Mark Rejhon

Hello,
Based on my researching about Closed Captioning and Subtitles:
[Info current as of January 3, 2012]

Services supporting CC/Subtitles
- Netflix: Captioning is supported. (now lots of material)
- AppleTV: Captioning is supported. (some material)
- Vudu: Captioning IS NOT supported.
- Amazon: Captioning IS NOT supported.
- BBC iPlayer: Captioning is supported. (most material)
- Hulu: Captioning is supported.

Devices/Apps supporting CC/Subtitles
- Netflix: Captioning supported on: Playstation3, Xbox360, PC, Roku 2, AppleTV (recently enabled in 2011), iPad (recently enabled in 2011), Wii, Android, Kindle Fire, several Blu-Ray players
- iTunes Videos: Captioning supported on AppleTV, Mac, iPad
- BBC iPlayer: Computers, iPad
- Hulu: Roku, Sony Playstation3, Samsung TV's, certain Blu-Ray players (i.e. Samsung).

Sometime in 2012 I'm about to probably make the jump into including streaming services later this year, but I need a streaming services to begin to hit critical mass (i.e. 50% of material captioned) on enough devices (i.e. both home & mobile devices) before I am willing to fork out money to streaming services. I have to make sure captions is enabled on both the material (services) and the viewers (devices) is supported. Eventually, I want to see live streaming (i.e. CBC Canada or PBS or BBC television over Internet) also gain captioning support.

Until a very slow start, especially pre-lawsuit, Netflix seems now leading the pack so far, as one of the only services that has finally hit critical mass in 2012 with exceeding 50% material captioned. Although not enough yet, it seems I will probably eventually reward Netflix for being the leader but I would like to see other services catch up. (TV was not captioned in 1950 or 1960, took decades .... Netflix took only a few years, then took till 2011 before they finally added captioning to most devices, and I'm willing to be patient/forgiving)

Please reply to this thread about your experience about Closed Captioning and Subtitles on other streaming service and streaming devices. (it only works when both the service *AND* device simultaneously supports the captions)

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Mark Rejhon
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CrazyPaul

Several BD players? Can you give us more info like brands and models? Thanks.

I really appreciate it for sharing it with us. Thanks again.

Lily7

Are you sure the Netflix app for Android supports captioning? It wasn't that long ago I tried to watch a show on my Evo and it wasn't captioned, even though it was on the PS3. The only "captions" I was able to get on that app was for foreign movies.

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Beach girl

The Nook Tablet supports captions IF the original material is captioned. In other words, Hulu Plus will show captions from captioned material, but ESPN3 and MLB will not show captions because the original material does not have it.

I don't know why ESPN on TV, or any Major League Baseball game you watch on network or cable TV, will carry captions but ESPN3 and MLB.com for your PC or mobile device do not have it. But it's not the fault of the device; it's because of what is being transmitted.

Banjo

Netflix on Toshiba HDTVs are still lacking in subtitles support.

ncmacasl

Panasonic BMP-BDT110 3D Blu-Ray Players (just added late May 2011)
Sony BluRay Players with Google TV
possibly others, especially those labelled with "Netflix 3.0" which is the software for devices that has ability to show captions. (Example: the Onkyo BD-SP809 3D/Blu-Ray Player says they support Netflix 3.0, but they do not specifically say they support Netflix captions)

Yes, make sure you have updated your android app and are playing a captioned title. there is a "speech bubble" icon on top right corner, click on that and you can turn on/off captions there.

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CrazyPaul

That model costs about $150 so it's not that bad but how do you know that it will support Netflix subtitles? I looked up Panasonic website for confirmation but to no avail. It's for my friend who looks for a BD player that supports it since his player by LG doesn't.

Banjo

What blows me away is the fact that Netflix software has no established technical standards other than streaming video and audio. What kind of company would make an attempt to go mainstream without establishing any standards first? Apparently Netflix would.

Way to go. Idiots. Their mistakes for jumping the gun is costing more than plenty.

CrazyPaul

Who are you calling idiots? BTW, Netflix is not the only one. There are many others that do the same thing for profit. I refuse to join any of them because of that. ADA and FCC still don't give a shit about our rights. NAD must do something about it. That's what NAD is for.

jwillisbarrie

Over Christmas I had a look at BBC iPlayer - they do well with both stream (live) and downloaded shows. The sub-titles work great

Banjo

The people at Netflix. They are the idiots, their mistakes are costing them more in the long run because they have to fix the problems that they neglected in the first place. A lot of corporations are guilty of this, they often are aware of the problems. However, they usually say, "Oh, we'll take care of this later and get this out on the market as soon as possible." This is what Netflix did.

