# Jibberish in Closed Captions



## dmeyer (Aug 10, 2006)

I've noticed on a few channels the closed captioning seems to be corrupt. The text is duplicated.

For example here it is on TV Land (SD). The CC during Golden Girls is always jibberish/duplicating.

Edit: I'm noticing this on BBC America (SD) also... it only seems to happen on SD channels, not HD ones.

Signal levels are very good from Comcast... in the high 95-100% range.

I recently upgraded from a Tivo HD. I don't remember this happening on my older Tivo.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

There are different 'types' of closed captions that broadcasters can transmit...maybe try some of the alternative closed captioning protocols? You can select them in Settings.

Also, Signal Levels can corrupt the CC Signal embedded in the transmission. What are your Signal Levels like?

-KP


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## dmeyer (Aug 10, 2006)

The signal levels are very good, around 95%. The standard captions are CC1, CC2/3/4, the digital ones are DTVCC1, DTVCC2/3/4/5/6. Whenever I use anything other than the 1, there are no captions at all.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

Sometimes it can be _too_ much signal that corrupts it.

Do you have a DOCSIS Modem you can log in to to get accurate signal levels?

-KP


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

dmeyer said:


> Edit: I'm noticing this on BBC America (SD) also... it only seems to happen on SD channels, not HD ones.


You probably have an issue between analog and digital captions. It can happen on some systems (ie, your cable provider), and often surfaces on SD vs HD. I had this exact problem years ago, but fortunately, something Comcast Houston did (some upgrade?) cleared it up.

Go into the Caption settings (what kpeters59 was referring to), and see whether you are on analog or digital captions. Try flipping to the other. Then see if your problem goes away. There may be an additional setting (it's either right above or below the analog/digital option line; sorry, I'm not home now to look) that you need to play with also.

Hopefully, tweaking some of these settings will resolve the garbled captions.

Let us know back what happens. I'll be home tomorrow and can look further into what worked for me.


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## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

I used to get this a lot. My local Charter Spectrum headend used to corrupt captions badly, apparently as part of their recompression of video signals. They've mostly fixed it though and now only the occasional word is garbled.

If it is the cable company garbling the captions a complaint to the FCC may get it fixed quickly. The FCC takes captioning very seriously. Although you can't actually file a complaint until the government shutdown ends as the part of the FCC that deals with customer complaints is a classified as a non-essential service that doesn't stay open during shutdowns. Once the shutdown ends you can file a complaint here.


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## choco (Nov 3, 2000)

I had the same garbled CC problem on TNT HD a couple years ago. After reporting it to my cable company (Cox), they tried to tell me that it was a problem with my own equipment/Tivo. It was only after I personally verified with friends across town (both with and without Tivo) that the same or similar problems were happening that Cox looked into it and fixed it.

In general, I find it very painful to get Cox to fix anything that isn't reported by a ton of users. Currently, I have an issue where CW HD changes aspect ratio (between HD and non-HD) at random points during shows. After years of this, I finally reported it, but Cox won't do anything unless I can verify myself that it happens to others. We don't know anyone who really watches the CW, so I haven't been able to verify. It would be so easy for some local Cox technician to watch a local prime time CW show and see it happening for themselves (it happens with most shows), but I can't get past 1st level Cox support to contact anyone of consequence...


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## shenders (Aug 15, 2015)

I have the same problem with duplicated/interleaved closed captions on TV Land shows - that's the only channel I've noticed it on. I'm on Comcast too. Here's the strange part: the captions are corrupted when watching the shows on my Bolt, but they are fine on my Mini, which gets the data from the Bolt.


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## dmeyer (Aug 10, 2006)

Thanks for the replies everyone, I tried changing between CC1 and CC2 etc but that never helped. I will contact Comcast and report the issue to them and if they don't fix it I will contact the FCC if/when the government reopens.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

dmeyer said:


> I tried changing between CC1 and CC2 etc but that never helped


That's not it. You don't usually ever need to use CC2. I'm in front of my TiVo now, I can answer more completely...

Try toggling Standard Captions between 'None' and 'CC1'. Try toggling Digital Captions between 'None' and 'DTVCC1'. Do that for all four combinations. Leave everything else on Default.

For each of the four combinations, go back to the show causing problems, and see how it looks. It's important to try each possible combo, they interact in weird ways.


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