memory and its XML content parsed locally; nothing is uploaded. Close the tab and the file is gone from memory.
Where will the ITT file work?
Final Cut Pro, Compressor, and Apple's delivery pipelines read and write .itt, and Subtitle Edit imports it. Browsers and consumer players do not. Novus Convert resolves the SMPTE timecodes against the document's own ttp:frameRate and ttp:frameRateMultiplier — falling back to 30 fps only when neither is declared — and exports to any of the twelve timed-text targets.
Will the ITT file be bigger or smaller than my SAMI?
It depends on the content: timing is frame-accurate: begin and end are HH:MM:SS:FF timecodes resolved against ttp:frameRate, optionally scaled by ttp:frameRateMultiplier for drop-frame rates such as 23.976. Convert one representative file first and compare before batch-processing a large set.
What happens to the metadata in my SAMI file?
In .sami, as with .smi, the style block and language classes describe presentation; only cue timing and text are carried into other formats. Re-encoding through the browser pipeline does not carry embedded metadata into the output, which doubles as a privacy scrub — check the exported file if you specifically need tags preserved.
Can I convert ITT back to SAMI?
Yes — the reverse route exists as a separate tool. Bear in mind that round-tripping .sami → .itt → .sami is not a perfect undo when any lossy step is involved; keep your original if fidelity matters.