Adds subtitles to internet videos (or any video) with JustSubsPlayer

Adds subtitles to internet videos (or any video) with JustSubsPlayer:

JustSubsPlayer is a free program that lets you play subtitles independently of any video, and that can be placed over any part of the screen. This means that JustSubsPlayer can overlay subtitles on top of .FLV videos or any other video format or player that might not support subtitles, including browser-based videos in video sharing sites. All you need to do is find the appropriate subtitle files in .SRT format on the internet, run them in JustSubsPlayer and then drag it to the appropriate place on your screen.

Think of JustSubsPlayer as an independent subtitles player that plays a subtitle file as a movie made of nothing but text, which is exactly what it is. It is simple software that is both powerful and free.

For many of us, the concept of subtitles makes us automatically think of kung-fu movies or other foreign films. However, these days, there is an explosion of foreign movies and videos that are easily accessible on the internet, that can be viewed by an international audience of all nationalities with the use subtitles. Alternately, you might want subtitles if you for whatever reason you cannot hear the dialogue, or in place of closed captioning for the hearing impaired. There are even studies out now that suggest having subtitles on programs that young children watch can have a positive and accelerating effect on their education, specifically in the realm of reading, writing, and overall language comprehension. There could be tons of other reasons I haven’t thought of as well. And that’s where JustSubsPlayer becomes your friend.

Once you begin delving into the world of electronic subtitles, you’ll learn pretty quickly that subtitles are formatted in .SRT files. Now, most digitally formatted videos do not have subtitles hardcoded into them, which means that a separate file has to be downloaded and then played in conjunction with your video. Some video players have support for this, and some do not. In the case of those that do not, JustSubsPlayer is probably your best option. In the case of those that do, you may still have reason to use JustSubsPlayer at least sometimes, as it allows you to play the .SRT files completely independently of the video files.

Finding subtitle .SRT files is your priority once you’ve made the determination that you’ll be using them. Fortunately, as with any other information, there’s a wide range of options for where to find them. To find SRT’s, you could use any number of desktop programs (e.g. Oscar or Sublight) or simply search Google, bearing in mind that .SRT files are NOT the only way that subtitles are encoded, they are the ones that JustSubsPlayer is designed for and the most common form as well. Once you find the .SRT file you need, simply download it to your computer, and play it in JustSubsPlayer. It is seriously that simple and easy. The download package is about 29K and comes with a sample subtitle file to get you started and see what the program can do immediately. You can change the speed of the subtitles, pause or stop or restart them, jump to any point in the file’s timeline even search the subtitles for a string of text (which can help you find a particular point in the movie quickly and easily). The JustSubsPlayer bar itself will fade out after a few moments of non-interaction, but the subtitles will continue to play on the screen until you stop them.

The only real cons I found for this program, besides its inherent niche audience nature, is that you must manually sync up the JustSubsPlayer with your video player, and the program doesn’t yet support automatic registration of .SRT file types, so the association must be made manually. Also, it has no available documentation on the website, but given that the program is so simple and the options are pretty self explanatory, that isn’t such a big deal. Hopefully they will add something there in the future.

Other than those small points, JustSubsPlayer was everything I expected and hoped for in a program of its type – although as far as we know it is the only one of it’s type . It is a very original idea that can be really useful to those who want to add subtitles to videos they watch on or download from the internet.

Until next time, my friends.

Download JustSubsPlayer here