Viaplay: get rid of those black bars for subtitles
Viaplay will be available in the Netherlands from March 1 and a subscription has also been taken out here. For me personally, I have to wait for the new F1 season. Still, I have of course already browsed through the current range of series and films and have also watched some. I was immediately irritated by the subtitles, because they consist of large black bars with white letters, so that part of the content is no longer visible.
Unfortunately, this cannot be adjusted in the Viaplay app itself, which is easily possible with Amazon Prime Video, for example. However, there is an option to adjust the subtitle style. Unfortunately, this does not seem to work immediately on every Android device.
Unfortunately, it is not known exactly what causes this. It is also possible that the steps below are called slightly different on your smartphone. This step-by-step plan was written based on Android 12 on a Google Pixel 6 Pro.
Viaplay: Film, TV & Live Sports
Viaplay
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Free
via Google Play
This is how you change the style of the subtitles in Viaplay
- Grab your smartphone and open the settings;
- Tap the ‘Accessibility’ option;
- Scroll to ‘Subtitle Preferences’ and tap it;
- Tap ‘Subtitle size and style’;
- Select the ‘Subtitle Style’ option and tap ‘Custom’;
- Set the style the way you want in terms of colors and more.
You can set everything in the menu, including the font size or font. Of course you can also play with the color of the letters or the color of the bar behind them. In addition to black and nice colors, you can also choose not to show a bar.
Your smartphone immediately shows what it looks like. Once you have found the perfect combination, it is a matter of leaving the menu and restarting Viaplay.
If the above step-by-step plan does not work, you are unfortunately still bound to the black bars with white letters. You can try to perform the above steps on different devices, but also tablets or, for example, the Nvidia Shield Pro. If you watch Viaplay via Google Chrome, there is an extension available to solve this problem.
More about the new (streaming) service Viaplay
Viaplay is a new service that, in addition to films, series and documentaries, mainly focuses on offering live sports. Formula 1 is the big crowd puller, but many football and darts enthusiasts can also go there. You can watch via the Viaplay app, but there is also Chromecast support, so you can watch anytime and anywhere.
You can of course contact Viaplay directly if you are interested in a subscription. Television and internet providers also often offer the service. You can contact KPN, VodafoneZiggo, Odido and YouFone, among others. The price is 13.99 euros per month, but there are now all kinds of (welcome) offers available. You pay less for the first few months or you can temporarily watch completely free.
Knowing more? Viaplay now available in the Netherlands: these 5 things you need to know
