Forum Discussion
Subitles for Operas recorded from MEZZO channel
Hi, I'm hoping you can help with a recording issue on Optik/TV+.
We watch the MEZZO channel, which broadcasts operas, and some of these have English subtitles. When we set a recording, the subtitles are (sometimes? always?) missing from the recorded version, even when we've turned on Closed Captioning in the box's settings beforehand.
A few questions:
- Is MEZZO's subtitle track being transmitted as closed captioning (a selectable track) or as "open" subtitles burned into the picture? If it's a selectable track, does the box actually record that stream, or only decode it for live viewing?
- I've seen a number of posts on the TELUS community forum describing closed captions working on live TV but failing (partially or fully) on recorded playback through the set-top box, while working correctly when the same recording is viewed through the TV+ app or telustvplus.com. Is this a known issue, and is there a fix or workaround for viewing on the box itself? We want to watch on our TV, with our home theatre system.
- Is there a setting we're missing that would let us reliably capture subtitles when recording from MEZZO specifically? We have a “smart” LG TV that presumably has any setting we would need.
We'd really appreciate any help getting this working . Thank you.
2 Replies
This is all very helpful information. We did manage to find the closed captions on an opera we recorded recently from Mezzo. They were, however, in French only. Since Mezzo is in France, it seems plausible that when there are captions they will be in French, which will help us rather little. But we enjoy the concerts!
TELUS_SupportOfficial Support Team
Thanks for your post! This is indeed a known platform issue on TELUS TV+ / Optik digital boxes, with closed captioning being fine on live recordings...but failing to render or stay synced during PVR playback. MEZZO does use closed captions (selectable metadata tracks) rather than burned in subtitles. Our team is working on getting this resolved once and for all but for the interim, they do have suggested workarounds.
1. Try simply toggling the captions. Start the program, press the Options / Star (*) button on your remote, toggle Closed Captioning off, wait 5 seconds and toggle it back on. An alternative would be to toggle the audio language back and forth (i.e. from English to French and back). This forces the box to resync all secondary data streams (subtitles included).
2. If you're on older Optik hardware, you can try going to Menu --> Settings --> Television --> Closed Captioning. When there, turn Digital Closed Captioning off and Standard Closed Captioning on. This is known to work on our legacy equipment, not the new Android-based TELUS TV+ digital box.
3. Try using the TELUS TV+ app directly on your LG TV. Because the box app itself is where the PVR bug lives, the most reliable long-term workaround is to bypass it entirely. Check your LG TV's app store to see if the TELUS TV+ app is available natively. If your LG TV doesn't have it, running the TELUS TV+ app on an external device (like an Apple TV or Fire TV stick) connected to your home theater receiver will play the exact same PVR recordings with no subtitle bugs.
