I love the Channels app but I wish there was a quicker way to get the closed captions on. Right now when we are watching a channel using the Apple TV 4 we need to swipe down, go to language and then select cc (or subtitles) and then swipe up again. Maybe a simple click in one of the buttons of the Apple TV remote? Maybe as an alternative of "shaking the remote to mute" in settings ? I am sure you can figure out a better way to do this. Thank you so much for this awesome app!
Do you often turn CC on and off? Once you turn it on it should stay on indefinitely.
I agree a toggle would be nice. We like captions for some content, not others. Live sports is an example that I don’t want captions on. But almost anything else we do. So I’d guess I turn them off and back on a few times a week on average.
One way to do this elegantly might be to add another section at the bottom of the pull down menu that is labeled as captions on/off. As soon as it is selected the captions toggle and the menu vanishes. That would mean three clicks or swipes down would immediately toggle captions and go back to the content.
My wife and I may toggle CC 3, 4, a half-dozen times a day, depending on what we watch.
This reply is not intended as an answer, but if you find yourself wanting to simplify more 'involved' menu choices, look into whatever is the cheapest Harmony remote. They work quite well with the Apple TV 4/4K, and allows creating sequences of multiple actions that can be applied to a single button.
Many remotes have macro capability. Problem is: Toggling CC on/off is a variable sequence, depending upon whether it's live or recorded.
I simply created two sequences and mapped them to two of the generic buttons on my remote. Again, it's not an answer to your original request, but a decent work around to the base problem of it requiring too many manual swipes and clicks on the Apple remote.
I like the idea suggested by Macnbaish. I toggle CC a dozen times a day depending on the content or how loud my kids are around me!
I had made a request for a command in the API to Enable/Disable CC. It would be nice to be able to get to this setting a little easier. Thanks!
How do u even enable CC on Android tv. I have Nvidia Shield.
There is no options menu while playing back to toggle CC on.
I see the CC icon, in each program description, but cant find away to enable them.
Edit. sorry... i didnt see this in the APple tv section...it just waht came up on search.
I have tried the native Captions option in the settings on Shield, but they have never shown up anywehre or in any app.
Press Menu (or Down) to open the Quick Guide. Navigate Up to select the tab headers up top for Language options. Press Right to select the Language tab, and there you will find Closed Captions and secondary audio options.
Ah thank u. did not see those tabbed options.
Agreed, I would love a faster way to toggle on/off CC.
(I tried the "shake remote" thing but that mutes the audio too, and it really does chew up the battery life, much quicker than the feature is worth.)
I would love a shortcut or button or IR/CEC command or whatever.
In the latest version we now have an /api/toggle_cc
in the Channels API.
If your HDMI-CEC Remote has a captions button that may also work.
Interesting, thanks. Doesn't work on my Samsung, so I'm using a hubless Harmony remote. It doesn't have a captions button. I guess my only hope was that one of the newly supported colored buttons could be mapped to this command?
Being able to assign toggle CC to a colored button would be awesome.
The colored buttons are for navigation, so I'm not sure we want to go that direction.
Maybe we can add 'm' for mute and 'c' for captions? Then you can map those on harmony using Windows Computer.
I've also requested that Harmony add the native captions command into their available set of codes: https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360048913534/comments/360012582353
Since my bedroom TV (where I use mute and closed captions most) has an IR remote, I was bummed by this answer back in August, but of course, understood your rationale. I hadn't returned to the Remote Shortcuts section in Settings since then.
Today I scrolled all the way down, to happily discover additional commands have been added. I now see that "Toggle Picture in Picture" in the list of options, which is totally awesome! Thank you, this is a huge jump forward in usability. It works beautifully. Perhaps you can consider adding "Toggle Closed Captions" below that too now, for the benefit of folks who don't have a hub-based Harmony, and are still happily using an IR/CEC remote? This would be a great feature for lots of Closed Caption users out there. For me, it would mean the difference between one button press, and eight (!), simply to toggle CC.
Thanks for the consideration, @tmm1.