Non-motoring > AppleTV subtitles Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Ambo Replies: 14
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New Thu 29 May 14 20:02 
 AppleTV subtitles - Ambo
My son has lent me his AppleTV while he goes on holiday. I began with the American House of Cards on Netflix and was horrified to find there was no subtitle facility, since the device would be useless to me without. I worked through all the settings and got a brief flash of a "Subtitles" box, clicked on it and it disappeared at once. I couldn't find it again.

Could somebody please tell me the correct procedure?
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New Thu 29 May 14 20:29 
 AppleTV subtitles - Slidingpillar
Does this help?

support.apple.com/kb/HT5877

Generally the Americans are pretty good with subtitles, but refer to the ones you want as closed captions. Technically quite correct but the term is not much used in the UK.
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New Sat 31 May 14 09:46 
 AppleTV subtitles - Ambo
Thanks for the lead but a Settings facility was the first thing I looked for when in difficulty and it was and is nowhere to be found. I will ask my son if he knows although he doesn't need subtitles. Maybe they are only available in other countries. I'm glad I didn't buy one of these on spec!

Maybe I will wait till Amazon's own version appears here. It was launched in the USA a month or so back. It's own Lovefilm catalogue is in any case supposed to be better than Netflix's.
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New Sat 31 May 14 09:59 
 AppleTV subtitles - Crankcase
Might need updating. You can set it to auto update or do it manually. If it's not set to auto you can force it.

All those settings are in the menu on the far right.
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New Sat 31 May 14 12:58 
 AppleTV subtitles - rtj70
>> It's own Lovefilm catalogue is in any case supposed to be better than Netflix's.

Lovefilm might have more movies than Netflix, but most of those will be DVDs or Bluray disks. Their on-demand service, now called Amazon Prime Instant Video is not as extensive as Netflix. I tried the Prime Instance Video as a freebie trial with Amazon Prime for a month. I thought Netflix had more online stuff to watch.
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New Sun 8 Jun 14 11:54 
 AppleTV subtitles - Ambo
Got them at last. No pages appear answering to description/illustration quoted, come what may, but start a programme, navigate up and there is a very tiny sign for them, invisible from by usual viewing distance. Click OK on that and the subtitles appear and are carried on throughout a series - currently the American "House of Cards".
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New Sun 8 Jun 14 12:54 
 AppleTV subtitles - Crankcase
Once you have subtitles on in Netflix it remembers you, rather than the programme.

So where available, you will get subtitles now on anything you watch from them, and it even carries over between devices. For me that means on a Pc, the iPhone in the car sometimes while waiting about, an ipad or via the Appletv, wherever I am, I get subtitles all the time(unless I want to turn them off, which I usually don't).

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New Sun 8 Jun 14 13:50 
 AppleTV subtitles - Ambo
Excellent.
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New Fri 20 Jun 14 11:10 
 AppleTV subtitles - Ambo
Actually, a bit short of excellent.

>>Got them at last.

Only works for American programmes. For British ones the necessary handle, including "English SDH", is missing from the screen.

Maybe it is necessary to download AppleTV software to find the solution? I have tried but keeping being invited to open an iTunes account, which I don't want. Or maybe that is the way to pay for Netflix when the first free month runs out? For the time being, Netflix has accepted my email address and new password.
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New Fri 20 Jun 14 11:15 
 AppleTV subtitles - Crankcase
Not sure how you're approaching this. I can only tell you what works for me.

You pay for Netflix at the Netflix site via a PC. Nothing to do with iTunes.

For me, if I use my PC to start streaming a Netflix movie and turn on subtitles, then I get subtitles everywhere on every device, and for everything so far I've watched.

If I turn them off on a PC it turns off everywhere. Maybe the key is using the PC just for the on/off, as I think it must be storing your subtitle preferences in your account details.

Edit: I guess it's certainly possible that not ALL Netflix presentations have subtitles - perhaps I've been lucky and you haven't. Give me an example and I'll see what it does for me.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 20 Jun 14 at 11:17
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New Fri 20 Jun 14 13:55 
 AppleTV subtitles - Ambo
Thanks, Crankcase. I will try via PC. The main American programmes I have tried that hold the subtitles are House of Cards and Breaking Bad. I have sampled others successfully but can't recall which.
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New Fri 20 Jun 14 14:16 
 AppleTV subtitles - Crankcase
Just tried HOC on my iPhone, and subtitles appeared. Couldn't bear to try BB.

Will try the same later on AppleTV.
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New Sat 21 Jun 14 22:50 
 AppleTV subtitles - rtj70
Just done a test with the Netflix app on Android and via a web browser on my Mac.

Turning on subtitles on the Mac (and I assume any OS/browser combination) is via the CC icon.... This did not turn it on for the Android app. There's an icon in that app to turn it on. I assume it must be similar for the AppleTV.

Note it seems you have to turn on subtitles each time - maybe there's a setting that makes this option an automatic/permanent choice? Even going back to the same programme on the same device seems to need it re-selecting.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sat 21 Jun 14 at 22:54
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New Sun 22 Jun 14 07:03 
 AppleTV subtitles - Crankcase
Turns out my appletv won't access Netflix at all at the minute. So that's a different problem to sort.

However, fired up the PS3 and on that, once again, subtitles just appeared.

Whilst trying to sort the issue I went onto the Netflix site in a Web browser (on an ipad but makes no odds) and was poking around in the actual account settings. There's a tick box in there for subtitles, which was set, so that explains how I get it everywhere.

Last edited by: Crankcase on Sun 22 Jun 14 at 07:04
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New Tue 24 Jun 14 10:58 
 AppleTV subtitles - Ambo
There is a section of the Netflix site which shows the procedure, as also shown by connecting to the link given by Slidingpilar above. The problem is that it says AppleTV must be enabled first. At the moment there is no way that I can get to the display shown in the link, with its Settings section. Must I install AppleTV software to begin? There are no reference numbers on the device itself so presumably the software could pick up what it needs, but how to start?

As I said, the "English SHD" facility is available for American material and it works, but not for British material.
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