Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The EASY Way to Change Closed Captioning for AT&T U-Verse

We have only had AT&T U-Verse for a short time, about six months or so.  We love the new service, but there is one thing (besides the fact that we do not get the Hallmark Channel!) that we do NOT love:  the tedious process we have to go through to turn closed captioning on and off!

Although I am hearing impaired (since infancy due to being born three months prematurely), I don't usually need the closed captioning, but it does make it easier for me at times.  Plus, I like catching their mistakes!  My husband doesn't really like having the words on the screen -- especially when he's watching his financial news shows, in which case he turns it off -- but he tolerates it for me.  We have to switch back and forth and this is a 30-click process!  You may wonder why we do not do it from our TV.  That is because we have an older, tube TV and I have not ever been able to find the option using the TV menu from the original TV remote control.

Then, last night, my darling 18-month-old "wonder child," was playing with the remote and to my GREAT surprise, activated the TV Closed Captioning!  The funny thing was that the TV started showing double closed-captions -- from both AT&T U-Verse AND the television!  Makes for a crazy case of double vision!

I immediately started trying to figure out she did it (fortunately, she was pressing the same buttons) and discovered that turning Closed Captioning on and off is now a simple 3-click process!!  Gotta love that!

Now here's how YOU can do it, too!

1.  Using your AT&T U-Verse remote control, press the TV button at the very top (just to the right of the AT&T button).

2.  Press the Exit to TV button that is located to the "northwest" of the yellow triangle.


This will make "TV CC: Off" pop up on the screen as shown below.


3.  Use the right arrow key to change "off" to "1" as shown below. You can cycle through the whole selection of Closed Captioning options, but this is the one that I use.

There you go!  Closed Captioning has been activated.


One thing to note is that when you turn your AT&T U-verse off, it will automatically reset the Closed Captioning to "off."  Now that you know how, it's a simple 3-click process to turn it back on!

Another advantage is that now we can have closed captioning for when we play DVDs rather than going through the process of turning on subtitles which may or may not be available on the DVD.

This may not work for all TVs (if not, leave a comment), but hopefully, it will work for you!

UPDATE:  I did try this procedure when I watched a DVD that we own and it worked fine. However, when we rented a couple of movies from Redbox, it didn't work at all!  I could change it to 1, but it wouldn't do it.  I don't know why.

UPDATE #2:  One of my Anonymous readers posted this great tip in the comments:  "If you press the ENTER key at the bottom right of the remote, it will bring up a VIEWING OPTIONS menu on the side of your screen. Scroll down to CLOSED CAPTIONS and hit OK on the remote and then choose ON or OFF for the captions. Fewer steps this way! :-)"  That pretty much made my day!  I can't wait to show my husband!
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26 comments:

  1. Unfortunately didn't work on our Vizio :( desperately trying to find a way to easily enable CC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Press the ENTER key at the bottom right of the remote
      Select CLOSED CAPTIONS
      Select ON or OFF

      Delete
  2. I hate U-verse. Why in hell couldn't they make CC easy to access? Really Stupid.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Comcast / Xfinity is also a pain. To get closed captions with them I have to turn off the cable stream to the DVR, go to a special menu for the DVR hardware itself, then turn the cable source to the DVR back on. Amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. idiots... pressing the tv button on the uverse remote puts it into TV mode. You just turned on/off closed captioning on your tv, not uverse. you morons should do a quick google search before posting. cc is easy to access - uverse menu -> options -> audio/language options -> closed captioning

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous, you obviously did not read my entire post. We KNOW how to change it through U-verse (and, by the way, I didn't need Google to figure that out), but because it is a multiple-step, tedious process, I wanted a faster way to do it. I don't care if the CC is from the TV or from U-verse, I just want an easy, fast way to put the words on the screen.

      Thanks for showing the world that you speak (rudely) before you fully investigate a matter. Do you feel smart now? Oh, wait, we don't even know who you are. How convenient.

      Delete
    2. I would expect name calling on yahoo but not on a site where people are being helpful. I can't believe people.

      Delete
  5. Sorry Anonymous(April 26), but she's right! You missed the whole point. Pushing buttons over 10 clicks is not an easy process, especially while watching whatever you're watching.
    We mature by learning not to start blabbing with insults before we understand a matter, especially with name calling. Come on, is that your age showing? Mercy will be granted.
    Thank you Ava for taking the time to show us what you found with the help of your "wonder child".
    I do agree that in the year 2013, AT&T didn't come up with a single button to scroll through the CCs. Life can surprise you with stupidity.
    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I tried this but it didn't work. I have a panasonic tv. Is this the problem?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Some of you are having trouble doing this with your TVs, so let me tell you a little secret... it only works with older TVs. The CC information is being broadcast from the Uverse box to the TV only on the SD channels, not the HD channels because the is no digital standard for that, so AT&T feel that they don't need to bother. So if you have an HDTV and are connected in HD (like you should be, otherwise why did you spend the money, really), then this won't work.

