# What do the A B C D remote buttons do?



## dalesd (Aug 2, 2001)

Ok, I know what D does, but what about the others? 

(I searched, but couldn't find anything. Searching for A B C D wasn't effective.)


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Various features depending on what menu you are in.
Pressing and holding A is a toggle for screen reader.
Pressing and holding B is toggle for CC. for example.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

And pressing and holding C will switch the audio channel, including audio descriptions.


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## rgrounds (Jun 15, 2004)

D is the most used in my house. Most programs are now tagged with commercial breaks and you press the green D key to skip the whole commercial segment. 
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Oops. I didn't read your complete post just the subject line. My comment is useless to you.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

The guides can be helpful, at least for features that have been around long enough to be documented.

Start Here and Viewer's Guide​


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

rgrounds said:


> D is the most used in my house. Most programs are now tagged with commercial breaks and you press the green D key to skip the whole commercial segment.


FYI... The Channel Up & Down buttons are also handy for navigating the SkipMode markers.


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## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

The A/B/C buttons are used in several menus for various things. (e.g., changing the sort order in My Shows or changing what is listed in the History) In those cases the use is shown on screen.

When watching Live TV (on certain cable systems) the D button can be used to switch from an SD channel to the corresponding HD channel.


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## sar840t2 (Mar 1, 2003)

Mikeguy said:


> And pressing and holding C will switch the audio channel, including audio descriptions.


Aha! So that's why they didn't use the "logical" choice for CC - button C - it's already assigned to some other action that begins with 'c'.

Although 'A' would have worked for audio channel too


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

sar840t2 said:


> Aha! So that's why they didn't use the "logical" choice for CC - button C - it's already assigned to some other action that begins with 'c'.
> 
> Although 'A' would have worked for audio channel too


Yep--TiVo typically seems to pick up on the button assignments, but missed that entirely with the A-B-C-D buttons--maybe the staff person who tends to notice these things was gone that week?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Mikeguy said:


> Yep--TiVo typically seems to pick up on the button assignments, but missed that entirely with the A-B-C-D buttons--maybe the staff person who tends to notice these things was gone that week?


Perhaps the definitions were lost in translation?


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

JoeKustra said:


> Perhaps the definitions were lost in translation?


Maybe we need to have a contest and develop our own TCF mnemonics for the buttons that TiVo assigned. 

A (screen reader) =
B (closed captions) =
C (audio descriptions/audio track) =
D (SkipMode/HD) =


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

Why does it have to be press *& hold*? That's very unintuitive and hit-or-miss for me, especially with closed captions. There's just no feedback that I've held it long enough. (There may be some time passed before the next CC text appears if nobody's talking at the time, so that's not a timely feedback.) A beep would be nice to let me know I've leaned on the button long enough. I've abandoned the B button for the old Right-Down-Select-Left, because it's actually faster and more certain for me. I would much prefer a quick hit of the B button to toggle closed captions!


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Schmye Bubbula said:


> Why does it have to be press *& hold*? That's very unintuitive and hit-or-miss for me, especially with closed captions. There's just no feedback that I've held it long enough. (There may be some time passed before the next CC text appears if nobody's talking at the time, so that's not a timely feedback.) *A beep would be nice to let me know I've leaned on the button long enough*. I've abandoned the B button for the old Right-Down-Select-Left, because it's actually faster and more certain for me. I would much prefer a quick hit of the B button to toggle closed captions!


I actually do get a ping sound once the button has been held down long enough, for the B (CC) and C (audio) buttons, and a voice confirmation for the A (screen reader) button. Are your TiVo sound effects on, and is your sound set to PCM and not Dolby?


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

^ Ah, that's it! No, I've always had my Sound Effects Volume turned-off. OK... but what's the rationale for the press *& hold,* anyway? Why not just a straight press of the button?


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Schmye Bubbula said:


> ^ Ah, that's it! No, I've always had my Sound Effects Volume turned-off. OK... but what's the rationale for the press *& hold,* anyway? Why not just a straight press of the button?


I've wondered that as well. Could it be that on some screens, the alpha. buttons are used for other purposes, and so this is a way that the access buttons universally can be accessed everywhere? Such as, to turn the screen reader on while on the My Shows screen, where a regular press of the A button otherwise provides My Show screen options?


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Mikeguy said:


> I actually do get a ping sound once the button has been held down long enough, for the B (CC) and C (audio) buttons, and a voice confirmation for the A (screen reader) button. Are your TiVo sound effects on, and is your sound set to PCM and not Dolby?


Oh the irony...

So for those of us who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, the way it lets us know it's toggled is... a sound.

Agree it should just be instant.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

astrohip said:


> Oh the irony...
> 
> So for those of us who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, the way it lets us know it's toggled is... a sound.


 That hadn't hit me.

Well, they got the screen reader (A button) right: a voice tells you that it is on or off, rather than there simply being a non-descriptive ping. Would have made sense, for CC, for a CC banner to appear.


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## Evan44 (May 16, 2017)

Logic would dictate that the C button be the Closed Captioning button-- with a single press!

It would also be good if there were a way to change the settings for CC *while* watching a show to see what it actually looks like. Now, there's far too much back and forthing to get it right!


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

I'd like the CC to stay on the screen during a pause, when the dialog is fast and one pauses to read the text.


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

(Slightly off-topic,) My Roamio crops-out the right half or so of the captions when they appear near the right side of the screen. Anyone else?


