ASS to SRT

Q: What happens to song lyrics and karaoke effects?

Karaoke timing tags such as `\k` are removed, so the lyrics appear as ordinary lines for the whole duration of the cue. The words and the start and end times stay correct.

Q: Are line breaks kept?

Yes. The hard break `\N` becomes a real line break in the SRT, so two-line captions stay on two lines.

Q: Can I put the styling back later?

Only in a basic form. [SRT to ASS](/srt-to-ass) wraps the cues in one default style with a font and size you choose, but positions, colors and effects from the original file are gone, so keep the source.

ASS subtitles can place text anywhere, animate karaoke and draw signs, but smart TVs, video editors and upload forms often want plain SRT. Convert here to keep every line of dialogue with its timing in the format almost everything reads.

or drop SRT, VTT, ASS … files here ·

Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes

Output

Convert to

Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.

How to use this tool

1
Upload .ass or .ssa files
Add subtitles exported from Aegisub or extracted from an MKV release, up to 20 files of 95 MB each, for example one per episode.
2
Decide on leftover tags
Italic and bold can carry over as SRT tags. If override codes such as {\an8} show up where your player does not understand them, turn on Remove formatting tags under Advanced settings.
3
Convert to SRT
Press Convert to SRT and download the files, named like the originals. Keep the .ass too, since styling cannot be rebuilt later. Uploads are deleted after 30 minutes.

ASS to SRT keeps what you hear and drops what you see: every dialogue line and its timing survive, while styles, positions, karaoke and drawn signs are removed.

What ASS subtitles are and why fansubs use them

SubStation Alpha (SSA) was a Windows subtitle editor from the 1990s, and Advanced SubStation Alpha (ASS) is the extended version of its file format. An ASS file is plain text in sections: [Script Info] with the video resolution, [V4+ Styles] with named styles for font, size, colors, outline and margins, and [Events] with one Dialogue: line per caption. Inside the text, override tags in braces change anything mid-line: {\pos(960,80)} places it at exact coordinates, {\fad(200,200)} fades it, {\k25} times one karaoke syllable.

That control is why anime fansub groups adopted the format, and why Aegisub, the free editor most of them use, saves ASS by default. Songs get karaoke, signs get typeset in matching fonts over the picture, and two speakers can be shown at the top and bottom at once. The subtitle converter reads all of it; SRT simply has nowhere to put most of it.

SRT stores only a number, a start and end time and the text, with <i>, <b> and <u> as its common styling. Converting is therefore a reduction, not a translation. What matters is that the reduction is clean: no stray override codes, correct line breaks and exact times.

What ASS to SRT keeps and what it loses

Kept in the SRT

Every dialogue line and its start and end time
Two-line captions, through \N line breaks
Italic and bold where the source used them
Overlapping lines, as separate cues

Lost in the SRT

Style table: fonts, colors, outlines, shadows
Positions from \pos, \move and margins
Karaoke timing from \k tags
Drawn vector signs and fades
Fonts attached to an MKV release

One ASS event and the SRT cue it turns into

Dialogue: 0,0:01:23.45,0:01:25.78,Default,,0,0,0,,{\i1}Where is everyone?\NThe station is empty.{\i0}

18
00:01:23,450 --> 00:01:25,780
<i>Where is everyone?
The station is empty.</i>

ASS and SRT in numbers

Fields in every ASS Dialogue line: 10
ASS timestamp precision: 1/100 s
SRT timestamp precision: 1/1000 s
SRT lines before each caption text: number and timing: 2

ASS

Advanced SubStation Alpha

ASS (Advanced SubStation Alpha) is an extended version of the subtitle format from SubStation Alpha, a subtitle editor written by Kotus. It supports fonts, colours, outlines, exact positioning, rotation, karaoke timing and animated effects, so subtitles can match a video's typography. It is widely used for anime and karaoke subtitles. Many web players, social platforms and TVs ignore its styling or do not accept it.

Compression: –
Transparency: –
Animation: Yes
Introduced: –

ASS converter

SRT

SubRip subtitles

SRT is the subtitle format of SubRip, a free Windows program that extracted subtitles from video around 2000. Each entry is a plain-text block with a number, a start and end time, and the caption text. It is the most widely supported subtitle format, accepted by VLC, YouTube, Facebook, video editors and smart TVs. SRT has only basic formatting and no positioning or styling standard.

Compression: –
Transparency: –
Animation: –
Introduced: SubRip

SRT converter

ASS styling only works in players with a full subtitle renderer; SRT gives up the looks but plays on TVs, phones, editors and upload forms that ignore ASS.

ASS to SRT questions

Why won't my TV show the ASS subtitles?

Many TV media players and some streaming boxes support only simple text subtitles. They ignore ASS tracks or show them without styling, and a server like Plex may burn them into the picture, which takes a lot of processing. SRT plays directly almost everywhere.

What happens to song lyrics and karaoke effects?

Karaoke timing tags such as \k are removed, so the lyrics appear as ordinary lines for the whole duration of the cue. The words and the start and end times stay correct.

Signs and on-screen text now appear as normal captions. Can I avoid that?

Typeset signs are ordinary events in ASS, usually with their own style, so they become ordinary SRT cues. Delete or comment out the sign style in Aegisub before converting if you want dialogue only.

Are line breaks kept?

Yes. The hard break \N becomes a real line break in the SRT, so two-line captions stay on two lines.

Can I put the styling back later?

Only in a basic form. SRT to ASS wraps the cues in one default style with a font and size you choose, but positions, colors and effects from the original file are gone, so keep the source.

My subtitles are inside an MKV file. What now?

Extract the ASS track first with a tool such as MKVToolNix or ffmpeg, then upload it here. If you also need a video that more devices play, MKV to MP4 converts the video itself.