    It really saddens me that no resolution has actually been made for this tedious process except adding it to the 'zoom' menu on the remote control. You'd think that AT&T would have a bit more respect for their customers. When I asked one of their higher-up representatives about it, I was informed that closed captioning is 'used by so few people' that spending the resources on it would be a waste.

    And yet we keep giving them money...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your helpful comment!

      Yes, it is a shame that AT&T would ignore such a needful service. I consider it to be an insult to the segment of the population who NEED closed captioning in order to more fully enjoy watching television that their condition is thought to be a waste to try to improve.

      Delete
  8. If you press the ENTER key at the bottom right of the remote, it will bring up a VIEWING OPTIONS menu on the side of your screen. Scroll down to CLOSED CAPTIONS and hit OK on the remote and then choose ON or OFF for the captions. Fewer steps this way! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. This was a very good shot...at it,,got to the point in the TV menu,however was only able to get the SLEEP MODE, AND NOT TO THE CC MODE...help does anyone know how with the AT&T remote.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm late to the party but thankfully that means I arrived after the "enter-viewing options" tip! Thanks Ava Kinsey for creating the topic and anonymous for providing the great, helpful tip. My mom gets frustrated because she suffers from tinnitus and while she can hear fairly well, sometimes certain words or sounds run together and she can't understand them. Also, her favorite show is Downton Abbey and the accents give her trouble as well. This method is SO much easier! Thanks, a lot it made her day too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad! Accents can really be difficult to understand!

      Delete
  11. Thank you for your post. I know this is a little off topic, but I'd like to get some advice and other people's opinions.

    I am almost completely deaf in my left ear. I can hear fine with my right ear, but it is terribly difficult to discern many words if I am not looking at someone face to face, or if they are standing on my left side... or if I am watching a movie (and the sound isn't jacked way up.) I often use closed captioned/subtitles so that I can enjoy the movie without having to ask other people what was said when I miss what is going on. My sister-in-law has a huge dislike of captions, and never fails to mention how much it irritates her to watch a movie with captions. If and when my husband and I have been invited to watch a movie at her home, they will not turn on the captions, and I don't make a big deal about it (because it's her home, her TV, her movie.) However, she even complains when she comes to my home (after inviting herself), and says she "hates captions." I made it a point to say, "I'm sorry my hearing disability requires me to use captions so I can enjoy the movie."

    Most recently she was here and asked if we could all watch a specific movie next week (which my husband and I would be providing/paying for), but said "no offense, I will not watch it with captions." My husband says that I should "compromise" and that her behavior was not rude. I, however, was offended. Am I being unreasonable? I felt that I was respectful and compromising when I was in her home (even though I felt she was rude), and watched the movie without captions. Is it really wrong of me to expect the same respect in my home? Am I wrong to think that she is being rude? I cannot help that I have a hearing problem, and I don't think using captions in my home, on my TV is too much to ask.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry that you're having to deal with that. I do agree that she is being rude and very disrespectful. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about that. If you have an ornery streak, you can be sure to sit next to her and ask her every time there's something you didn't understand in the movie. You have to be the judge of whether or not that would help or hurt things. Maybe you can preview the movie (with captions) before they come over. It wouldn't be as much as watching with your family, but at least you'd be able to follow along a little more easily.

      My husband doesn't like closed captions, either, but he puts up with it for me. He turns it off when he's watching TV by himself, and I turn it on when I'm watching it. We keep it on for Netflix, though.

      Delete
  12. June 30, 2014
    This laborious process has driven me nuts, too, as the CC is very helpful for my hearing problem. The first method above didn't work for me (? 2012 Panasonic Viera)
    but the second one ("Update #2") did bring up a menu. So this makes it a shorter process.

    ReplyDelete
  13. OMG...IT WORKED! I have had this problem with my Hitachi Ultrascan HD for years. Before I googled you another said there was a problem with the convergence box and it would cost over $300 to fix. TV too old for that. Then I read your solution. I am so totally stoked. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YAY! Glad it worked for you. $300, really?? You can get a brand new TV for that.

      Delete
    2. I have been trying to disable the subtitles on the Grand Hotel TV series that I stream through Netflix. None of the methods above work. The message I get is that the feature is not available. If I try to watch the same show on my PC, the option is available and the subtitles can be disabled.
      Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

      Delete
  14. I don't know when they added this, but if you press the red button on your remote, it turns the closed captioning on and off. I discovered this totally by accident.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's awesome! Thanks!

      We no longer have AT&T, but this is very useful information for others.

      Delete

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