How to remove SDH annotations from subtitles
Often the only subtitle you can find is the SDH version — Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-hearing — full of [door slams], (ominous music) and JOHN: speaker tags. AI Subtitle Studio's built-in Cleanup tool strips this automatically, running instantly and fully offline — no AI model or internet connection involved.
What SDH removal actually involves
SDH cleanup is more than deleting square brackets. The Cleanup tool applies pattern-based rules for:
- Bracketed sound descriptions — anything in
[...], such as[thunder]or[door slams]— removed entirely. - Parenthetical sound cues —
(gunshot),(laughs),(coughs)and similar keyword-matched sound descriptions in(...). - Speaker labels —
SARAH:,MAN 2:— an optional toggle that strips labels from the start of lines while keeping the dialogue. - Music/lyric markers — lines wrapped in music notes or a
[music]/[singing]tag — also an optional toggle. - Empty leftovers — cues that become blank after cleanup are dropped and numbering is regenerated, so the file stays valid.
Because this runs as local pattern matching rather than an AI model, it is instant and works with no internet connection — even on a huge batch of files.
When to keep SDH
If anyone watching relies on audio descriptions, keep the SDH version — ideally alongside the cleaned file. The app writes the cleaned subtitles as a new file, so the original SDH track is never lost.
Remove SDH from a subtitle file
- Open the SDH subtitle Load the .srt — or extract the SDH track from your video first (SDH tracks are usually labeled in the container).
- Run Cleanup Open the Cleanup tool and enable the sound-description, speaker-label and music-marker options you need.
- Save the dialogue-only file Export the cleaned .srt as a new file, keeping the original SDH version untouched.
Clean your SDH subtitles in one pass
Free to try on Windows & macOS · full version $9.99 one-time · 100% offline