Subtitle Layer Manager

Auto-detect burned-in vs player subtitles and switch without duplicates

Problem

Many YouTube videos already have subtitles burned into the frame, so turning on the platform subtitles just stacks two layers. Other videos have burned-in subtitles in a different language, so both layers are useful but obscure each other. Viewers end up toggling subtitles dozens of times per video.

Solution

A browser extension that on-device detects whether the current frame already contains hardcoded subtitles and in what language, then automatically toggles or switches the soft subtitle track based on user rules. Per-channel preferences, a one-key override, and no video frames leaving the device.

Users

Frequent YouTube viewers of multilingual content, language learners, subtitling hobbyists, and binge watchers

MVP

Chrome extension only; local frame sampling to detect burned-in subtitles and language; per-channel memory; one hotkey to override; import/export rules

Revenue

Free extension with a premium tier for advanced rules and sync ($3-5/mo), or one-time purchase for multi-language detection

Why now

Small on-device models can now detect hardcoded subtitles cheaply in the browser, and cross-language video consumption keeps growing while platforms ignore this edge case