diff --git a/tests/tracks/test_webvtt_timestamp_map.py b/tests/tracks/test_webvtt_timestamp_map.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1f642999
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/tracks/test_webvtt_timestamp_map.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+from unshackle.core.tracks.subtitle import Subtitle
+
+
+def test_strips_timestamp_map_keeps_cues():
+    text = "WEBVTT\nX-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:900000,LOCAL:00:00:00.000\n\n00:00:22.690 --> 00:00:24.710\nHi\n"
+    out = Subtitle.strip_webvtt_timestamp_map(text)
+    assert "X-TIMESTAMP-MAP" not in out
+    assert "00:00:22.690 --> 00:00:24.710" in out
+    assert out.startswith("WEBVTT\n")
+
+
+def test_strips_lowercase_timestamp_map():
+    # SubtitleEdit honours the header case-insensitively, so the strip must too
+    text = "WEBVTT\nx-timestamp-map=MPEGTS:900000,LOCAL:00:00:00.000\n\n00:00:22.690 --> 00:00:24.710\nHi\n"
+    out = Subtitle.strip_webvtt_timestamp_map(text)
+    assert "x-timestamp-map" not in out.lower()
+    assert "00:00:22.690 --> 00:00:24.710" in out
+
+
+def test_no_timestamp_map_is_untouched():
+    text = "WEBVTT\n\n00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:02.000\nHi\n"
+    assert Subtitle.strip_webvtt_timestamp_map(text) == text
diff --git a/unshackle/core/tracks/subtitle.py b/unshackle/core/tracks/subtitle.py
index 203c271d..b95847c8 100644
--- a/unshackle/core/tracks/subtitle.py
+++ b/unshackle/core/tracks/subtitle.py
@@ -257,6 +257,7 @@ class Subtitle(Track):
             self.convert(Subtitle.Codec.WebVTT)
         elif self.codec == Subtitle.Codec.WebVTT:
             text = self.path.read_text("utf8")
+            text = Subtitle.strip_webvtt_timestamp_map(text)
             if self.descriptor == Track.Descriptor.DASH:
                 if len(self.data["dash"]["segment_durations"]) > 1:
                     text = merge_segmented_webvtt(
@@ -303,6 +304,17 @@ class Subtitle(Track):
                         # Keep the sanitized version even if parsing failed
                         self.path.write_text(text, encoding="utf8")
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def strip_webvtt_timestamp_map(text: str) -> str:
+        """
+        Remove X-TIMESTAMP-MAP header lines (RFC 8216 §3.5, HLS only).
+
+        Cue times are already absolute, but SubtitleEdit reads the header and offsets
+        every cue by it during conversion.
+        """
+        # IGNORECASE: SubtitleEdit matches the header case-insensitively, so must the strip
+        return re.sub(r"^[ \t]*X-TIMESTAMP-MAP[^\n]*\n?", "", text, flags=re.MULTILINE | re.IGNORECASE)
+
     @staticmethod
     def sanitize_webvtt_timestamps(text: str) -> str:
         """