Auto CC on Mute

Is there a way to get Closed Captioning to turn 'ON' automatically whenever I Mute my TV connected to a FiOS HD DVR, and turn 'OFF' CC when the TV is Un-Muted.

I am aware of the Manual CC function via the FiOS Remote Control, but that is a nuisance with excessive steps due to:

Step 1 - Mute the TV,

Step 2 - Press the FiOS Remote Control CC button once to access the CC function, (Initial CC button depression only shows CC status and does not change a thing.),

Step 3 - Then quickly depress the FiOS Remote Control CC buttons again to activate the CC function #1, (There are 6 CC selections and I am unsure of the differences.)

Now you have a muted TV with closed captions, whew!

Lets turn the sound back on:

Step 4 - Un-Mute the TV,

Step 5 - Press the FiOS Remote Control CC button once to access the CC function, (Remember, initial press changes nothing.)

Step 6 - Now, keep pressing the CC button on the FiOS Remote Control until you see 'OFF' displayed and stop there. (How many times you will have to press the CC button will depend on which of the six CC selections you had originally chosen because the CC button requires you to step through ALL selections in sequence from #1 through OFF.)

Well, we have successfully Muted-turned CC ON and Un-Muted-turned CC OFF utilizing 6 very aggravating steps.

I am also aware of the 'Setup' option for Closed Captions. However, that keeps CC on until you go back into Setup and turn it OFF.

As you can see, these are both not acceptable methods. The automatic CC on my TV's connected to the small Digital Adapters function properly. Press Mute and you automatically get CC. Un-Mute and CC is turn OFF. (Choice made in TV Setup.)

HELP, WHAT HAVE I MISSED AND IS MY REQUEST EVEN POSSIBLE?

Accepted answers

lacticacidtrip1

Good to know, PJL. I just did a google search and found an article that explains that HDMI does not carry CC to the TV, and that only the source (the STB) can enable CC. Which leads us back to the original problem. You would have to have a CC on Mute function built into the STB, and a remote control that could send the proper signal to the STB in order to get CC on Mute to function through an HDMI connection.

So Kriky, are you using an HDMI connection? If you are, then the answer to your original question is probably NO.

The following is a link to the article I found:

http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx#117

All comments

lacticacidtrip1

Hi Kriky,

The answer is, Probably Yes.

You've actually already solved your own problem, you just don't realize it yet. As you have already discovered with your Digital Adapters, CC on Mute is a TV setting, not an STB/DVR setting. You must go into your TV settings and find the CC on Mute setting for that TV. If your TV doesn't have this setting, then you cannot have CC on Mute. (In my personal case I had all of my TV's set to do this, but one of them stubbornly refused to actually work. While trouble-shooting your issue, I finally got it working.)

The reason why Verizon cannot offer CC on Mute through the STB/DVR is that the box doesn't know when your TV is muted and when it's not. While there is an audio setting to choose whether the box or the TV controls the volume, I've never found that changing this setting actually does anything at all. Therefore the box has no way of knowing whether or not your TV is muted or whether the mute button is being pressed to toggle the volume on or off. For Verizon to be able to control CC on Mute, they would have to program all their STB/DVR's to respond to a remote control signal to mute the volume in the box, not on the TV. Then they would have to program all their remotes to only send one unique mute signal to the box, not the various hundreds of signals that correspond to each TV.

I'm right there with you on the hassle of toggling through the multiple CC settings of the STB's. It has already been posted as an Idea to simplify this setting. Go here to add to this discussion or vote.

Hope this helps.

PJL

@lacticacidtrip wrote:
Hi Kriky,
The answer is, Probably Yes.
You've actually already solved your own problem, you just don't realize it yet. As you have already discovered with your Digital Adapters, CC on Mute is a TV setting, not an STB/DVR setting. You must go into your TV settings and find the CC on Mute setting for that TV. If your TV doesn't have this setting, then you cannot have CC on Mute. (In my personal case I had all of my TV's set to do this, but one of them stubbornly refused to actually work. While trouble-shooting your issue, I finally got it working.)
The reason why Verizon cannot offer CC on Mute through the STB/DVR is that the box doesn't know when your TV is muted and when it's not. While there is an audio setting to choose whether the box or the TV controls the volume, I've never found that changing this setting actually does anything at all. Therefore the box has no way of knowing whether or not your TV is muted or whether the mute button is being pressed to toggle the volume on or off. For Verizon to be able to control CC on Mute, they would have to program all their STB/DVR's to respond to a remote control signal to mute the volume in the box, not on the TV. Then they would have to program all their remotes to only send one unique mute signal to the box, not the various hundreds of signals that correspond to each TV.
I'm right there with you on the hassle of toggling through the multiple CC settings of the STB's. It has already been posted as an Idea to simplify this setting. Go here to add to this discussion or vote.
Hope this helps.

1) I do not believe the STB outputs a CC signal. I just tested this on my DVR with two TVs, one with an RF output connection and one with an HDMI connection. Even when CC was enabled on the TV, CC did not display on the TV.

2) The setting to control the STB audio output is under menu > setting > volume control > variable. In this mode you can raise or lower (to mute) the volume, albeit in a highly inconvenient manner. STB audio output can be muted using the proper remote (when set to "variable"), but apparently not by the ones provided with a FiOS STB, so there is a muting funtion in the STB. I discoverd that my Harmony remote can control the STB muting function (with the above setting), both for analog and digital output. Further, the FiOS Remote Control app for Android (this is an app that works like a remote control device using WiFi) will mute the volume. So it would be theoreticaly possible for Verizon to progam the STB to turn on CC when the volume is muted using the STB function even though their own remotes do not support muting the STB, or mute the STB when CC is enabled.

lacticacidtrip1

Interesting to know, PJL. A lot of stuff I was not aware of. I've always used FiOS remotes.

The boxes I have are models 2500 and 6416 (yeah, I know, the old stuff). I have hooked them up with coax, with composite, and with S-Video. I have gotten the CC on Mute to function in all three configurations on three different TV's (my fourth TV doesn't have the CC on Mute function). My TV's aren't modern enough to use component or HDMI. The one TV on which I was having trouble getting the CC on Mute function to work was previously connected through a manual switch box. Not sure if that was preventing the CC signal from getting through.

If the boxes can control the mute using the correct remote control, then it should not be too difficult for Verizon to add a CC on Mute function to the box. Of course then you would have to own/buy a remote or device capable of controlling the box's volume controls.

Not pretending to have all the answers. Just know what is working for me.

PJL

Correction to my prior post: CC is present on the analog (RF) signal, but not the HDMI output. <sorry for the error>