diff --git a/linesplit.php b/linesplit.php
index ce78938..9c6dd3a 100755
--- a/linesplit.php
+++ b/linesplit.php
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 error_reporting(E_ALL);
 
+define('MAX_CHARACTERS', 2950); // reduced from previous 5000
+
 // Split at double-NL to only split at srt boundaries
 $lines = explode("\n\n", file_get_contents($_SERVER['argv'][1]));
 
@@ -50,7 +52,7 @@ do {
 	$line = $lines[$nextline++];
 	$linewords = strlen($line); // characters
 	
-	if ($linewords + $buffwords > 5000) {
+	if ($linewords + $buffwords > MAX_CHARACTERS) {
 		// flush buffer before adding
 		flushwords($nextbuffer);
 		$nextbuffer = '';