Forums: Television Hardware: closed captioning ?

 
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  • Avatar of taper6

    taper6

    [1]Dec 15, 2006
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    I recently broke down and bought a new tv - nothing too fancy, Sony bout $300. I FINALLY got closed captioning. And with my bad hearing, I'm enjoying it very much. I have a friend who is a retired court reporter and he says they make the tv captions the same way. Most are dubbed in after the show is shot, but they CAN be done in real-time AS the show is being shot. In which case they may be less accurate and run late (2 sentences behind). A good example of that is the Daily Show.

    I just started watching the Lost Room on the SciFi Channel. I'm not real crazy about the show, but I had 3 epis taped so I tried to get interested (little enough good stuff on tv have to make do with what's there). The captions were totally messed up, just garbage, no help at all. I switched over to SciFi live (realtime) and the captions were still garbage. Went to another channel and captioning was OK.

    The newspaper tv listing called the Lost Room '(CC)', meaning it was supposed to be captioned, I think. Obviously something went wrong. Maybe even my new tv. But I think it's more likely that somebody at SciFi somehow messed up the captions. But how would that be possible? Seems like they would get the signal containing video and audio and captions all in one piece, and then retransmit it, wouldnt' they? Does anyone here have any intimate knowledge about how this captioning process works?
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  • Avatar of yensid85

    yensid85

    [2]Dec 18, 2006
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    It's probably the quality of the tape you used. If the video on your tape is jumpy the captioning won't work. If you stick to watching shows when they air on TV you shouldn't have any troubles. Read this and this for more on closed captioning. Hope this helps.
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  • Avatar of taper6

    taper6

    [3]Dec 19, 2006
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    yensid85 wrote:
    It's probably the quality of the tape you used. If the video on your tape is jumpy the captioning won't work. If you stick to watching shows when they air on TV you shouldn't have any troubles. Read this and this for more on closed captioning. Hope this helps.


    Thanks for responding. And for the captioning info. I should have made it clear that the captioning garbage DOES also occur 'live', that is without my having taped the show, but watching it like you said 'as it airs'. My TimeWarner cable is connected to each of my vcrs inputs, outputs from vcrs fed into an electronic box I bought which delivers a single vcr output to the tv, according to which button on the box I've pushed. So when I watch a show 'as it airs' it does come thru a 'turned on' vcr. The captions work on all other channels I tried except SciFi - which I DO want to watch!

    My next attack on the problem was to visit TimeWarner office in my town today, see if captions were messed up on their sets. The clerk couldn't figure out how to make captions happen (big line forming behind me), plus he claims that if I DON'T have one of their cable boxes (I don't) I'm receiving their 'raw' signal the way they receive it from USA (owner of SciFi he said). And if it comes that way to them, it ain't their fault. Gave me a USA 212 area code number to complain to. In other words, blew me off. Have to figure another way to rattle their cage. The town should help me as they license TW to operate here, but I know very well that they won't.

    This afternoon, second attempt, I'll visit Sears where I bought the tv, with my trusty tv remote and see if I can tune to SciFi on their demo set and look at captioning. Doubt if they'll have full cable complement of channels though. Will someone else PLEASE turn on your captioning and tune to SciFi in their locality and see if the captions work?
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  • Avatar of taper6

    taper6

    [4]Dec 21, 2006
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    My trip to Sears was unsucessful, their display tvs didn't have SciFi channel on them. However, my local YMCA's wall tvs in the exercise rooms did, and the captions on SciFi were messed up the same as my tv at home is. So I know it's not my tv or home setup.  Registered a complaint via email to SciFi's website. Did same with Time Warner Cable, tracking number 10274.  
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  • Avatar of taper6

    taper6

    [5]Jan 1, 2007
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    taper6 wrote:
    My trip to Sears was unsucessful, their display tvs didn't have SciFi channel on them. However, my local YMCA's wall tvs in the exercise rooms did, and the captions on SciFi were messed up the same as my tv at home is. So I know it's not my tv or home setup. Registered a complaint via email to SciFi's website. Did same with Time Warner Cable, tracking number 10274.


    I finally got an email reply from Time Warner Cable after my second complaint. Spelling errors are theirs.
    Quote:
    Please do not reply to this E-mail.
    To enter your questions or comments, please go to https://help.twalbany.com/reply.php.

    Unfortunetly, closed captioning is a function of the station providing the service and not Time Warner. There is nothing we can do to fix or resolve this issue. If you have any other questions, please call us at 1-866-321-2225.

    Please let us know if we can be of any additional assistance.
    Thank you for being a Time Warner Cable customer.

    Richard
    Customer Care Team
    Time Warner Cable
    Albany Division
    1021 Highbridge Rd
    Schenectady, NY 12303
    1-866-321-2225
    Unquote

    I have no idea if they're conning me or not. I also registered complaints at SciFi and USA websites, asking "why are you discriminating against the hearing-impaired?" Doubt if I'll get any reply.
    Does anyone have any other ideas about getting this fixed?
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  • Avatar of danharr

    danharr

    [6]Jan 1, 2007
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    Closed Captioning is the responsibility of the network and not the service provider I also think that the brand tv has a lot to do with if the captioning is read properly.
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  • Avatar of taper6

    taper6

    [7]Jan 2, 2007
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    danharr wrote:
    Closed Captioning is the responsibility of the network and not the service provider I also think that the brand tv has a lot to do with if the captioning is read properly.

    My tv's a Sony. All other channels' captions are working OK. The tvs at my YMCA all have captions malfunctioning on SciFi Channel also. Do you still think the brand of tv could have something to do with it?
    Does Closed Captioning on the SciFi Channel work on your tv set at your location?
    Edited on 01/02/2007 6:10am
    Edited 2 total times.
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  • Avatar of danharr

    danharr

    [8]Jan 14, 2007
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    Then it's the scifi channel if they don't have that cc symbol then they're not actively supporting it and the tv is on its own which leads to mistakes.
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  • Avatar of taper6

    taper6

    [9]Feb 5, 2007
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    danharr wrote:
    Then it's the scifi channel if they don't have that cc symbol then they're not actively supporting it and the tv is on its own which leads to mistakes.


    On the SciFi forum there was a guy in Texas that reported that his SciFi captions were working fine. Some shows on SciFi do not have the cc symbol, other do. I don't get captioning on ANYTHING on the SciFi channel.
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