Description

The HTML element <track> is used to specify a text track for <audio> and <video> elements.

A text track can be a caption, subtitle, or other files containing the text that should be visible when the media playing.

Usually, the tracks are formatted in WebVTT format with the file extension of .vtt.

The below table summarizes its usage.

Usage Details
Placement It is displayed within the media elements like <video> and <audio>.
Contents None. It is an empty element.
Tags Opening tag: required; Closing tag: forbidden
Versions HTML 5

Syntax

Here is the basic syntax of the <track> element.

<track src="URL">

Examples

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Example - HTML Element track</title>
</head>
<body>
    <video controls="controls">
        <source src="/assets/videos/shuttle.mp4" type="video/mp4">
        <source src="/assets/videos/shuttle.ogv" type="video/ogg">
        <track src="/assets/videos/subtitles_en.vtt" kind="subtitles" srclang="en" label="English">
        Oops, Your browser does not support the HTML5 Video element.
    </video>
</body>
</html>

Attributes

The following table shows the list of supported and unsupported attributes for the <track> element.

Attribute Type Details
Element-Specific Attributes The tag <track> has some element-specific attributes listed in the below table.
Global Attributes Like all other HTML tags, the tag <track> supports the HTML Global Attributes.
Event Attributes The tag <track> also supports the HTML Event Attributes.

Here is a list of attributes that are specific to the <track> element.

Attribute Value Required Description
src URL Yes Specifies the URL of the track file.
default default No Specifies the track should be enabled unless the user's preferences indicate that another track is more appropriate.
kind captions, chapters, descriptions, metadata, subtitles No Specifies the kind of text track.
label text No Specifies the title of the text track.
srclang language-code No Specifies the language of the track text data.
This attribute must be defined if the attribute kind is set to the value subtitles.

Browser Compatibility

The tag <track> is supported in all modern browsers.

  • Google Chrome 18+
  • Internet Explorer or Edge 10+
  • Firefox 31+
  • Apple Safari 6+
  • Opera 15+

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