html - How to style text tracks in HTML5 video via CSS?

Question

Is it possible to style text tracks (like subtitles and captions) in HTML5 video players?

I already found a way to do so for Chrome:

video::-webkit-media-text-track-container {
    // Style the container
}

video::-webkit-media-text-track-background {
    // Style the text background
}

video::-webkit-media-text-track-display {
    // Style the text itself
}

This seems to confuse Safari a bit. It works, but the rendering is quite buggy.

But more important: How to achieve do this for Firefox and IE?

Answer 1

The only cross-browser solution I have found to date is: Hide the video’s text tracks and use your own.

This will allow you to create your own text nodes, with classes, id’s etc. which can then be styled simply via css.

In order to do so, you would utilize the onenter and onexit methods of the text cues in order to implement your own text nodes.

var video   = document.querySelector(‘YOUR_VIDEO_SELECTOR’)
    tracks  = video.textTracks[0],
    tracks.mode = 'hidden', // must occur before cues is retrieved
    cues    = tracks.cues;

  var replaceText = function(text) {
        $('WHERE_TEXT_GETS_INSERTED').html(text);
      },

      showText = function() {
        $('WHERE_TEXT_GETS_INSERTED').show();
      },

      hideText = function() {
        $('WHERE_TEXT_GETS_INSERTED').hide();
      },

      cueEnter = function() {
        replaceText(this.text);
        showText();
      },

      cueExit = function() {
        hideText();
      },

      videoLoaded = function(e) {
        for (var i in cues) {
          var cue = cues[i];
          cue.onenter = cueEnter;
          cue.onexit = cueExit;
        }
      },

      playVideo = function(e) {
        video.play();
      };


  video.addEventListener('loadedmetadata', videoLoaded);
  video.addEventLister('load', playVideo);
  video.load();