Making Subtitles Permanent

[RoyB]

I’ve just bought a Stick today, so I can get subtitles, as the NowTV App on my TV doesn’t support them.

And I can get subtitles just fine now, on an individual episode, e.g. True Detective on my Entertainment Pass, but when I go to the next episode, I have to set them again.

The Help says I can turn them on permanently in the Subtitles option of my Main Menu, but there is no Subtitles option there (see screenshot). Captions is the nearest thing, but this doesn’t work to do what I want.

i have just been on Chat, twice, but it seems very hard to make them understand the above issue; they keep telling me how to get subtitles (which I can perfectly well do, episode by episode) but not how to make it permanent so we always get subtitles, for programmes that have them, without having to set this episode by episode. And both chat sessions timed out before we got anywhere, and the first agents attempt to email me went nowhere.

An oddity I have noticed, if oddity it be, and if it is relevant, is that System Info/NOW TV account says ‘Not available’ - is that usual?

But otherwise, is my Main Menu wrong, or am I looking in the wrong place, or is the Help wrong about there being a Subtitles option in the Main Menu, or what?

[RoyB]

Hi @RokuSky 

Just testing at this moment. Now app on Roku Express 4K, plugged into an LG GX TV.

Pressed * on the Now channel. Version 8.2 build 0. Did Check for updates - stayed 8.2.0

Roku Settings/Accessibility/Subtitles mode/On always (I see it doesn’t talk about Closed Captions any more)

Subtitles preferred language/English

Please nobody tell me that Subtitles style will make any difference here (though as we found recently, on mobiles it does 😢), but all are Default.

Started White Lotus, my go-to test programme. Came up with subtitles! Hooray.

BUT: I turned the subtitles Off, as a further test. They went Off, but this toggled the central Roku Subtitles mode to Off. That’s wrong in my book, the tail wagging the dog.

Anyway, certainly progress, if not yet quite right.

[commanda6]

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@RoyB wrote:

BUT: I turned the subtitles Off, as a further test. They went Off, but this toggled the central Roku Subtitles mode to Off. That’s wrong in my book, the tail wagging the dog.

Anyway, certainly progress, if not yet quite right.

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Actually @RoyB although you may not like it. It is in line with the standard way subtitles/captions work in Roku OS . In most apps users would have to press the * key when playing back content in order to bring up an extra submenu in order to be able to enable/disable subtitles in apps. 

Most developers don't make this obvious because they don't put any indication on their playback UI. At least Now tries to make subtitle functionality more obvious by making it part of their playback UI, but the functionality on the playback UI links to the global on Roku OS. We just have to hope that Roku themselves don't make any more 'subtle' changes to the core subtitle functionality as they have done in the past few major OS versions. Otherwise, something will probably break again.

[RoyB]

Thanks, @commanda6 

I can get the * menu up in the Now app on my Roku Express 4K with the Roku remote, and see the Roku global Subtitles setting there, and change it if I wish.

But although my LG TV Magic Remote can emulate most buttons on the Roku remote, it can’t emulate *. So it’s good, up to a point, that Now offer what you are saying is a route to the Roku global Subtitles setting without needing *

But have a look at the BBC iPlayer on Roku. That can perfectly well provide local subtitles of its own, and actively declines to obey the Global setting, and indeed doesn’t present it as an option in its * menu.

That is what I was looking for the Now subtitles arrangements to be more like,

[commanda6]

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@RoyB wrote:

Thanks, @commanda6 

But have a look at the BBC iPlayer on Roku. That can perfectly well provide local subtitles of its own, and actively declines to obey the Global setting, and indeed doesn’t present it as an option in its * menu.

That is what I was looking for the Now subtitles arrangements to be more like,

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it's not that it can't be done @RoyB but it would take a lot more work in order do it. The easiest way to implement subtitles on roku is to have an app use the inbuilt system functionality for subtitles/captions. doing this also gives the end user access to all the subtitle customisation options that Roku OS provides. This means subtitle signing can be altered to suit the users needs.  This is functionality that would likely be lost if now were to implement if their own bespoke subtitle implementation on roku/now hardware as you suggest. So I would not recommend that now goes down this path.

the only two applications on Roku that I know of that have their own bespoke subtitle implementation. Don't use the Roku system functionality of BBC iPlayer and Netflix. the Netflix subtitle implementation is just as good as Roku's own as it also provides users with a lot of customisation options for subtitles. The BBC's implementation needs improvement, and at present, it would be better if they switched to using the Roku system functionality for subtitles/Captions

[RoyB]

@RokuSky 

Next test, Now app on the LG GX TV. Checked up to date, 8.7.2  (6.1.0)

Subtitles, set in the app, now persists in the app as you move from programme to programme.

So that’s an improvement.

But the setting does not survive exiting the app and then re-entering it. So not persistent as I would define it; the app can remember exactly where you were in any number of programmes, but it apparently can’t remember the single app-wide subtitles setting, which is always back to Off when you re-enter.

It also doesn’t use the LG TV’s own Subtitles setting, though I prefer it that way. Subtitles on the app should ideally be settable to On, Off, or Default to System Setting (where there is one).

And shouldn’t be able to toggle the System setting, like the Roku Now app can.

(Actually, I had some issues this morning with our LG Nano TV, where exiting and re-entering a programme would resume from the last place I entered the programme, instead of the last place I exited it; but now I come to qualify this better, I can’t reproduce it again. Something for me to look out for in the future).

[RokuSky]

I can only comment for the app running on Roku (or NOW TV) hardware. There the captions setting is system wide and when an app changes it, the change is reflected across the whole device. As @commanda6 says, this is how Roku have defined the behaviour on their plataform.

[RoyB]

@commanda6 

I can see how buying in to the Roku subtitles functionality could be a great development saving for app writers, and it’s likely that if somebody wants subtitles, they will want them presented the same way on every app running on that Roku device.

But I turned Roku subtitles off when they appeared in Countdown, after I had turned them on for Now, because everybody speaks clearly on Countdown, and the subtitles obscure the row of letters that is central to each round.

The solution, I think, is pretty simple, and it’s a shame Roku haven’t implemented it; just have each app have a possible setting to say it it wants to use the Roku subtitles or not, Always, As Set Centrally, Never.

Absence of the setting would be taken to be As Set Centrally, for backward compatibility with how things are now.

Apps that wanted to use the setting could choose if they exposed it in the UI to let the user choose, or set it for themselves; e.g. the BBC iPlayer could set ‘Never’ internally, to get the Roku subtitle functionality out of the way and provide its own.

I can think of a couple of other equally simple ways to provide more flexibility here, but I think the above would be the best.