Subtitles represent one of the most important elements in recent times, in terms of the implementation of tools for audiovisual content . Like everything that may be linked to technology, it has undergone transformations that, in today’s sunshine, make it something simple, but fundamental.
With the birth of the internet, different streaming platforms for the transmission or retransmission of videos made by people from all over the world were born, in turn .
These platforms have also evolved to the point of developing and implementing their own tools for subtitles .
The video giant
This platform founded in 2005 is one of the largest in terms of audiovisual content. From the beginning, it was known what this platform created by former PayPal employees could be capable of : just one year after its founding, the website was bought by Google, spending just over 1.6 billion dollars.
Today, YouTube has more than 2 billion users worldwide, and an extraordinary number of more than one billion hours of audiovisual content available to its users.
Subtitles on YouTube
The first time that this platform introduced the subtitles system was in 2007. The tool was something quite basic, since the website was only 2 years old. Its implementation coincided with other innovations in terms of the player and advertising elements.
How to activate them?
The procedure for YouTube to show the subtitles available in the extensive video gallery of this incredible platform is extremely simple to do. To do this, you just have to pay attention and follow the following instructions:
- Login to your YouTube account.
- Click on the three bars that appear at the top left of your screen.
- Scroll until you find the settings option.
- Click on the “Playback and performance section”.
- Check the box to always show subtitles.
The changes made should be saved automatically, so when you search for a video on the platform, you will be able to view the subtitles as long as the video has them available .
Another way to activate them is through the video toolbar, where you will find the subtitles icon just before the settings icon. Through this icon you can select the subtitles available for the video you are watching.
How to put subtitles on a YouTube video
YouTube is arguably hiding an interesting, useful, and easy way of displaying subtitles in videos found on its platform. This is a combination of codes in the URL of the video. In this sense, you will use the following codes:
- « Rel = 0 «
- The ” & ” sign that will serve as a separator between codes.
- « Hl = « (after the «=» sign, you will put the subtitle language. Some that you could use are: « en » (English), « es » (Spanish), « es-419 » (Latin Spanish), « fr “(French),” it “(Italian),” pt “(Portuguese) and” de “(German). In this case, a video will be simulated whose subtitles want to be displayed in English.
- ” Cc_lang_pref = “ (after the “=” sign, the characters corresponding to the language you want to display are repeated).
- ” Cc_load_policy = 1 “
Entering the codes
The operation to be performed next will be to verify the URL of the video. The address of a video on this platform generally has this structure: « youtube.com/watch?v=code of the video «.
In this sense, the first thing you should do is replace the part of “ watch? V = with / embed / ”. The only thing that you are not going to delete is the code of the video, at the end of it you will place a but “?”. From here, you will proceed to culminate with the address structure with the rest of the codes , being as follows:
« Youtube.com/embed/videocode?rel=0&hl=en&cc_lang_pref=en&cc_load_policy=1 »
Try again
When you finish with the structure of the video address, you will only have to press enter so that it reloads and you can display the subtitles in the specified language .
This is an important tool for those who are hearing impaired or looking to learn a new language by reinforcing their skills with subtitles .
