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TurboZilla
Reel Rookie

White captions

Hey guys!

I've see few other discussions about this bu they all are quite old so I'm trying to see whether there are any updates/solutions about this.

So, got my Roku Streaming Stick Plus few days ago and love it. Only issue is I use subtitles a lot and it seems the apps that use Roku captions systems are showing grey subtitles rather than white ones. They are definitely hard to read.

Is there any workaround or do you know whether there's any plan to address it in a future OS update? A caption "brightness" setting would be very nice.

Thanks in advance for your help. Smiley Very Happy

21 REPLIES 21
makaiguy
Community Streaming Expert

Re: White captions

From Roku home screen: Settings.. Accessibility.. Captions style

There you can set the default CC options.  While viewing a channel, the * key on your remote is the default means of accessing options like CC.

Note that some channels don't observe the Roku defaults and utilize their own CC settings, presumably so they can have uniform settings across all the different platforms on which they run.  On some channels you may have to set things up by logging into your account on their website; on others you may have to use other remote keys -- up or down cursor keys are common choices.

Roku Community Streaming Expert
I am not a Roku employee, only a user like you.  Please, no support questions via private message -- post them publicly to the Community where others may benefit as well.
If this post solves your problem please help others find this answer by clicking "Accept as Solution.".

Streaming Stick 4K+ 3821 | Streaming Stick+ 3810 | TCL Roku TV 43S245/C107X
TurboZilla
Reel Rookie

Re: White captions

I've tried any possible customisation but as far as I can see the apps that do observe Roku caption settings render gray subtitles rather than white ones, even when the color is explicitly set to white in Captions style. As said I find them quite difficult to read.

What's annoying is apps that don't observe Roku caption settings, like Netflix, have proper white subtitles.

makaiguy
Community Streaming Expert

Re: White captions

What do you have the Roku text opacity set to?  For brightest text, set it to 100%.

Roku Community Streaming Expert
I am not a Roku employee, only a user like you.  Please, no support questions via private message -- post them publicly to the Community where others may benefit as well.
If this post solves your problem please help others find this answer by clicking "Accept as Solution.".

Streaming Stick 4K+ 3821 | Streaming Stick+ 3810 | TCL Roku TV 43S245/C107X
TurboZilla
Reel Rookie

Re: White captions

It's set to 100%.

I've take pictures even though on camera the difference doesn't look as sharp as in person.

With text opacity 100% and color white on apps that use Roku captions system you get greyish subtitles which are difficult to read on bright or colorful scenes as the background also bleeds through.

grey.jpg

Apps that use their own captions system produce white subtitles as expected.

white.jpg

MEMOM
Channel Surfer

Re: White captions

WOW THEY STILL HAVE NOT FIXED THIS? I took over a year off from Roku due to this. It is discrimination if you ask me to not have working captions! I can not believe they do not care to fix this. I came online to see if they had fixed it. I see not. 
I do not like the lay out of Amazon Firestick with all their paid shows being suggested but if it actually works properly then I will buy another one of those! 

MEMOM
Channel Surfer

Re: White captions

Roku has had problems with captions being worthless for over a year. They do not care. and that is discrimination against old people and disabled. 

TurboZilla
Reel Rookie

Re: White captions

I agree that this seems to be about not caring too much. I've see few complaints in the past few years and honestly I don't understand why they can't just add some setting to make captions brighter, or just full white. Maybe OS 10? 🙄

makaiguy
Community Streaming Expert

Re: White captions


@TurboZilla wrote:

It's set to 100%.

I've take pictures even though on camera the difference doesn't look as sharp as in person.

With text opacity 100% and color white on apps that use Roku captions system you get greyish subtitles which are difficult to read on bright or colorful scenes as the background also bleeds through.

grey.jpg

Apps that use their own captions system produce white subtitles as expected.

white.jpg


I notice in your pictures that for your Roku setting, you have the opacity of the background set to a partial value which will reduce the apparent contrast between the caption and the background, while on the non-Roku picture, the background is completely transparent.

Roku Community Streaming Expert
I am not a Roku employee, only a user like you.  Please, no support questions via private message -- post them publicly to the Community where others may benefit as well.
If this post solves your problem please help others find this answer by clicking "Accept as Solution.".

Streaming Stick 4K+ 3821 | Streaming Stick+ 3810 | TCL Roku TV 43S245/C107X
Ponto50
Reel Rookie

Re: White captions

Stilll waiting for a soluton to this gray subtitles thing.

Really annoying that "white" means "just gray" on the device.