Universal Subtitles is a service that enables everyone to create subtitles for almost any video on the web. It also allows translations of the subtitles. It is simple and easy.

I’ve just created Telugu translations for their introduction video. I embedded it here for you:

This is not the first effort to have Telugu subtitles for videos on the web. Like I wrote an year and half ago, there are few TED videos with subtitles in Telugu. TED videos are translated using dotSUB. There are also good number of dotSUB videos with Telugu subtitles.

Coming to the differences between dotSUB and Universal Subtitles, I think dotSUB expects the video to be on their site to be able to subtitle it and then translate it. dotSUB uses Flash and Universal Subtitles uses HTML5 and open video formats. Universal Subtitles is a free and open source software.

It is also possible to have the interface of Universal Subtitles in Telugu. The localization is happening at Transifex.net. Please join.

If you care about any video on the web and want it to be accessible to deaf and people with hearing problems, I think Universal Subtitles is a good opportunity.

I hope to see more and more videos with Telugu subtitles.

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