What an HTML5 video is

Today most web video and audio is played by a standard element in the page, the video or audio tag. A page can dress it up with its own buttons, but underneath sits a single element that a browser extension can reach, once you have clicked its icon on that page.

What PitchShed does with it

PitchShed picks the element that last started playing, or the biggest visible one if nothing has played yet. It routes that element’s sound through its own audio processor, which shifts the key and passes the result on to your speakers. Speed and loop use the element’s own controls.

Where it works

YouTube is the site it is tested on. On other pages it works when the sound comes from the same site as the page, or from a server that allows it, and when it is not protected by DRM. To see what a page uses, right-click it, choose Inspect and search for “<video” or “<audio”: if the page has such an element, PitchShed has something to work with.

Where it does not

  • “This audio is protected, so the key can’t change here.” This is DRM-protected audio, such as Spotify and Netflix, and sound that a page loads from another website without permission.
  • “Key change isn’t available on this site. Speed and loop still work.” This appears when the site stops the audio engine from starting.
  • Players inside an embedded frame on another page, which this version does not reach.

If a page you use does not work, email support with its address: some can be fixed, and others, such as DRM, cannot.