# Adjust DirecTV captions



## johnchart (Sep 17, 2006)

Is there any way to adjust DirecTV captions? Would be nice to be able to be able to change color, size, etc.

John


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

johnchart said:


> Is there any way to adjust DirecTV captions? Would be nice to be able to be able to change color, size, etc.
> 
> John


OK, so which ones are we really taking about? Closed captioning, or Directv subtitles? Anyway, there is a place to change font, size, color etc...in the setup menu. I *think* its in the display menu.


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## johnchart (Sep 17, 2006)

CCarncross said:


> OK, so which ones are we really taking about? Closed captioning, or Directv subtitles? Anyway, there is a place to change font, size, color etc...in the setup menu. I *think* its in the display menu.


I am talking about DIRECTV Subtitles. When you go to the settings area there seems to be no place to adjust "DIRECTV Subtitles". There is a place to change Closed Captioning which I use to make changes.

John


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

I don't think they ever gave us the ability to change those unfortunately. I was pretty sure that only one of the two were customizable, just couldn't remember which one as I rarely ever use them. That was a feature that was added on abut midway through the HR2x series development, I bet I had my HR20 for 2 years before that feature was added.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

johnchart said:


> I am talking about DIRECTV Subtitles. When you go to the settings area there seems to be no place to adjust "DIRECTV Subtitles". There is a place to change Closed Captioning which I use to make changes.
> 
> John


DirecTV subtitles look suspiciously like closed captioning to me. I think it's just a faster method of getting a default closed caption to appear by using the yellow button.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

billsharpe said:


> DirecTV subtitles look suspiciously like closed captioning to me. I think it's just a faster method of getting a default closed caption to appear by using the yellow button.


They are similar but not identical. Many times they do differ slightly.


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## charlie460 (Sep 12, 2009)

CCarncross said:


> They are similar but not identical. Many times they do differ slightly.


Don't think that's true... the actual caption data is from the same stream... think it is just displayed differently.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

I was under the impression that one was descriptive text service based, and massaged...isnt descriptive text service different than closed captioning?


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## Michael H.. (May 31, 2007)

I did a pretty unscientific experiment.

I have two receivers and two HDTV's in one room.
(theater room so I can watch two different games simultaneously).
I set both to the same channel, turned on "DirecTV Captioning" (DTVC) on one, turned on "Closed Captioning" (CC) on the other AND set the options to "Fruitiger 1", etc. so that the CC display was identical to the DTVC.

I watched both for several minutes, and the text scrolled, and the timings were sync'd.
I concluded that other than CC being able to change its display options (and DTVC was fixed), they were the same.
Could be coincidental... I didn't watch very long, and I should have checked other channels, which I didn't... as I said... nonscientific.

Suggestion: If you don't like the appearance of the DTVC or CC display, select CC and change the CC display options (in my opinion they are extensive and at least one should satisfy anyone) and use it rather than the DTVC.


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## Newshawk (Sep 3, 2004)

CCarncross said:


> I was under the impression that one was descriptive text service based, and massaged...isnt descriptive text service different than closed captioning?


I believe you're thinking of descriptive _video_ service, where a narrator describes the actions on the screen for the visually impaired. There is no such thing as descriptive text service.

As for the fixed nature of DirecTV Subtitles, it is set to what was found a long time ago to be the most visually workable and discernible combination of text and edge colors. Ironically, it was the pioneering US anime importer AnimEigo that stumbled upon the color combination after a great deal of trial and error-and part of the reason for the choices was the primitive video cards they were using at the time.

From the AnimEigo website-"The Secret History of AnimEigo"


> Research was also done about what subtitle colors worked best, both perceptually (for people) and technically (for video). Drawing on dim memories of one of his perceptual psychology classes (or at least, one of them he didn't sleep through), Robert came up with AnimEigo's infamous "optic yellow" color. This color, and the color of the surround (a very dark brown), were then adjusted so that they could be superimposed on background video without causing video bleed. TV sets in those days were not as good as we have now, and swift changes from very light to very dark pixels would cause problems. But we found that a typical TV set could go from anything to the dark brown surround, from the brown to yellow, from yellow to brown, and from the brown to anything. The secret of AnimEigo's subtitling magic was that very dark brown.


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