CuePatch field guide
Convert ASS or SSA subtitles to SRT on a Mac
ASS and SSA can contain positioning, fonts, colors and animation that SRT cannot represent. A safe conversion keeps dialogue and timing, strips unsupported style commands and tells you exactly what changed.
What SRT can preserve
SRT preserves cue order, start and end times, line breaks and plain dialogue. Basic italic or bold markup may work in some players, but support is inconsistent and should not be assumed for delivery.
What the conversion removes
ASS styles, screen coordinates, karaoke effects and renderer-specific commands have no direct SRT equivalent. Review any dialogue that relies on positioning to identify speakers or separate simultaneous lines.
A safe conversion workflow
Import the ASS or SSA file, extract only Dialogue events, remove override blocks such as style commands, retain explicit line breaks and validate the resulting cue timings. Export to a new filename rather than replacing the source.
Check the result in the final player
Subtitle renderers differ. Open the SRT beside the actual video, inspect overlapping conversations and verify any signs, songs or translated on-screen text that previously relied on positioning.