Channels & viewing

[jeffhersch]

trying to watch korean film with subtitles. I am getting a black box with white lettering identifying who is speaking or any background noise in the film, such " traffic noise". This box appears over the subtitles so I can't read them. I don't know how to get rid of the black box. any ideas?

[renojim]

On what app?  Roku devices have a very limited character set built-in for subtitles pretty much limited to what are known as "Latin" character sets.  Korean and other multi-byte character sets aren't supported.  I don't know of many apps that go through the significant trouble to support them, but I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix does.  You get that black box when the character isn't supported.  It's a kind of place-holder and can't be removed and if it was removed, you wouldn't get the Korean character anyway.

[jeffhersch]

your reply is a bit technical for me. I have a roky box connected to my TV. I have watched many foreign films and never experienced this problem. Are you saying basically I can't get rid of the black box superimposed over the subtitles?

[jeffhersch]

I was viewing the film through Kanopy. I emailed them but don't get any answer

[makaiguy]

This sounds like a film for English release with the captiononing built right into the screen image.

Black boxes with English text ("street noise", etc.) sounds like optional traditional English closed captioning selected on the Roku.  This is electronically superimposed over the image by the Roku at the time of viewing.  If the closed captioning source data for that program doesn't specify where to place the caption on the screen it typically is centered at the bottom of the screen.  If that's where the captioning on the film is placed, it may get obscured.

Make sure the closed captioning option on the Roku is turned off for this film.  The Roku default method of accessing your choice of audio track is to press the * key on your Roku remote while viewing the program and examining the options presented.  

But more and more channels are not using the Roku default but instead substituting their own method of access -- I'm guessing this is so they will have consistent controls with versions of their app running on platforms other than Roku.  Often these options are accessed by pressing the up and/or down cursor control keys while viewing the program to pop the channel's own control options on the screen.

[Strega2]

I think you may have an accessibility feature with a name like "audio description" enabled - possibly in your TV (if your TV and Roku are separate devices.)

[renojim]

What film on Kanopy is causing the problem?  Maybe I can look at it and see if it's what I thought it was.  Also, do you have an example of a film with Korean characters that does work?