Solving playback issues

[sbattisti]

My parents have a brand new Roku TV (TCL 43S405). They live in a retirement community that has cable direct to each room, from an institutional cable provider called "Privatel." We've hooked up the cable to the Roku TV, and most everything works fine. That is, I can turn on the Roku, choose "Live TV," and I get sound/video on all of the Privatel cable channels.

Unfortunately, the one thing that ISN'T working is closed captioning. I have set the Roku settings to "Always On," and it works fine for apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime. However, as soon as I go into Live TV, I lose the closed captioning.

Unsurprisingly, Privatel says it's the Roku TV's fault, and my first conversation with a Roku rep via chat says it's Privatel's fault. 

Any ideas?

[DBDukes]

@sbattisti 

Can you connect the TV to WiFi? If so, launch one of the apps on Roku and see if closed captioning appears. If not, there's some setting not just right, or the device is defective. Even if I was doing it, I'd lean toward the former.

If, though, closed captioning appears, then there's something else going on. Let's cross this hurdle first.

[sbattisti]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

Yes, I'm connected to Wifi, and the closed captioning works fine for Netflix and Amazon Prime. It only with Live TV that the closed captioning doesn't work.

I'm happy to play with settings, but I can't think of what it might be, since there's really only the one CC setting and it's set to "Always on." 

[DBDukes]

@sbattisti 

You've shown that the Roku device can display closed captions. I know there are a few different standards for captioning video, at least Web videos have different standards. I don't know about broadcast, but you're talking cable, right?

I don't connect my Roku TV to cable, and the antenna is actually connected to a network device, not the TV itself. My setup is sufficiently different from yours that I would not consider my platform a suitable troubleshooting match.

Have you seen the captions on other TVs? For those, is the cable connected directly to the TV? Or is it connected to a cable box, then the TV?

Oh, one shot in the dark. When a channel is playing, if you hit the Options button (asterisk) on the Roku remote, does an Accessibility box appear?

[sbattisti]

I am talking cable, not antenna!

I haven't seen the captions on other TVs. My parents just moved into this facility, and they don't know anyone else there yet. 

I'm not in front of the TV right now, but I'm fairly confident in this answer: When I hit the * on the Roku remote, I get the normal set of Roku settings, which includes the CC option, which is already set to "always on."

There is no cable box in our scenario. The cable is wired right to the room, so you just have to connect the cable directly to the TV. I do know that they CAN provide a cable box, because prior to the new TV arriving, they had set up their old TV using a cable box (because the older TVs can't handle the direct connection apparently.) I wish that I had thought to check if the CC worked on that old TV, but the old TV was literally only hooked up for one night and not really used before the new TV arrived and we got rid of the old one.

If wonder if I could get them to give me a cable box, and see if it would make a difference running it through the cable box instead of directly through the TV... Hmm.

Thanks for your help!

[deadcat]

Last night our wifi was out for a bit. so the roku tv was not connected.

I tried to watch antenna tv and there were no captions.

If roku tv depends on an internet connection to run on air captions then something ain't right.

[RokuKariza-D]

Hey @deadcat

Thanks for posting here in the Community.

For many channels, closed captions can be activated from the settings of your Roku device.

1. Press Home on your Roku remote
2. Scroll and select Settings
3. To open the Captions menu, select Accessibility. If Accessibility is not listed, select Captions.
4. Select Captions mode and choose when captions appear
   
   • Off – captions never appear
   • On always – captions always appear (when available from the service provider). When service providers use their own settings, closed captions are activated within their channel.
   • On replay – captions appear only after pressing Replay on your Roku remote (with content that supports instant replay)
   • On mute – captions appear only when volume is muted

For more information, visit this Support link: How to enable closed captioning

Let us know if this works for you!

All the best,
Kariza