Broadcast Writer

Before you begin troubleshooting with the viewer, it’s worth checking if the TV station have any other reports have any other viewer reports of a caption display issue with this program?

DTV captions let the viewer select parameters for how their DTV captions will display. (Figure 1) This is probably a TV caption settings issue. (Figure 2, Figure 3)

Possible Caption Settings Issues in DTV display/cable, satellite, or streaming receiver/DVR:
– Set to display for Foreground Font at too low of Opacity % for the font to show up more visibly than the background.
Ex: Foreground Font Opacity anything less than 100% (Figure 4)
– Set to display a both the Font Foreground color and background color in the same color so there isn’t any contrast between letters and background. Ex: Foreground Font: Black, Background: Black
(Figure 5)
– Set to display a combination of a foreground color and a background color that doesn’t offer enough color contrast to be able to see the caption letters.
Ex: Foreground Font: Dark Blue, Background: Black (Figure 6)
– Caption font size set too small for viewer to see. (Figure 7)

Longshot Possibility:
– Captions are enabled on both the viewer’s cable/satellite/streaming tuner AND on their DTV display, and both devices are displaying their captions in the same place, thus the overlapping captions block the font.

I can’t be certain that the viewer is wrong or that this issue definitely resides with the viewer and not with our signal.

Non-viewer possibilities:
– Viewer is watching through a satellite, cable, streaming provider, and that provider is accidentally failing to pass the caption signal.
– Viewer is the one person who can’t hear and needs captions or who cared to contact us about the issue rather than being annoyed, but not saying anything.

Can the viewer can resolve this by changing a menu setting on their TV or cable/satellite/DVR box?
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Ask the viewer to try setting their DTV set’s caption menu to CC1. As the viewer to call us back, if this suggestion doesn’t work for them.

Some DTVs/receiver can’t decode the captions on University Place episodes created before June 2014. The loss of captions at the start of University Place episodes made before June 2014 can happen with certain TVs and DTV Receivers. This is a known issue, as opposed to an issue caused by an error in how the viewer operates their DTV. This is not the viewer’s fault.

FIX:
1. Viewer should go into their caption menu and select CC1 for captions.

IF FIX DOESN’T WORK:
If a viewer’s TV doesn’t let them select CC1 for the caption source, they could
1. watch our show on a different TV/Receiver at their home,
2. watch the lecture with captions on our website
**CAUTION: NOT SURE IF OPTION 3 WILL PACIFY THE VIEWER OR ANGER THE VIEWER**
**3. Purchase a Roku streaming device, connect Roku to both the Internet and to their TV set input, and watch WPT’s shows on-demand from Roku on their TV set. (essentially, it displays the shows streamed on our web site on their TV.)

Detailed technical explanation below, if interested.

Yours verbatim,

Caption Breaker

“Captions: so hard to make; so easy to break.”

CAUSE:
There are 2 types of closed captions within a TV station’s signal. The simpler caption type “608” or “standard-definition” captions: basic and traditional analog captions with white letters on black blocks.
“708” or “high-definition” captions: new, more elaborate captions that allow viewer to change the caption position on the screen and the formatting for font, font color, size, etc.. All DTV sets must be able to decode 708 captions.

ISSUE for Certain DTVs:
DTV displays captions fine for shows with 708 captions or shows that contain both 708 and 608 captions,
but can’t decode captions for shows with 608 CAPTIONS ONLY
unless the Viewer goes into their television’s Caption Menu and selects “CC1” as their caption source. In the TV’s caption menu, “CC1” needs to be selected as the source instead of “Service 1,” if the viewer is experiencing a loss of captions at the start of certain older TV programs. On some televisions and receivers “Service 1” does not decode 608 captions correctly or decode them at all.

There will be some DTV sets/receivers that don’t give the caption menu option of CC1. In those cases, the viewer will have to select Service 1. The viewer with that TV set or receiver will NOT be able to view captions for certain older programs on their TV set. However, they still might start seeing captions again after we send a blank caption line, “a clearing line”, somewhere within the program’s closed captions.

(Q) Why are captions missing at the start of a program, but then show up after the show has been on for a few minutes?
(A) Sometimes, this issue will correct itself during the program if the program happens to contain a blank line caption line. Sometimes, the blank caption line resets the “confused” caption decoder such that it will start decoding 608 captions successfully.
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