Making DoubleTake simple
- Rebuilt the UI from scratch so the extension workflow is immediately clear.
- Simplified the transcript, dictionary, subtitle, and vocabulary tools.
- Hardened subtitle alignment across playback styles and conditions.
- Added polished Japanese furigana without breaking subtitle layout or meaning.
- Made dictionary lookups faster, clearer, and available offline.
- Improved Anki exports with better grouping, customization, and progress feedback.
- Smoothed out subtitle loading, episode changes, seeking, and recovery.
From side project to product
- Decided to turn DoubleTake from a side project into a product I could release.
- Brought subtitles, transcripts, dictionary lookups, and saved vocabulary into one workflow.
- Made it easy to save a word with its sentence and study it later.
- Made subtitle finding and playback more reliable.
- Polished the side panel so everything worked without leaving the video.
Reliable subtitles on streaming sites
- Made subtitle capture reliable on Netflix and Crunchyroll.
- Added support for WebVTT, TTML, and ASS subtitles.
- Detected shows and picked the best subtitle source automatically.
- Hardened seeking, fullscreen, and subtitle sync.
- Added clear fallbacks when a subtitle source failed.
Turning subtitles into study tools
- Made subtitles useful for study with saved vocabulary and Anki export.
- Added a transcript side panel for browsing lines and learning from them.
- Added subtitle styling and timing controls.
- Simplified the popup and side-panel controls.
- Added automated tests for the main extension workflows.
One reliable subtitle workflow
- Put subtitle discovery, selection, and display into one reliable workflow.
- Added multiple subtitle sources and smarter source selection.
- Improved show and episode title detection.
- Made it easier to add new sites and subtitle features without breaking existing ones.
Two subtitle tracks at once
- Put two subtitle tracks on the same video for the first time.
- Added subtitle search when a site did not have the track we wanted.
- Remembered subtitle choices and settings between sessions.
- Added the first popup and side-panel controls.
Where DoubleTake started
- Started DoubleTake as a personal tool so I could watch with English subtitles while my girlfriend watched with Japanese subtitles.
- Realized it could also help me learn Japanese if I could click words for definitions while watching.
- Built the first working subtitle overlay for video.