Closed Captions

[maine hermit]

Has anyone found a DVD player that defaulted to closed captions ?

My elderly hearing impaired friend is growing increasingly frustrated finding and setting each dvd's various menu's to choose the CC option each time he wants to watch a video.

thanks for any info.

mainehermit@gmail.com

 

[GadgetQueen]

Has anyone found a DVD player that defaulted to closed captions ?

My elderly hearing impaired friend is growing increasingly frustrated finding and setting each dvd's various menu's to choose the CC option each time he wants to watch a video.

thanks for any info.

mainehermit@gmail.com

Your friend is choosing subtitles from the DVDs, not captions. Unfortunately, HDMI cables do not transmit closed caption data, so that limits his options.

If he wants to be able to display captions, he will need to:

1) obtain a DVD *recorder* with a built-in ATSC TV tuner and set that to display captions (look at the Panasonic DMR devices), or

2) he'll need to accept lower video quality by using either component video (if his HDTV will decode captions on the component video input) or S-video, or

3) If he has a computer with a built-in DVD drive that he can connect to the HDTV (by using HDMI or a VGA cable), then he might be able to use Windows Media Player on the computer to show the captions.

There will eventually be DVD players that will decode captions, but this may take years. The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act will require that change.

Good luck!

 

[Anij]

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

Are you talking about closed captions or subtitles ?

Close captioning is controlled by the tv settings (and only speicif dvd players and types of cables will transmit cc signal).

Subtitles are controled from the dvd itself. The best option is to get a dvd player that has a remote with a specific "subtitles" button - this allows you to start the movie and the just press the "subtitles" button on the remote so it comes up with "english". My Sony bluray player & dvd players' remotes both have a subtitle button which makes turning on the subtitles quick and easy (easier than selecting it from the actual onscreen disc menu).

There isn't a way to set dvd or bluray up to be default "subtitles on" because the subtitling is actually a setting or feature on the disc itself.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[Habanerocat]

Has anyone found a DVD player that defaulted to closed captions ?

My elderly hearing impaired friend is growing increasingly frustrated finding and setting each dvd's various menu's to choose the CC option each time he wants to watch a video.

thanks for any info.

mainehermit@gmail.com

Fairly annoying alright. If only they were all the same it would make it easier.
Sorry I don't think it's possible.

 

[Anij]

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Bold )

I still think the best option - which is what I use:

Forget selecting the subtitles/captions from the dvd/bluray movie menu at all.

Start the movie.

Wait for all the preamble to be finished (company logos like WB/Summit/MGM etc).

Once the actual movie begins hit "subtitles" on the dvd/bluray player remote & Select the first "English" on the list.

This takes a fraction of a second, always works - and you don't have to sort through multiple menus etc.

Not as good as automatic - but pretty darn close.

 

[GrayEagle]

There will eventually be DVD players that will decode captions, but this may take years. The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act will require that change.

We found this out the hard way when we bought a new DVD/VHS combo player about a year and a half ago. We have many VHS tapes and DVDs of our own, plus we get them from our library. There are a lot of DVDs out there that have the CC embedded signal as well as the menu driven subtitles choices. And sometimes the menu drive subtitles do NOT have English as a choice, only foreign languages like Spanish or French, etc.). So sometimes DVDs have only the CC for English captioning. :roll: Well, we found our VHS tapes w/ CC that worked fine with the old player, weren't displaying the CC as well as some of our DVDs or ones from the library or even Netflix, that had only CC and no English subtitles through the DVD menu.

We called the manufacturer because we could find nothing in manual for the machine to get the CC to display on the TV (TV controls for CC are always on). Finally talked to a manufacturer tech and was told "oh, no, it's an HD machine. The HD technology blocks the CC signal." So we promptly took that piece of junk back to Sears, LOL! And got our $$$ back! :P The salesman looked it up and said, yes, that's true. And found us a dual player that was about $200 cheaper than the one we had originally purchased which was *not* HD and so did not block the CCs. Apparently if we'd ask the right questions when buying the original player, the sales people do have access to look that kind of stuff up. We didn't think to ask, you know? We just assumed since the old player sent to the signal to the TV, the new one would, too. So, we do without HD but we get our captions.

Nice to know they will have laws about these players as they now do about the TVs having to have the CC decoders to be sold in the U.S. Even though we have to wait for the players to be regulated, still. :roll:

 

[VamPyroX]

Your friend is choosing subtitles from the DVDs, not captions. Unfortunately, HDMI cables do not transmit closed caption data, so that limits his options.

If he wants to be able to display captions, he will need to:

1) obtain a DVD *recorder* with a built-in ATSC TV tuner and set that to display captions (look at the Panasonic DMR devices), or

2) he'll need to accept lower video quality by using either component video (if his HDTV will decode captions on the component video input) or S-video, or

3) If he has a computer with a built-in DVD drive that he can connect to the HDTV (by using HDMI or a VGA cable), then he might be able to use Windows Media Player on the computer to show the captions.

There will eventually be DVD players that will decode captions, but this may take years. The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act will require that change.

Good luck!

HDMI? If it's a standard DVD player, it should have RCA connections... red/white/yellow. The television should also be set to have closed captioning on before using the DVD player.

 

[PowerON]

We're have more same thread title "closed captions" flood in there.