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Schmye Bubbula said:


> (Slightly off-topic,) My Roamio crops-out the right half or so of the captions when they appear near the right side of the screen. Anyone else?


No, captions fit cleanly on the screen.

Are your perhaps larger than normal?


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

^ No, they're all set to Defaults. And I just now changed the Text Size to Small, and the text still cuts-off on the right when the source captioning service moves them to the right of the screen to get them out of the way of something in the scene.
(And it strikes me as incompetent that they wouldn't be programmed to not crop, even if the Text Size is set large!)


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Check your TV, Is the aspect set to anything like ZOOM?


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

^ No, of course not. (Not in an annoyed tone of voice; with all the controls on modern TVs, it's actually a good troubleshooting point.)


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

I just noticed that when the right side of captions get cropped, they're cut-off where the right edge of a pillarboxed 4:3-fit-to-16:9 would be. Sheer coincidence? (Probably nothing, because then why wouldn't the left sides of captions similarly get cropped when they venture to the left side?)


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Schmye Bubbula said:


> I just noticed that when the right side of captions get cropped, they're cut-off where the right edge of a pillarboxed 4:3-fit-to-16:9 would be. Sheer coincidence? (Probably nothing, because then why wouldn't the left sides of captions similarly get cropped when they venture to the left side?)


In that case, is the TV and/or Tivo set to 4:3 when both should be 16:9?


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

^ Certainly not. If you think about it, if either were, then, to repeat, why wouldn't the left sides of captions similarly get cropped when they venture to the left side?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Just to make sure no one else set on 4:3. 

Captions is a function of the TV decoding them from the signals. So its best to check the settings thoroughly, just in case.

Captions does show up either on the left or right side, and on top or bottom. 

My TV when set to 4:3 will chop off the 2 sides, no matter if there is anything there or not.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Schmye Bubbula said:


> I just noticed that when the right side of captions get cropped, they're cut-off where the right edge of a pillarboxed 4:3-fit-to-16:9 would be. Sheer coincidence? (Probably nothing, because then why wouldn't the left sides of captions similarly get cropped when they venture to the left side?)


Could you take a pic and post it? I've always followed caption issues diligently, as I use them 100% of the time. And now you got me curious what this could be.


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

^ Sorry, not in a position to post a pic, but I really don't know how to describe it more plainly: the sentences & their black backgrounds are chopped off in the middle of a sentence on the right side, and the underlying scene continues rightward. It only happens when, in *ThAbtO's* words, captions show up on the right side.... It even did it with this Roamio connected to my previous old CRT TV at 4:3 letterboxed.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

It doesn't get chopped off when I had Roamio set to 4:3, and Panasonic TV to 16:9. but it does cut off when TV set to 4:3.


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## Schmye Bubbula (Oct 14, 2004)

I've been giving this some thought, and leaving my captions on the past couple of days to observe more closely, and I'm seeing many instances of cations popping up on the right side of the screen that don't crop their rightmost text. My working hypothesis right now is that maybe I've been seeing this occur only on certain channels, or possibly only during recordings made when the weather is bad, when reception gets flaky & pixellation occurs. (I only record over-the-air with my DB-8 antenna.) I think I've ruled-out bad weather messing with the captions encoded in the broadcast, so now I'm thinking that it may be occurring only on certain channels. I specifically recall Supernatural on The CW, and now I'll be on the lookout for other shows there, and for isolation to any other channels. It may be that what's in common is the captions service used by particular shows, and that service has bad captioning equipment.... I now don't think my Roamio is causing this.... Any other thoughts in light of all this from our resident captions special interest expert, *astrohip?*


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Schmye Bubbula said:


> I've been giving this some thought, and leaving my captions on the past couple of days to observe more closely, and I'm seeing many instances of cations popping up on the right side of the screen that don't crop their rightmost text. My working hypothesis right now is that maybe I've been seeing this occur only on certain channels, or possibly only during recordings made when the weather is bad, when reception gets flaky & pixellation occurs. (I only record over-the-air with my DB-8 antenna.) I think I've ruled-out bad weather messing with the captions encoded in the broadcast, so now I'm thinking that it may be occurring only on certain channels. I specifically recall Supernatural on The CW, and now I'll be on the lookout for other shows there, and for isolation to any other channels. It may be that what's in common is the captions service used by particular shows, and that service has bad captioning equipment.... I now don't think my Roamio is causing this.... Any other thoughts in light of all this from our resident captions special interest expert, *astrohip?*


Deep thoughts, now that you ask...

I have an OTA Roamio also (and a cable one, and a DirecTV Genie, but I digress). It's been a while, but there have been times where the captions were screwed up (scrambled, weird characters, etc) for no discernible reason. A reboot fixed it. This hasn't happened on the TiVos in a while, but happens on the Genie about every 2-3 months.

Also, there have been channels that have bad captions. For a while, Fox captions were delayed 2-3 seconds. Sometimes analog captions are messed up, sometimes digital ones act funny. Switching between them can help. The major channels have almost no issues any more, on digi-capts. Some of the minor ones need to have analog turned on to display properly.

But I've never had a centering problem. Bad characters, delays, weird screen placement (but still visible), etc. But I haven't seen captions scroll off the edge. Ever.

FWIW, all my TVs are std HD TVs, 16:9, with panel displays, no zoom, no full. And I don't watch SD. I can't recall a single SD show I watch any more.

You might try going to the caption settings, and play around. Flip between analog & digital, and see if the problem persists. Try changing other settings to see if they have any affect.


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