How to watch movies in the original, if the English is weak? Decision!

I want to talk about my small project for learners of English.

As you know, to learn and not forget the language, they need to use it. And one of the ways to practice a language is to start watching movies in the original.
But how can you start watching movies and get pleasure from it, if in each dialogue of the actors there are unfamiliar words?
')
The Internet is full of techniques, where it is advised, for example, to watch 3 times or prepare for viewing, writing and memorizing the words in advance from the subtitles. Yes, perhaps it is effective, and such methods will suit someone, but it's so boring ... I could not watch the same movie 3 times in a row. I want to enjoy viewing, watch immediately and without preparation and understand everything .



And once I saw the idea - translation of subtitles on the fly : an unfamiliar word met - clicked - got a translation! And do not be distracted from viewing and look for something in the dictionaries - ideally, as I myself didn’t think ... And I liked this idea so much that I wanted to make my player through which I could open any video on the Internet , upload subtitles and watch using the built-in translator.

In general - I managed it, but there are nuances.
And before I share the link to the project, I want to talk about the problems that have arisen during development, which led to the fact that the player has its own features.

Just in case, I will clarify, I made the player to view online video (through it you can open videos from youtube, VKontakte, etc., but you cannot open videos from a computer).

Why online video?

Probably, because lately I’m little that downloaded from torrents, and found everything online. And also because I understood how this can be implemented on web technologies.
And, judging by the trends in the West, the future is still in online video.

It looks like this:

You find a movie on the Internet - extract a link to watch - open it through my player - find and download subtitles ... Profit!



The harsh reality is that finding the right movie online is much more difficult than downloading it from torrents. And in order to facilitate your searches, I made a custom video directory where visitors can add links to watched movies themselves.
For the video from the catalog you don’t even have to search for subtitles, everything is ready for viewing.

Demonstration of opportunities

Here are some examples of what this looks like in practice:

Translation is done by clicking on the word:


There are several dictionaries available , even UrbanDictionary :


You can translate phrases by right-clicking:


You can translate fragments of words or whole sentences . This is done by highlighting a fragment:

Problems and features

The development consisted of a series of ups and downs.
And the first bummer was such -

you can not just take and open the video from another site through your player

That is actually quite logical, otherwise every student would have had his own YouTube for a long time.

Each major video hosting service generates a unique temporary link to the video file for each individual visitor (for example, based on the visitor’s IP). My server cannot know which link will be available for you; it needs to inform the client about it.
From here comes the first feature - you need a browser extension that will be engaged in extracting links to a video file.

To use the service, you will be asked to install the extension (for example, Chrome):




The extension is for all browsers based on Chromium and for Firefox .
Installing an extension is an annoying necessity. It would be interesting to know the percentage of people who refused to use the service for this reason.
For those who do not trust the extension, there is a simple tip: if you have a main chrome browser, put the extension in firefox, and vice versa.

Next headache - video formats

The player has to work with all possible video formats that are used on the Internet. But not everything is smooth in browsers that support these very formats, each has its own characteristics.
If you try to find an online movie, then most likely it will be in mp4 or flv format. And with that, and with a different format, there are problems. I copied here from the site memo on the features of browsers:



In a nutshell, you need to use Chrome or Firefox and avoid flash-videos .

Nice bonus

Since The extension extracts direct links to the video, which means that you can not only watch the video, but also download it. It turned out such a nice bonus - you can download videos from most video hosting sites on the Internet (YouTube, Vkontakte, Mail.ru, Vimeo, Ivi and many other services).

Drumroll

Now, when I warned you about these nuances, I can give a link to the project - http://hamatata.com

results

Very often I have seen such tips - first you need to make a prototype and check if anyone needs such a service at all. I decided to follow this advice and did not make ambitious plans, but made a simple service, without registration, without personal accounts, cards and other things. But, unfortunately, stuck on the promotion of this prototype to the masses.

Time flies, and it so happens that this site will soon be a year. He works, he has regular users, from time to time I receive pleasant reviews and meet mentions of him from strangers. But I still treat it as a prototype and I hope someday to release version 2.0, where all wishes will be taken into account.
I would be glad to hear any suggestions for improvement, but I can’t promise yet when they will be taken into account :)

Monetization

Considering what was said in the previous paragraph, I didn’t particularly think about monetization, because this is just a prototype.
Of course, at the very beginning of the development there were thoughts of making a profit, but when I ran into all the nuances and problems, I refused the idea of ​​taking money for such a service. Therefore, the service is free and unlimited.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to go back to where I started - does my service help me in learning English? Absolutely I can say that he does not harm.
This method has 2 huge advantages:
First, he will never get bored . For a year and a half I have been watching movies and TV shows only in the original and I am not going to return. And as you know, the regularity of classes is one of the most important things in any business, not only in language learning.
And the second advantage - new words are remembered in context , and not jagged. Which is also very important.

In general, for those:
- who has always dreamed of watching movies in the original, but not fluent in English
- who is bored to learn English, but I want to practice from time to time, combining business with pleasure
for you - http://hamatata.com !