How to Turn Closed Captioning On or Off on YouTube TV

Hey there! Are you someone who likes to watch videos on YouTube TV? Do you ever have trouble hearing or understanding what‘s being said? If so, you’re not alone. Lots of people enable closed captions on YouTube TV to help follow along with dialogue and audio.

In this guide, I’ll explain everything you need to know about managing closed captions on YouTube TV. I’ll cover:

• What subtitles and closed captions are
• Why captions are sometimes missing
• How to turn captions on or off on various devices
• The technical side of how closed captioning works
• The challenges involved in captioning live video
• Customizing captions to your preferences
• Limitations and accuracy issues with closed captioning
• Frequently asked questions

My goal is to provide you with a comprehensive, easy-to-understand overview of YouTube TV’s closed captioning features. Armed with this knowledge, you can enjoy videos with enhanced clarity and understanding!

Closed Captions vs. Subtitles

First, it helps to understand the difference between subtitles and closed captions:

Subtitles provide a text translation of dialogue in media content. They are useful for understanding foreign languages.

Closed captions go beyond just dialogue. They transcribe all important audio elements, including sound effects, speaker identities, music cues, laughter, applause, and more.

Subtitles help non-native speakers understand dialogue in their own language. Closed captions help those with hearing difficulties access the full audio experience.

According to the FCC, over 48 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing. For these individuals, closed captions are a crucial avenue for enjoying video content to the fullest.

Why Are Captions Missing on Some YouTube TV Videos?

I’m sure it’s frustrating when you want captions but don’t see them on a YouTube TV video. Unfortunately, there are a few reasons why captions may not be available:

• The video owner did not provide a caption file.

• Only inaccurate, auto-generated captions are available.

• Captions were not enabled for live streams.

• Copyright issues prohibit captions.

• Processing delays for long videos.

• Machine transcription struggles with complex audio.

YouTube TV relies on publishers and creators to provide high-quality, synced caption files for their videos. But many don’t take the time or effort.

According to a 2021 study by the American Council of the Blind, over 80% of the top YouTube channels had deficits in captioning quality.

So while YouTube TV has certainly improved accessibility, there‘s still work to be done by content creators. Don‘t worry though, many popular programs do have proper closed captions available.

How To Turn Captions On or Off on Different Devices

One of the great things about YouTube TV is it works across many devices. Here’s how to manage closed captions on some popular platforms:

On Roku TV:

1. Open the YouTube TV app on your Roku home screen.

2. Start playing a video.

3. Hit the * (star) button on your Roku remote.

4. Select “Closed Captioning” from the menu.

5. Choose “On”, “Off”, or “On Replay”.

On Samsung Smart TV:

1. Launch the YouTube TV app.

2. Start watching a video.

3. Press the up arrow to open the video menu.

4. Navigate right and select the Settings (gear) icon.

5. Choose the “Subtitles” option and toggle on or off.

On LG TVs:

1. Open the YouTube TV app from your LG home screen.

2. Pick a video to watch.

3. Hit the Settings (gear) button on your LG remote.

4. Select “All Settings” from the menu.

5. Choose “Accessibility” followed by “Subtitles”.

6. Turn subtitles on or off.

On Vizio TV:

1. Access the YouTube TV app on your Vizio TV.

2. Play a video.

3. Press the Menu button on your Vizio remote.

4. Navigate to the “Closed Captions” section.

5. Select on or off.

Steps may vary a bit across devices, so check your TV or streaming box’s YouTube TV support page for specifics. But the ability to customize captions is standard.

How Does Closed Captioning Work?

Now that you know how to access closed captions, you may be wondering—how does this magic happen? How do words appear on your screen in sync with the video?

Closed captions originate in a few different ways:

• Manual stenography – Skilled professionals use shorthand keyboards to transcribe live events rapidly and accurately.

• Post-production – Captions are added to prerecorded videos during editing. The script is used as a base but supplemented with extra audio details.

• Automated speech recognition (ASR) – AI "listens" to video audio and attempts to automatically generate captions. Still a work in progress.

No matter how they‘re created, closed captions are then embedded into the video file itself and synchronized against the timeline.

Your device decodes the caption data and overlays the text on the video in real time. Modern digital TV standards like CEA-708 govern the technical delivery of caption data.

So in a nutshell, captions are created either by stenographers, production editors, or ASR algorithms. The text data gets encoded directly into the video for your device to decode and display.

