{"id":48572,"date":"2025-07-22T15:15:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T19:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=48572"},"modified":"2025-07-28T11:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T15:01:13","slug":"apple-tv-captions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/22\/apple-tv-captions\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple TV Captions"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Gruber<\/a> (2024, Mastodon<\/a>):<\/p>\n

This made me think there has to be a better way to toggle captions than manually swiping and clicking on the Apple TV remote touchpad.<\/p>

Turns out there are two better ways:<\/p>

  1. If you use the Control Center Apple TV remote control on your iPhone, there’s a dedicated “CC” button<\/a>.<\/p><\/li>

  2. In tvOS, go to Settings → Accessibility → Accessibility Shortcut, and set it to “Closed Captions”. Now you can just triple-click the Menu\/Back button on the remote to toggle captions. (On older Apple TV remotes, the button is labelled “Menu”; on the new remote<\/a>, it’s labelled with a “<”.)<\/p><\/li><\/ol>\n

    […]<\/p>\n

    You can also toggle captions using Siri on the remote: “Turn on captions” or “Turn off captions” (or use the word “subtitles”). And the coolest feature: “What did he\/she\/they just say?”, which rewinds 15 seconds and temporarily<\/em> turns on captions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

    I meant to post this at the time. In the interim, Apple added a feature in tvOS 18 where pressing Back<\/a> will automatically show subtitles until you return to the original play position.<\/p>\n\n

    Juli Clover<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n

    Netflix today announced<\/a> that it is introducing a new subtitle option that only shows subtitles for spoken dialogue, aimed at those who don't need captions, but prefer to watch movies and TV shows with the subtitles turned on.<\/p>\n

    According to Netflix, nearly half of all viewing hours on the streaming service in the U.S. happen with the subtitles or captions on, which is why it is debuting the new setting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

    Some of this is probably for accessibility reasons or because of situations where you can’t turn on the audio. But, also, it seems like newer movies and shows are not mixed well.<\/p>\n\n

    Samuel Axon<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    Traditional closed captions are still available, of course. Those are labeled “English CC” whereas this new option is simply labeled “English” (or whatever your preferred language is).<\/p>

    […]<\/p>

    The performance style of actors in current TV shows and movies is more naturalistic and less elocutive than it once was, so characters are more likely to speak softly. Streaming services compress the audio more vigorously than is common in physical media, which can cause problems with intelligibility.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

    I’m not sure I buy this compression explanation. How much bandwidth could they be saving on audio compared with what the video’s using?<\/p>\n\n\n

    thaddeus<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n

    And it would be amazing if they better aligned text appearing to when lines are delivered. I'm kind of annoyed when my reading is ahead of what's happening in the scene. 😬<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

    Previously:<\/p>\n