Player settings and shortcuts
The VideoBB player's gear menu and keys. Set quality, speed, captions, sleep timer, loop and autoplay, or use theater mode and picture-in-picture.
Press the gear button, or the S key, to open the player settings. Press ? at any time to see the keyboard shortcuts. Most settings are remembered in your browser, so you set them once.
What is in the gear menu
- Quality: Auto, Higher picture quality, Data saver or one level. See quality levels and Auto.
- Playback speed: presets from 0.25x to 2x, plus a slider that goes from 0.25x up to 4x.
- Subtitles/CC: pick a caption track or turn captions off. Creators add them with automatic captions.
- Sleep timer: stop after 10, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes, or at the end of the video.
- Loop: play the video again and again.
- Autoplay next: on the watch page, play the Up next video when this one ends, after a short countdown you can cancel.
- Ambient mode: a soft glow around the player, taken from the video's colours.
- Picture-in-picture, copy link at current time, and the shortcut list.
The right-click menu
Right-click the video for quick options: Loop, Miniplayer, Copy video URL, Copy video URL at current time, Copy embed code when embedding is allowed, Copy debug info, Troubleshoot playback issue and Stats for nerds. Links with a start time are covered in share links and start times.
- Miniplayer: on the watch page, the video moves to a small player in the lower right corner and keeps playing while you scroll. Use its buttons to go back to the video or close it.
- Copy debug info: copies technical details about playback, such as the time, the quality level and your browser, so you can paste them into a report.
- Stats for nerds: a small panel over the video with the resolution, connection speed and how much video is loaded ahead. It updates every second until you close it.
On a phone or tablet
Double-tap the left or right side of the video to jump back or forward 10 seconds. The skip buttons on the control bar do the same.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space or K | Play or pause |
| J / L | Back or forward 10 seconds |
| ← / → | Back or forward 5 seconds |
| ↑ / ↓ | Volume up or down |
| M | Mute |
| C | Captions on or off |
| F | Full screen |
| T | Theater mode (watch page) |
| I | Picture-in-picture |
| < / > | Slower or faster |
| 0 to 9 | Jump to 0% to 90% of the video |
| , / . | One frame back or forward, while paused |
| Home / End | Start or end |
| S | Open settings |
| ? | Show shortcuts |
The keys work while you are not typing in a comment or search box.
What the player remembers
- Your quality choice, mute setting, caption language and the Autoplay next switch, saved in this browser.
- Where you stopped watching, if you are signed in, so you can pick up later.
These choices stay in your own browser. Clearing its site data resets them. Our note on what VideoBB collects and why explains the rest.
Theater mode and full screen
Theater mode, the T key, makes the player wider on the watch page. Full screen, the F key, fills the whole screen. Picture-in-picture, the I key, keeps a small player on top while you use other apps, where your browser supports it.