All..
A media reporter asked for stories on problem with CC and HDTV, so Pam Holmes wrote up a brief report on her problem in getting closed captioning up and running on her new HDTV. Read on, Readers..and you’ll scroan (I made up this word, but seems appropriate - combination of scream and groan).
eyes open & thumbs up,
Ed
RT Admin.
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Dear [reporter’s name],
Thank you for asking about our experiences attempting to use HD TV digital captions.
I most definitely have a saga to tell as a result of ‘taking the dive’ and acquiring a new HDTV a few weeks ago. I have spent more hours that I wish to admit getting the cable company to supply a HD box that provides digital captions (or any captions at one point as they delivered the cable box with the captions disabled) and then getting it programmed right to support digital captions. After spending approximately 12 hours with cable company installers, cable company tech support, the TV manufacturer and the store that sold me the TV, I thought I was finally at a point where I had functionality of captions using the new digital captioning capabilities. I had learned that when a cable box is used the captions cannot be controlled from the TV remote control showing the digital captioning options, but must be controlled from the cable box via a hidden menu that comes with no instructions and which I learned how to access from Billy Mauldin copied here who went through a struggle to figure this out for his own set up. I thought I pretty much had this behind me and had digital captioning functioning well.
I went out of town for a week and returned to find the captions now display with the first couple letters cut off the left of the screen on some channels, and others with a bizarre showing of one line of captions in yellow (as selected) the next line throws up a black box that covers the TV viewing of the show and has the next line of captions in white on the bottom of this box. The very next captions go back to the yellow and then revert back to the black box covering the screen with the next line in white captions. You cannot really watch the show let alone read the captions. SURELY SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT! This is with no changes by me to any of the settings that were working successfully. The experience varies as you change from channel to channel with some of the yellow font captions to the center top of the viewing area.
In addition, while gone for a week, I visited my Aunt and Unclde who have a HDTV receiver and lovely large monitor with a satellite set up. We put on the digital captioning and depending on which color, font and background combination we selected in the captioning options, we sometimes could view captions as selected, other times we viewed captions but not as the color and fonts selected, and still other times we saw NO CAPTIONS as a result of the combination of color, font, and background color selections. My uncle who is a technology geek was amazed at the variables we witnessed. He did say his digital receiver was 3 years old.
This weekend I am going to try and capture the odd captioning I am seeing with my digital camera as I think you have to see it to believe it. My hunch is there may be something wrong with the digital cable box as with a cable set up I have learned that the captions come from the cable box. Ron Bibler copied here can correct me if I am mistaken. Of course, none of this is in the TV User Manual.
I feel I am technology inclined and thus have concern for those who are not so. The experience has been an eye opener. I am uncertain if Sheri shared my original posting to the National Association of the Deaf Technology Committee on the tale I shared in getting my TV set up originally. If not, I will forward this to you as well.
Sincerely,
Pam Holmes
Madison, WI
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Ed’s note: when I asked Pam for permission to repost her remarks (above), she responded with this:
Sure. Let me know what kind of feedback you get. I can’t be the only one experiencing this. Last Saturday, the sales rep traded out my new TV for the one I saw working on the demo floor. Same problems when I got home. This tells me the problem is in the Cable box generating the digital captions; whereas, in the showroom the TV was hooked up to a huge antenna on the roof of the store. So the cable company is coming back on Wednesday evening and I emphasized the importance of the installer being very familiar with digital captioning programming of the digital box. I also am fairly confident they will not get this right so called Direct TV to come out and set up service in hopes they can master this. Should be interesting to see what prevails.
Pam Holmes-
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