Tool library / Writing & media

CueHarbor Studio · Feature guide · 11 November 2026

Fix subtitle timing with shifts, anchors and a cue audit

By İsmail Tekindemir · 3 min read

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Local SRT/WebVTT text editing with explicit limits and a text-only timing preview.

CueHarbor is a timing workbench for subtitle files, not an automatic transcription service. It edits cue text and boundaries, shifts an entire file or applies a two-anchor linear retime, then helps you inspect overlaps and reading-density information before testing the output in your actual player.

What it does

• Open UTF-8 SRT, cue-only WebVTT or editable JSON, or paste SRT/VTT text. Limit: 1 MB and 2,000 cues.
• Edit cue start/end/text; browse a 50-cue page list. Filtering affects the list, not which cues get exported.
• Sort by start time explicitly; ordering is not silently changed.
• Shift all cues earlier/later by seconds, or map two reference points using one linear scale and offset.
• Retiming scale must be 0.1–10; boundaries round to milliseconds. Any negative, over-100-hour or zero-duration result rejects the whole operation rather than clipping cues.
• Preview saved plain text at an exact inspect time or 50 ms slider steps, showing at most 10 simultaneous cues; cue end times are exclusive.
• Inspect overlaps and characters-per-second using Unicode code points excluding line breaks; the threshold is user-defined.
• Preserve VTT identifiers/settings in VTT export, regenerate SRT numbering and use up to 30 undo states.

A practical workflow

1. Import a supported text subtitle file and inspect cue ordering and audit findings.
2. Use a whole-file shift for a constant offset, or two anchors for a linear drift you have measured.
3. Review the resulting boundaries and cue text; do not assume the app matched audio.
4. Save JSON plus SRT/VTT and test the subtitle file in the intended video player.

A worked use case

A +2-second shift makes every cue later by two seconds. Two anchors can correct a consistent linear drift, but cannot model arbitrary edits or automatically determine the source frame rate.

What you can keep

• Editable JSON
• SRT subtitle file
• Cue-only WebVTT file

Files and text are processed locally. Preview position/search are temporary and not saved in JSON.

What it does not promise

• No video/audio preview, speech recognition, automatic sync, style rendering or positioning preview is supplied.
• NOTE/STYLE/REGION/header metadata, inline karaoke timestamps and blank lines within cue text are rejected.
• CPS includes spaces and markup; it is a review aid, not a reading/accessibility standard. VTT-specific settings are not preserved in SRT.

Where to go next

Visit CueHarbor Studio or compare the other writing & media workflows.