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Closed Captioning Bug on Apple TV (Posted by a QA manager)

I am uncovering a bug and issue with Closed Captioning and Apple TV. For instance. I purchased a couple of seasons of a TV series. "ALL" episodes display captioning as pormised when viewed on my 17" MacBook Pro. But only "SOME" episodes will dislay it on Apple TV. So an epsiode that didn't work on Apple TV we had to watch straight off the computer last night for the sake of my deaf wife. Everything is set properly on both the computer and Apple TV, and it works fine most of the time (also of note I run a software QA team so well aquainted with the process of honing in on problems). Wondering if anyone else has expereinced this issue? And if there is some scenario whereby it can be remedied? Or is it on the radar for a future software update? THANKS!

Apple TV

Posted on Jun 3, 2013 12:25 PM

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5 replies

Jun 5, 2013 9:48 AM in response to mario49

Mario, no offense, but there is nothing quite as frustrating as taking the time out of my insanely busy schedue to submit a resonably thorough QA problem assesment (which is very important to me having a deaf wife) and then recieve back what more or less amounts to an auto-response having not even read the original message. I would prefer no response or a bonafide auto-response. But quite frustrating when obviously my message was not read before inaccurately replying.


Again, I am a QA manager and quite astute at narrowing down software bugs. These are all TV shows that have captioning available, all of which work on mutiple macs totally fine, but "occasionally" an epsiode will not display correctly on Apple TV when the epsiode before within the same season displayed fine, and the episode after within the same season also displayed perfectly well. No changes in settings happen, nor is anything turned on or off. Merely selecting the next episode and hitting play. However, to verify the bug I did reboot everything (Apple TV, TV & MAC) mutiple times to no avail. So it is odd in that it is not all or nothing. A bug unique to Apple TV itself, that intermitently ocurrs on random episodes. If estimate a guess, I would say averaging about 1 out of 20 instances. Just enough to make for a frustrating viewing experience when deep in a season. I was curious to know if this was a known issue and on the docket for a future revision. Important whether we will continue to purchase full seasons on iTunes as opposed to Blue Ray.


There was an instance once where Captioning was represented on a series in iTunes but after download it was not available on any device. In that instance we were refunded for the purchase. But this issue is far more intermittent and only affecting Apple TV but no Macs when it occurs.


Thanks, Bill

Aug 16, 2013 11:48 PM in response to Blbaumgart

Bill, I feel your pain. You provided clear and consice information regarding your problem and got a canned response from someone that did not take the time to read your question. I have a hearing defeincy and purchased a a season of a TV show. I can only view closed captioning on about half the shows, the other half I have to struggle to follow the story. I thought I might find the answer to the problem when I saw the question you posted. To bad you did not recieve a proper response to your original question.

Aug 23, 2013 3:39 PM in response to Blbaumgart

It may be that the CC/subtitles are in an "undetermined" language. In iTunes when I look at "Controls>Audio & Subtitles>Subtitles" I sometimes see the choices "Off, Undetermined". The undertermined is checked.


When I have CC turned on in the Apple TV nothing happens.


Hold down the "select" button on the Apple TV to get to the "Chapters" menu. At the top there should be a section titled "Subtitles" or "Closed Captions". Navigate to that menu item and see if there is a choice for "Undetermined" and make sure that it is checked.


I just "found" subtitles on some TV shows that I have been looking for forever.


Side note - Spotlight shows the string "Subtitle" in "Media Kind" when the closed captions are present.


Hope this helps. This thread made me go look really hard at the episodes in question.

Closed Captioning Bug on Apple TV (Posted by a QA manager)

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