Closed caption not working through HDMI
 

I have a Toshiba 32HLC56 and I'm having a problem with the closed
caption. It simply won't work.

When I first installed it I didn't have an HDMI cable so I simply
connected it to my cable box through S-Video and composite audio,
which I did have at the time. The closed caption was working perfectly
on all channels (SD and HD).

A few days later I got the HDMI cable. Now I see everything perfectly
clear, all SD and HD channels look beautifully (excellent TV by the
way), BUT.... no closed caption. The TV has four CC receptions and
none of them work on any channel.

I know the cable box has nothing to do with it because, as I said, it
was working well before I used the HDMI connection.

I also know that many stations do not send CC with their HD
transmissions but that is also not the answer to my problem because if
that were true, then I should be receiving CC on non-HD channels at
the very least and I'm definetely not receiving it in those either.

Can anyone offer some advice?

Thanks!

Closed caption not working through HDMI
 

In article . com,
"AbsolutG" wrote:

I have a Toshiba 32HLC56 and I'm having a problem with the closed
caption. It simply won't work.

When I first installed it I didn't have an HDMI cable so I simply
connected it to my cable box through S-Video and composite audio,
which I did have at the time. The closed caption was working perfectly
on all channels (SD and HD).

A few days later I got the HDMI cable. Now I see everything perfectly
clear, all SD and HD channels look beautifully (excellent TV by the
way), BUT.... no closed caption. The TV has four CC receptions and
none of them work on any channel.

I know the cable box has nothing to do with it because, as I said, it
was working well before I used the HDMI connection.

I also know that many stations do not send CC with their HD
transmissions but that is also not the answer to my problem because if
that were true, then I should be receiving CC on non-HD channels at
the very least and I'm definetely not receiving it in those either.

Can anyone offer some advice?


Closed caption data is carried in the vertical blanking interval of the
TV signal. The HDMI cable passes only the extracted audio and video
components of the signal.

--
Tom Stiller

PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3
7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

Closed caption not working through HDMI
 

AbsolutG wrote:
I have a Toshiba 32HLC56 and I'm having a problem with the closed
caption. It simply won't work.

When I first installed it I didn't have an HDMI cable so I simply
connected it to my cable box through S-Video and composite audio,
which I did have at the time. The closed caption was working perfectly
on all channels (SD and HD).

A few days later I got the HDMI cable. Now I see everything perfectly
clear, all SD and HD channels look beautifully (excellent TV by the
way), BUT.... no closed caption. The TV has four CC receptions and
none of them work on any channel.

I know the cable box has nothing to do with it because, as I said, it
was working well before I used the HDMI connection.

I also know that many stations do not send CC with their HD
transmissions but that is also not the answer to my problem because if
that were true, then I should be receiving CC on non-HD channels at
the very least and I'm definetely not receiving it in those either.

Can anyone offer some advice?

Thanks!

Yes. For digital TV, the closed captions are generated by the
receiver/decoder which for you is the cable box. The closed captions are
embedded in the digital data, so the receiver has to decode them and add
them to the video picture. Turn on the closed captioning at the cable
box, not the TV. The TV closed captions were working for analog NTSC
signals sent via the S-Video path where the CC data is embedded in the
analog signal.

You don't say which cable box you have, but if it is a Motorola, you
have to turn the STB box and press menu on the remote or front panel.
This will bring up the setup menu which includes turning on or off
closed captions. With digital TV, you should also have a range of
options of how to display the captions - color, font, size, background
color (I have mine set to transparent so the CC don't cover so much of
the picture). For Motorola DVRs, there is a very useful wikibook entry
at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_...rola_DVR/Setup.

This is one of those areas where people get confused because digital
TV works differently than analog. You should also double check the
output of the cable box to be sure that it is sending out Native, 1080i
or 720p for HD channels and 480i or 480p for SD channels.

The amount of closed captioning for HD channels has improved a lot
over the past year. I used to get no captions for the local PBS station
(either OTA or via cable) or several local stations until I complained
to the station engineer. They had technical problems with the CC output
and did not even know it. Took a while with some stations, but most of
them finally fixed the problem.

HDNet and HDNet Movies have gone from no captions at all to captions
on most programing in the past year. UniversalHD had no captions at all
until January and still is very hit or miss on captioning for their
movies & programming. Most of the other national HD channels are pretty
good on captioning.

