SyncMySubsRemove SDH from subtitles
SDH subtitles (for the deaf and hard-of-hearing) add non-speech information on top of the dialogue: bracketed sound descriptions like [door creaks], ALL-CAPS speaker labels such as JOHN:, and ♪ music markers. This tool strips those out to leave clean, dialogue-only subtitles, dropping any cue that was nothing but a description. It is deliberately cautious so it doesn't eat real dialogue, and it shows you a before-and-after of every change so you can confirm nothing important was lost. It all runs in your browser.
Off by default. This strips {\…} styling from .ass files and is separate from SDH removal, so your styling stays unless you ask for this.
What gets removed, and what is left alone
SDH exists so a viewer who can't hear the audio still gets the full picture: who is speaking, what sounds are happening, and when music plays. That's helpful on screen but unwanted when you just want the spoken lines, for a translation, a transcript, or a cleaner viewing file. The remover targets the three clear conventions: text inside square brackets, whole-line parentheticals like (dramatic music), a leading ALL-CAPS name followed by a colon, and the ♪ notes that wrap sung lines. Where a cue is nothing but one of these, the cue is dropped and the surrounding timing is left as it was.
The guiding rule is to under-remove rather than over-remove. A normal sentence that happens to contain a colon (I told him: stop) or a parenthetical aside (I said (quietly) no) is left exactly as written, because those aren't SDH. Square brackets are treated as a strong signal since they almost never appear in real dialogue, but parentheses are only removed when they make up a whole line. Your styling is never collateral damage: for .ass files the {\…} override tags stay put unless you explicitly opt in above. And because the before-and-after preview lists every change, you always get to check the result before downloading. To go further, extract just the words with Subtitle to Text.
FAQ
What is SDH and how is it different from regular subtitles?
SDH means subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. On top of the dialogue, they add non-speech information: bracketed sound and scene descriptions like [door creaks] or [music playing], speaker labels in capitals such as JOHN:, and music-note markers around sung lines. Removing those leaves a plain dialogue-only subtitle.
Will it delete real dialogue by mistake?
It is built to under-remove rather than over-remove. It targets the clear SDH patterns: fully bracketed cues, leading ALL-CAPS speaker labels, and music markers. It leaves a normal sentence that merely contains a colon or a parenthetical aside alone. The before-and-after preview shows exactly what changed on every cue, so you can confirm before downloading.
Does it change my subtitle styling?
No. Removing SDH content and gutting formatting are two different things. For .ass files, the styling override tags are left untouched unless you turn on the separate, off-by-default option for them. Removing a speaker label never removes your styling.
Which formats are supported?
SubRip (.srt), WebVTT (.vtt), and YouTube SBV, where SDH is most common, plus SubStation Alpha (.ass). LRC lyric files are out of scope, since SDH is a video-captioning convention that doesn't apply to song lyrics.