Activating subtitles on a video you've downloaded to your desktop depends on which kind of OS you're running (Mac vs PC). Videos downloaded from TED.com are in the mp4 format, which is not compatible with most PC media players. Therefore, for PC users we recommend downloading the VLC media player, which is a freely available at https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html. For Macs, we recommend opening the downloaded file in QuickTime.
To access subtitles in VLC, follow these steps:
- Open the TED video
- In VLC, click “Subtitles” in the menu bar.
- Hover over “Subtitle Track” in the menu
- Select the language or subtitle options that you want to use.
1. In QuickTime, click the "speech bubble" icon in the video playback controls to activate and select the subtitle language.
LEARN MORE:
- Subtitled download file support varies across different applications.
- VLC is supported in Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and Windows.
- For more information on compatible applications, please see the table below:
|
MAC |
|
|
MAC - iTunes |
Yes |
|
MAC - Podcast |
Yes |
|
MAC - Quicktime |
Yes |
|
MAC - Powerpoint |
Yes |
|
MAC - VLC |
Yes |
|
MAC - Slack |
No |
|
Linux |
|
|
Linux - VLC |
Yes |
|
Linux - gpodder |
No |
|
iOS |
|
|
iOS - Default |
Yes |
|
iOS - Powerpoint |
Yes |
|
iOS - Podcast |
Yes |
|
iOS - VLC |
Yes |
|
iOS - Facebook messenger |
No |
|
iOS - Whatsapp |
Yes |
|
iOS - Telegram |
No |
|
iOS - Messages |
Yes |
|
iOS - Slack |
Yes |
|
iOS - Signal |
Yes |
|
Android |
|
|
Android - Default |
Yes |
|
Android - VLC |
Yes |
|
Android - Castbox |
N/A |
|
Android - Podbean |
N/A |
|
Android - Facebook Messenger |
No |
|
Android - Whatsapp |
Yes |
|
Android - Telegram |
No |
|
Android - Messages equivalent |
Yes |
|
Windows |
|
|
Windows Media Player |
No |
|
Windows - VLC |
Yes |
|
Windows - Powerpoint |
No |