Closed caption support in video_player

[localpcguy]

The video_player plugin does not seem to support Closed Captions. It is generally something that a video plugin should support for accessibility reasons. It is also a requirement for the app we are currently building in Flutter.

• Is support for closed captions something that is on the near (next month or two) roadmap for the video_player plugin?
• If not, would a PR adding that be considered for merging?

[bach942]

It would be great to have this feature. We've done both the CC in both ExoPlayer and AVPlayer at work, so it would be great to have a flutter plugin that supports CC and not have to write a platform wrapper that would do it.

[cbenhagen]

I think this might be too high-level for the VideoPlayer plugin as you would also need some controls for it and a way to style or position the captions. It might be better to add this to a higher level plugin like Chewie. There is on open issue for this here.

[localpcguy]

I disagree, accessibility would be better to have implemented as a core feature. Not everyone is going to be able to implement something like Chewie (i.e. if they need a custom UI) and if accessibility is something that Flutter is going to prioritize (as it should), at the least it should support the functionality.

The UI (mainly the CC button and where that lives) could be up to the implementer (and Chewie could provide a default), but the VideoPlayer plugin should support the necessary functionality that the UI would then utilize. I think the captions themselves do belong in VideoPlayer as core functionality, but how they are styled is something that the implementer of the UI could control.

[cbenhagen]

What about a completely separate CC plugin which can then be used by Chewie or other players? It would not care about drawing, but just read the subtitles files and provide a Listenable with the text to be rendered? A CcController which you then could pass to Chewie?

Adding this external to the core plugins would also allow us to move much faster with this while reducing the workload of the core devs.

[localpcguy]

If it isn't built into VideoPlayer, it puts the onus of accessibility on the individual teams to implement. If Flutter's goal is to be an accessible platform by default, then I still maintain it is core functionality.

That said, a separate plugin would be better than relying on a specific UI plugin implementing it. But I don't personally believe it's ideal from an accessibility perspective.

[bach942]

I would agree with @localpcguy is saying. That since flutter is pushing accessibility, it should be built into the core video player and not an add on plugin. It may speed up the development of the core for the video player development, but at the expense of the implementing developers.

[localpcguy]

I also wanted to add that if it isn't in core, it is, IMO, less likely to be implemented. Even if there is a plugin available, it's just another friction point and will lead to lower accessibility in videos implemented with the VideoPlayer plugin.