Closed Caption issues, possible solution

[tlb7]

I tried FiOSTV for the first time back in 2009 and the closed caption display quality (because of my hearing loss, I need closed captions to make programming accessible) was so bad (pixelizaton, misproportioned text boxes, text runs together, none of the digital font style options really worked or resolved the problems) that I cancelled FiOSTV and went back to Comcast (oh ugh! '-}}). I kept FiOS broadband and phone.

Recently, after yet another Comcast subscription increase, I decided to look into getting FiOSTV again. My sister lives nearby and has FiOSTV (using a Motorola QIP-7100-P1 stb) so I was able to check out things on her system and the news wasn't good--pretty much the same issues I found in 2009 and I discovered that the Motorola digital closed caption options "CC2" through "CC6" did not display closed captions (only digital closed caption option "CC1" display captions and as I noted, the display quality was very, very poor). I also touched base with the Verizon Direct forum at dslreports.com and the suggestion was to take a look at TiVo. While the closed caption display and options are better when using a TiVo, getting one turned out to be not all that practical approach for me because I'm not interested at all in dvr'ing anything.

I decided to go ahead with the FiOSTV install because I figured out a workable workaround for when the Motorola closed caption display got too aggravating (basically, switching my tv's Input from "Component" to "TV" which has a slightly softer image display but watchable) so I could use the tv-based closed captions rather than the stb's closed captions--you need to connect the TV's coax port to the stb's RF coax port via a coax cable to be able to set the tv's Input to "TV".

The FiOS TV installation was done on Monday (6/3) and it's very exciting because rather than the Motorola QIP-7100-P1 stb that I'd been expecting to be installed, the installer had a Cisco CHS335HDC stb.

Once the stb was setup/provisioned/approved, using the remote, I pressed Menu > Settings > Accessibility > Closed Captions and rather than chosing digital closed caption option "CC1", I decided to see if maybe, just maybe digital closed caption option "CC3" (what I use on my Comcast stb) would display captions (digital closed caption options "CC2" - "CC6" do NOT display captions on the Motorola stb's) and...digitial closed caption option "CC3" displays captions (in later testing I found that options "CC4", "CC5" and "CC6" also display closed captions--"CC2" is generally reserved for Spanish language closed captions) and those captions are smooth, clear and readable just like the captions had displayed on my Comcast stb. Even the display quality of digital closed caption option "CC1" is not bad--not as good as "CC3" (through "CC6) but better than the display quality of digital closed caption option "CC1" on the Motorola QIP-7100-P1 stb.

So, if you need closed captions, if you have a Motorola stb and you aren't happy with the display quality of the digital closed captions, try using a Cisco CHS335HDC--I suspect that all Cisco HD stb's would work the same way as the CHS335HDC.

NOTE: I'm using component cables rather than HDMI so I don't know if what I'm seeing holds true for HDMI.

Hope this proves useful...

[ElizabethS]

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[tlb7]

Thanks...got them and replied...'-}}