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Abstract

The Internet has become a media rich environment. It is now a major platform for video content, available to a variety of users across a range of devices. Subtitles enhance this experience for many users. However, subtitling techniques are still based on early television systems, which impose limitations on font type, size and line length. These are no longer appropriate in the context of a modern web-based culture.

In this paper we describe a new approach to displaying subtitles alongside the video content. This follows the responsive web design paradigm enabling subtitles to be formatted appropriately for different devices whilst respecting the requirements and preferences of the viewer. We present a prototype responsive video player, and report initial results from a study to evaluate the value perceived by regular subtitle users.

This paper was originally published at the Web for All Conference May 2015.

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