No subtitles on movies on demand

[Anonymous User]

There are subtitles on movies when watching 'live' but when I try to watch 'on demand' there is no option for subtitles. Why can one way of watching allow subtitles and another not. Even with my hearing aids I need subtitles so this means I have to record every movie as I can't watch on demand. Why does Now still discriminate in this way and will it ever be resolved. I will be cancelling my subscription as I can no longer screen when I want. 

[redchiz1]

I got that Lynda, glad you found Roy's post a solution after I had already suggested where the problem might be.  😉

[Anonymous User]

yes, your reply made me look at installing the app and that was what
sorted it out

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

I get the ‘,Lynda’ thing now. I get called all sorts of curious names on here, but you weren’t doing that 😛

@redchiz1, you did even better than you thought, as you linked to the Now Help pages where the cause was posted plain as day, for anyone who read the whole thing, as per the shout-out I gave you when I quoted it.

That word ‘record’ in @Anonymous User ‘s first post was what alerted me - the only place you can record Now is on a YouView box when you have subscribed to Now via BT TV, and I was just coming back to enlarge on this when I saw the subsequent posts.

It’s a very peculiar issue though; on a YouView box that can handle subtitles on every other TV app, on broadcast channels and on the BT TV internet channels, largely from Now, the Now app is pretty much alone, both as an app on the YouView box and as a Now app in general, in not supporting subtitles.

And it’s not a BT TV issue, as it happens on YouView boxes that aren’t even on BT broadband, let alone BT TV.

It’s a ‘Now app on YouView boxes’ thing, and we can’t even really call it an issue, in the usual software fault sense of the word, as it seems to be deliberate, and is even documented as such.

But why this one instance of the Now app has this issue, in the customer expectation sense of the word, beats me completely 😢

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for all the help. I am sorted but I think I will ask Now why they don't provide subtitles on BT TV. I will also contact BT and find out why they are getting people to subscribe through them given these issues. I may get no decent replies but it will make me feel I've tried. 

Thanks again, Lynda (remembered the comma this time!!!)

[RoyB]

@Anonymous User 

You need to ask Now why their app on YouView boxes does not have subtitles, when you try to watch On Demand.

As it is just the app - Now as provided by BT TV on the live internet channels on their boxes has subtitles, and they work perfectly. And it isn’t just BT TV on the app - nothing on the app has subtitles, BT TV, the whole of Freeview, nothing.

I can answer the last question, though. BT has been using YouView boxes since 2012 to deliver both what a YouView box anywhere will deliver, plus extra BT TV channels, some from BT, some elsewhere, but most from Sky.

The Now app, when it started on YouView boxes was originally Cinema only, no Entertainment, no Hayu, no Sport. So a bit of a poor relation.

In later years, Now was expanded to cover all four memberships, but the subtitles capability was still missing, and is to this day.

Even later, BT gave up its deal with Sky, and replaced it with Now, delivered as channels in place of the Sky ones, but still using the technology that BT and YouView had put in place to deliver internet channels.

So we have BT, committed to YouView technology, providing the Now channels live to watch, and recordable, minimising the need for On Demand, and so minimising the need to encounter the shortcomings of the Now app on the box. Minimising, but not eliminating.

So I can see how things got to where they are; but it’s still a mystery to me why BT aren’t pushing Now and YouView to get subtitles onto the Now app, to cover the use of On Demand.

So indeed, ask the question; as a BT TV subscriber, you have some leverage we non-subscribers don’t. But please ask the right question, so they can’t fob you off by praising the live channels, that do have subtitles.