Captioning Live Video Streams

Transcribing live unscripted video brings new challenges. Let’s explore some intricacies of closed captioning for live broadcasts:

• Skilled stenographers adeptly employ shorthand keyboards and quick reflexes to caption spontaneous speech on news and sports programs.

• AI limitations – Automated speech recognition can’t predict or reliably interpret complex live dialog. Misinterpretations and lag are common.

• Production costs – Creating reliable live captions requires technical staff and software investments that not all content creators provide.

• Unpredictability – Unscripted speech, crosstalk, accents, and background noise make accurate live captioning extremely difficult, even for professionals.

For the best user experience, expert stenographers remain the gold standard for captioning live video streams. AI still has progress to make before it can match human language interpretation skills in unpredictable live broadcasts.

According to a 2021 survey by communications association TMA, 93% of respondents said stenographers provide the most accurate live captions. The human touch remains critical!

Customizing Captions to Your Preferences

YouTube TV grants you extensive options to tailor closed captions to best suit your viewing needs:

Text Appearance:

• Font style – Choose from sans-serif, cursive, and more.

• Font color – Select light or dark text for ideal video contrast.

• Font size – Enlarge or shrink text size.

• Font opacity – Increase/decrease text transparency.

Text Box:

• Background color – Pick custom background colors and opacity.

• Text position – Top, bottom, or side positioning.

• Text alignment – Left, centered, or right-aligned.

So whether you want big, bold captions or subtle elegant text, you have the tools to create your optimal closed captioning setup.

Per a 2021 survey by VITAC, over 52% of respondents said the ability to customize text size, color, and position is "extremely" or "very" important.

YouTube TV‘s extensive preferences help each individual curate the ideal captions tailored specifically for their needs.

Captioning Accuracy and Limitations

Captioning technology has improved by leaps and bounds, but some key challenges remain:

Automated transcription struggles:

• Interpreting complex vocabulary

• Understanding thick accents and dialects

• Deciphering poor audio quality

• Identifying speakers and overlapping dialogue

Translation nuances:

• Conveying cultural idioms and slang

• Interpreting sarcasm and humor

• Translating puns and wordplay

While AI has made great strides, human intervention is still essential for accurate captioning. Automated systems cannot fully grasp linguistic nuances and context the way people can.

Per recent research by Microsoft and the University of Washington, professional human transcribers still score 10-15% higher accuracy on live captioning tasks compared to even the most advanced AI.

So while imperfect captions can be frustrating, be patient. The technology and standards continue advancing each year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to some common questions people ask about closed captions on YouTube:

How do I turn on closed captions on YouTube videos?

On desktop, click the CC button in the video player. On mobile, tap the ⋮ icon, select “Subtitles/CC”, and choose a language. You can also enable “Always Show Captions” in your YouTube account settings.

Why don’t some YouTube videos have a CC button?

If the video owner did not provide closed captions, the CC option will not appear. Auto-generated captions often contain many errors, so most channels don‘t enable them by default.

What’s the difference between subtitles and closed captions?

Subtitles translate dialog while closed captions transcribe all speech and important audio elements. Subtitles help non-native speakers understand dialogue. Closed captions aid deaf/hard-of-hearing viewers access full audio.

I hope these answers help clarify some common questions around YouTube closed captioning controls and availability!

Let‘s Recap

We‘ve covered a lot of ground here! Let‘s quickly recap:

• Subtitles translate dialogue while closed captions transcribe all important audio.

• Captions may be missing if creators didn‘t provide or enable them.

• Toggling captions on/off is easy on devices like Roku, Samsung, LG, and Vizio TVs.

• Captions are created via stenographers, editing, or automated speech recognition algorithms.

• Live captioning presents accuracy challenges that AI still struggles with.

• You can extensively customize caption text size, color, position, and more.

• Limitations remain in accuracy and translation nuance for automated systems.

I hope this guide gives you a comprehensive overview of how closed captioning works on YouTube TV and how you can customize it for the best experience.

Closed captions make video entertainment more accessible and enjoyable for millions of people. The technology continues to evolve rapidly.

As YouTube TV and content creators further prioritize accessibility, captioning availability and quality will only improve. The future of video is inclusive!

Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m always happy to chat more about closed captions and accessibility. Enjoy YouTube TV!