They knew and they didn't want to wait to get their streaming service up and running. Now they are having a great deal of trouble trying to update all of the Netflix softwares on all sorts of devices because they did not carry established technical standards to start with.

orwellian

Hi, new here but I stumbled across this post when I was looking up info on whether or not Amazon has CC/subs (guess not).

Just to clarify: I work for a closed captioning company and can confirm that no Blu Ray player supports closed captioning. It's a technical problem with Blu-Ray that it doesn't support line 21 format at all, so it's either subtitles or nothing.

The author is right about subtitles being available through those different devices, though. I have a PS3 at home that runs Netflix with its subtitles and it always works great!

audiodef

I agree that the FCC doesn't give a shit. They are owned by whoever can pay them the most money. The ADA is a law and is capable of neither giving nor withholding shit. However, employers and other businesses are certainly increasingly blatant about violating the ADA.

I agree that that's what the NAD *should* be for. Unfortunately, when they endorsed the Pepsi superbowl ad featuring deaf people, I lost pretty much all respect for them. The ad was horrendous and portrayed deaf people in a very bad way. Not a single one of my immediate circle of friends and family disagreed with this. Seriously? A bunch of people show up at night and wake up the entire neighborhood looking for their friends? If that really happened to me, I might have called the cops.

On the other hand, the NAD has a lawsuit in against Netflix for failing to provide access, which is a good thing. So I'll give them kudos for that.

What I seem to have trouble convincing people of is that they have the power. How many deaf people are there in this country? A million? Two? Three? If only a significant portion of them descended upon Washington, D.C. and refused to leave until appropriate laws were passed and enforced, there would be two ways Washington could respond, and both ways end with Washington losing: either they forcibly remove all the deaf people from the Capitol grounds (and risk starting riots that extend far beyond deaf issues) or they do the right thing and pass some laws.

So... why hasn't this happened? Why are we not standing up for our rights? Why are we not demanding - demanding, not "requesting" or complaining about - equal access? A bunch of students took over Gallaudet in 1988 and persisted until their demands were met (even though they got a board-controlled puppet president). The deaf community proved it can come together to achieve common goals. Now we need to do it again on a bigger scale.

audiodef

Holy shit. There's no lawsuit about this, yet?

Banjo

Approximately 30 million, but it's possible that there are more. Apparently 1 in 5 suffer from hearing loss. They vary though, but it's enough to make a strong case for accessibility.

Banjo

I don't think there is one, at least not one that I have heard of. But yes, I am surprised that nothing has been about it so far.

audiodef

This kind of shoddy work is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine. I lost most of my jobs because of inane bullshit of various sorts, and I remain officially unemployed to this day - not for lack of trying to be otherwise.

Employers have generally always wanted the cheapest options. It was just a matter of how much they could get away with. In an extremist capitalist economy such as ours, they can get away with ever more, and everything and everyone suffers for it. Not a day goes by when I look on the net - or shit, just look out the window - and say "I could do this fifty million times better than you, you ****ing moron, so why do YOU have this job and I don't?"

The answer is, of course, because the moron is willing to accept 5 cents an hour for doing whatever he is told to do, not because he's a competent employee. And that's what our failing garbage "ecomony" is based on - puppets rather than competent employees.

Banjo

You know, I read the book, "Steve Jobs". I found a lot of information in the book to be of interest. For instance, Steve Jobs was the kind of person who was obsessed with the quality of a product and that he would not compromise. So if it meant delaying a product for months or years at a time, so be it. However, the board of directors at Apple did not like this and they basically pushed him out of the company for it. Although his temper and outrageous behaviour contributed to the ousting as well, but still.

I am a graphic designer, and I can relate to Steve Jobs on this and to you too as well. It is a major pet peeve of mine, I often find that the clients are not thinking ahead of time and of the consequences their choices make result in. They often have little regards for their customers. Corporations are even worse, at least in most cases. I understand where you are coming from. Completely.

audiodef

It's good to know I'm not alone. It seems harder every day to find people who would rather have quality than quantity. Or speed. Or size. Or the cheapest damn widget possible. Seriously, if that's your goal, why are you here?

I know that if out of the raw blue someone said they want to hire me, I'd have to give him or her "the talk", which would consist of informing him or her in no uncertain terms that I will do my job and that I must be given the leeway to do it, or I will walk. Because at some point, you start saying "I'm just too old for this".

