Xara Xone Video Now With Captions!

[Big Frank]

Hi Barbara

I found the white text (the french version) a little hard to read on the YouTube version. The english version on the Xone with its black band underneath the text is easier on the brain. I have no idea, of course, whether that is a configurable option.

[Barbara B]

Hi beretgascon,

The way YouTube displays the captions uses and option called back. Back puts a black outline around the text. (So why is it called back and not black? I don't know!)

I don't think YouTube offers an option between using a underlay bar or back. But I'll have to double-check.

The JW Media Player with the Caption plugin does offer a choice. I was torn, I thought the text was easier to read with the backing bar of black transparency - but the bar also obscures more of the video than using the black outlined text option.

Because captions can be turned on and off and the video as a whole as well as parts of the video can be replayed fairly easily, I think I will stick with the black underlay bar on XaraXone and will see if I can get the YouTube channel to do the same.

If however, if lots of folks post that they want it the other way round then I'd change it to whatever suits the majority of users. I suppose a have your cake and eat it too approach would be to do it one way on XaraXone and the other way on YouTube and then folks could watch the video on the site where the captions work best for them.

And thank you again for supplying the French caption file for the video.