Do a google search for EIA-608 and the current EIA-708 caption
formats. There is a fairly technical entry at wikipedia on EIA-708.
These should at least give you an idea of captions work in the digital
TV world.

Good luck,
Alan F

Closed caption not working through HDMI
 

Just an addition to what Alan F wrote:

If you have a MOTOROLA STB running the "Passport" software, the Closed
Captioning can also be turned on/off from the HELP menu in the software.

Alan F wrote:
AbsolutG wrote:
I have a Toshiba 32HLC56 and I'm having a problem with the closed
caption. It simply won't work.

When I first installed it I didn't have an HDMI cable so I simply
connected it to my cable box through S-Video and composite audio,
which I did have at the time. The closed caption was working perfectly
on all channels (SD and HD).

A few days later I got the HDMI cable. Now I see everything perfectly
clear, all SD and HD channels look beautifully (excellent TV by the
way), BUT.... no closed caption. The TV has four CC receptions and
none of them work on any channel.

I know the cable box has nothing to do with it because, as I said, it
was working well before I used the HDMI connection.

I also know that many stations do not send CC with their HD
transmissions but that is also not the answer to my problem because if
that were true, then I should be receiving CC on non-HD channels at
the very least and I'm definetely not receiving it in those either.

Can anyone offer some advice?

Thanks!

Yes. For digital TV, the closed captions are generated by the
receiver/decoder which for you is the cable box. The closed captions are
embedded in the digital data, so the receiver has to decode them and add
them to the video picture. Turn on the closed captioning at the cable
box, not the TV. The TV closed captions were working for analog NTSC
signals sent via the S-Video path where the CC data is embedded in the
analog signal.

You don't say which cable box you have, but if it is a Motorola, you
have to turn the STB box and press menu on the remote or front panel.
This will bring up the setup menu which includes turning on or off
closed captions. With digital TV, you should also have a range of
options of how to display the captions - color, font, size, background
color (I have mine set to transparent so the CC don't cover so much of
the picture). For Motorola DVRs, there is a very useful wikibook entry
at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_...rola_DVR/Setup.

This is one of those areas where people get confused because digital
TV works differently than analog. You should also double check the
output of the cable box to be sure that it is sending out Native, 1080i
or 720p for HD channels and 480i or 480p for SD channels.

The amount of closed captioning for HD channels has improved a lot
over the past year. I used to get no captions for the local PBS station
(either OTA or via cable) or several local stations until I complained
to the station engineer. They had technical problems with the CC output
and did not even know it. Took a while with some stations, but most of
them finally fixed the problem.

HDNet and HDNet Movies have gone from no captions at all to captions
on most programing in the past year. UniversalHD had no captions at all
until January and still is very hit or miss on captioning for their
movies & programming. Most of the other national HD channels are pretty
good on captioning.

Do a google search for EIA-608 and the current EIA-708 caption
formats. There is a fairly technical entry at wikipedia on EIA-708.
These should at least give you an idea of captions work in the digital
TV world.

Good luck,
Alan F

Closed caption not working through HDMI
 

I do have the Motorola DVR from Comcast and already tried turning on
the CC functionality. It does work on all channels but this is not
what I wanted. I simply wanted the CC functionality from the TV, like
when its on mute, it turns on and when the volume is on, the CC turns
off, etc... this functionality is not possible if I enable it in the
DVR, not to mention that it's very annoying to have to turn off the
DVR in order to change this and then turn it back on.

wbertram, can you give me more info on this Passport software? I never
heard about it before and I'd be willing to sacrifice the TV's CC for
the DVR's if I could just turn it on or off from withing the actual
DVR interface instead of having to do it with the DVR off.

Thanks!

Closed caption not working through HDMI
 

The cable companies can choose to provide either TVGuide software or
Passport software to the STBs. You can only get the Passport software
if that is what the cable company provides.

AbsolutG wrote:
I do have the Motorola DVR from Comcast and already tried turning on
the CC functionality. It does work on all channels but this is not
what I wanted. I simply wanted the CC functionality from the TV, like
when its on mute, it turns on and when the volume is on, the CC turns
off, etc... this functionality is not possible if I enable it in the
DVR, not to mention that it's very annoying to have to turn off the
DVR in order to change this and then turn it back on.

wbertram, can you give me more info on this Passport software? I never
heard about it before and I'd be willing to sacrifice the TV's CC for
the DVR's if I could just turn it on or off from withing the actual
DVR interface instead of having to do it with the DVR off.

Thanks!