CrazyPaul

I think that FCC doesn't do anything since ADA hasn't included captioning requirement for all streaming video as well as online video for deaf people. If it does, then FCC would order all internet businesses (Netflix, Amazon, CNN.com, etc) to include captions on their video at all times. That's the problem with ADA. NAD should make a proposal to Congress to add that requirement to ADA laws. I hope NAD has done that or will do it ASAP. I remember Marlee Matlin was involved with NAD to speak out but I don't know what happened after that.

CrazyPaul

Come on, people. Get involved with us. Whitehouse Petition to make all online media content accessible. READ MORE...
Spread the word to friends and family.

audiodef

It is highly illogical for video businesses not to include access to subtitles and closed captions, since increasing accessibility increases profit. Captions and subtitles are used and appreciated by many people who are not deaf or hard-of-hearing.

As I've said elsewhere, why aren't we using our collective power? Why do a lot of deaf customers give their tacit approval of less-than by buying service that is not 100% accessible? If all deaf and hard-of-hearing people in this country who have video entertainment service of any kind went on strike and refused to pay for any video service that did not provide 100% access or a pricing scale whereby deaf people paid only for the percentage of available accessible content, media companies would notice a significant drop in profits.

Never mind the White House. Hit them where it hurts - in the pockets.

Throw in a good number of hearing people who would be willing to join such a nation-wide strike and you'd have CEO's scrambling like crazy.

I emailed Hulu last year about a pricing scale. They surprised me by responding that they did not have such a scale but that it would not be out of the question in the future. Maybe their response was pure PR, maybe not, but I give them kudos for responding when they could have chosen to say nothing at all like other businesses.

CrazyPaul

Some deaf people have joined Netflix but we can't stop them. One of my deaf co-workers told me that he enjoys watching foreign films with subtitles via Netflix so I told him that since he pays $7.99 monthly just to watch those kind of films on his TV, he's a fool but it's his money. Actually I just joined it myself only for one month to get an idea of how it works and I will cancel it before the free trial expires. IMO, Netflix still sucks.

To tell you the truth, alot of deaf people are lazy to fight back. So my point is that ADA should make a new law on internet media for deafies and the companies will have to follow it, otherwise they would pay a big fine each time.

So try that petition, it won't hurt you.

audiodef

It's always concerned me that people with disabilities often want so little to do with their own betterment.

When I was a college student, I started a club for students with disabilities. Oh. My. Word. NOBODY wanted to be a club official. None of the other students with disabilities I approached wanted to do anything other than complain. For crying out loud, I was starting this club to give us all more leverage - why were they all dropping the handle on their own lives when I tried to give it to them?

It's not comforting to me to believe "someone, somewhere will do something somehow". Because it doesn't work that way. Someone once said to me "you don't ask, you don't get". While that's rather simplistic, it's more or less true.

vrajavala

I'm a little disappointed with Netglox. I've subscribed for about a year. Captioning seems to br disappearing. Is hulu better?

dae

I'm still confused between captions and SDH.

I thought captions were for broadcast TV -- which means Blu-ray/DVD/streaming does not support it.

Isn't SDH the future since they're subtitles that provide caption stuff like [dog barking]?

lynx6200

Im happy with the captions on netflix using my roku. The only problem is that you cant change the captions color (its in yellow), so when there is a light background, its very difficult to read. As for hulu, i havent tried it roku yet, but the captions work pretty well on the computer.

Im wondering, does anyone have a list of roku channels that support captions, specifically, where I can rent/buy newer release movies (amazon is no good)?

beichert

I used my VIZIO 3d TV and my LG 3d Blu-Ray player and I saw my first 3d program with closed caption (cc) with the Blu-Ray disk "Hubble 3d by IMAX". I thought I would see cc only if I watched it in 2d. I was pleasantly surprised that the 3d had great closed caption as the only other 3d I had seen was using my Direc TV hooked to my 3d TV and most shows don't have cc, and those that have cc are not in the same format that Direc TV uses so they don't show up at all. I wear hearing aids and need cc to understand the story line.
The Blu-Ray was of great quality and My wife and I enjoyed it very much. We also appreciated the good price.

I also saw on this site that NETFLIX is showing movies with cc, and I am watching them now and I appreciate getting the information.

Chevy57

Have some 3D TV without glasses? working with 3D Subtitle (CC)? I won't use 3D glasses and health is not good for vision.

mworden

I have subscribed to NFlix for about 6 years, DVDs at first, now DVDs & streaming. For all the well-deserved criticism of Netflix in the past, know this: Netflix offers far more subtitled and captioned streaming (And also DVD) selections than any other streaming service. True, it took a lawsuit for this to happen. Amazon streaming doesn't even compare--they're a lawsuit waiting to happen. I also like Hulu because it offers a way to filter according to captions/nocaptions. Don't care much for the ads, but hey it's free...