well these subtitles don't do a damn thing!

January 18, 2012 10:32 PM

I kindly seek free online video content in Spanish with Spanish subtitles.

I'll be pleased with most anything, but extra points for those that are interesting, entertaining, relatively clear (i.e. not clips of people shouting at each other while rappeling down a mountain, or something chock-full of wordplay), and/or possessing continuity (i.e. an entire movie or t.v. series).

The four necessary components are that it be: 1) in Spanish 2) with Spanish (not English) subtitles / closed captioning 3) free and 4) online.

Thanks muchly!

posted by threeants to Education (7 answers total)

Response by poster: If there were something like a captioned version of the ridiculous bounty of TV shows that is www.rtve.es, I would be super-thrilled.
posted by threeants at 10:47 PM on January 18, 2012

Lo Más TV has some free shows and videos with subtitles in Spanish (also ones in English, but you can turn them off).
posted by ceiba at 11:01 PM on January 18, 2012

Do you have Netflix? I don't see a way to filter by Spanish subtitles, but here's a list of Spanish language movies.
posted by desjardins at 8:32 AM on January 19, 2012

Best answer: .srt files are subtitle files that can be downloaded independently of a movie; so if you can get non-subtitled movies from your local library, Netflix, or *cough* any other means, you should be able to download subtitles from somewhere like http://www.opensubtitles.org/ and then play them with something like VLC. (The .srt subtitle format is very simple, basically just a text file with subtitles and the times to display them, so most players support them.)

This is a great idea for improving your language skills, by the way; I've done it myself. I think there's a setting in VLC that can adjust when the subtitles appear; I remember adjusting the titles for Maria, llena eres de gracia (the last Spanish/Spanish subtitle movie I watched) a second or two late, so I heard the Spanish and had a chance to process it aurally - which I find much tougher - before reading the subtitle.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 10:09 AM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all! I was hoping to find some kind of streaming holy grail but I guess that doesn't exist. I don't have Netflix.
posted by threeants at 6:03 PM on January 19, 2012

Best answer: There are tons of these videos on Youtube. The key is realizing that if you append ", cc" to a search string, it will only show results with closed captions. Then you just have to come up with search terms that are likely to come up in Spanish-language videos. I found that "noticias" (news) is really good, and "telenovela" (soap operas) is bad, because if a Spanish speaker goes to Youtube to try to find a soap opera, it's likely from another country (and in another language).


Try these:

• uned channel on youtube (some really good stuff -- Spanish accent)
• news from Spain (Spanish accent)
• news from Mexico (Latin american accent)

Hope that helps. Also, Netflix has a promotion where they'll give you one month free... You could always jump on that and then cancel on the last day before they bill you.
posted by verdeluz at 9:13 PM on January 19, 2012

Response by poster: THANK YOU, verdeluz! I wish I could give you a double-best answer or something.
posted by threeants at 8:49 PM on January 21, 2012