While something is playing, one button lets you change the picture quality, switch the audio track and turn subtitles on. Your computer at home does the work.
WHERE IT IS
Start something, then tap the gear button in the player controls. A panel slides up with three lists: Quality, Audio and Subtitles.
It is in the same place on your phone, on an Android TV (use the remote) and in the web player you get in a browser.
The button only appears while you are streaming from your Beebo computer. A video you have already downloaded to your phone plays with its own subtitle button instead.
PICTURE QUALITY
Leave it on Auto and Beebo chooses for your connection. Or pick Original for the file exactly as it is, or 1080p, 720p or 480p to use less data.
Choosing a smaller size asks your home computer to convert the video while you watch. Your original file is never changed.
Sizes bigger than the file itself are not offered, because making a small video bigger does not add any detail.
This is the setting to reach for when you are on mobile data, on hotel Wi-Fi, or watching away from home.
AUDIO
If the file has more than one soundtrack, they are all listed — with the language, the number of speakers they are mixed for, and the sound format. Commentary tracks are labelled.
Phones and browsers can’t reach inside a video file and swap soundtracks on their own, so choosing a track other than the first one asks the home computer to convert as it plays.
SUBTITLES
The list shows subtitles kept inside the video, subtitle files sitting next to it, and Search online for when you have none.
Subtitle files next to your video are used when they end in .srt or .vtt and are named after the video, like My Film.srt.
Picture subtitles (the kind found on Blu-ray and DVD rips) are pictures, not words, so they can only be shown by converting the video with them printed on top. Beebo tells you when that is happening.
The subtitle language you pick is remembered for next time.
FOR THE OWNER
In Beebo on your PC, open Settings and look for Quality choices for phones, TVs and browsers. Converting while playing is switched on from the start, and you can leave it alone.
Converting a video while it plays is work for your computer. Beebo uses your graphics card when it finds one that can do it, and tells you on that same screen which one it picked.
Allow converting while playing can be switched off, and you can set how many videos may be converted at the same time (two to start with). If everyone is already using those slots, the next person is asked to try Original quality or try again shortly.
Converted pieces are temporary. They are cleaned up as the video plays and when nobody is watching.
SUBTITLE SEARCH
Beebo can search OpenSubtitles and download a subtitle file straight onto your computer, next to the video. It needs a free OpenSubtitles account, set up once by the owner.
In Beebo on the PC, open Settings and find Subtitle search (OpenSubtitles). Then:
Sign up at opensubtitles.com and click the link in the email they send you.
Open the API consumers page, sign in if it asks, click New consumer, give it a name like “Beebo” and save. Copy the API key it shows you.
Put the API key in the box, and add your OpenSubtitles username and password — OpenSubtitles only lets signed-in accounts download. The password is stored encrypted on your computer, and is never sent to your phones.
Beebo checks it works and tells you how many subtitles your account can download each day. OpenSubtitles decides that number, and it resets every day.
Only the computer talks to OpenSubtitles. Phones, TVs and browsers ask your own computer, which does the searching and downloading for them. If nothing is set up, Search online simply says so.
WHERE THEY GO
A downloaded subtitle file is saved in the same folder as the video, named after it with the language added, so it is simply there the next time anyone plays it.
Beebo never writes over a subtitle file you already have. If one with the same name exists, it saves the new one alongside it.
Search results show the file name, how many people have downloaded it, and labels like “exact match for this file”, so you can pick the one that fits your copy.
No. Your original video is only ever read. The smaller version is made as you watch and thrown away afterwards.
Either the video itself is smaller than that, or the owner has switched converting off, or every conversion slot on the computer is busy.
No. Everything else on this page works without it. Subtitle search is the only part that needs an account, and only the owner sets it up, once.
An OpenSubtitles account is free. Free accounts get a small number of downloads a day, set by OpenSubtitles.
If they are picture subtitles, they need the video to be converted to appear. If converting is switched off on the PC, or the device cannot play a converted video, they cannot be shown.
Files ending in .srt and .vtt, named after the video. Other subtitle formats sitting in the folder are ignored.
