Those of you who have Virgin Digital TV

[Trav Le Bleu]

As you may know, as I've mentioned this a few times on here, my wife is profoundly deaf and we are having problems for the last 2 weeks with subtitles on BBC1 and 2 on our Virgin Media Digital service.

It's a weird one. BBC say they are not aware of any problem and Virgin say there is no problem with our box (they have sent an engineer out to test it). I think the reason that the problem hasn't been identified is that not that many people use subtitles and in the case of most of the users (deaf people), they wouldn't be able to phone in to complain about this, obviously.

So I'm wondering if any of you lovely people on this forum could perhaps watch some programs on BBC1 and 2 for just 10-15 mins at least and tell me if they have the same problems listed below on their subtitles? It would be greatly appreciated. I have asked one friend to watch subtitles on their Virgin TV and they noticed the same problems on theirs - which makes me believe the problem might be somewhat widespread.

NOTE: This problem doesn't affect any programs broadcast live, like the News, sports programmes or The One Show, where the subtitles come up in a constant stream a second or two after they are spoken. It only occurs on progammes that are pre-recorded and the subtitles are already set into them.

The problem is this:- on BBC1 and 2 (and NO other channels - this includes BBC3 and 4, which are fine) the subtitles are very erratic. They do come up, but not always. Often you will only get half of a conversation as only the text for one character comes up - and not necessarily the SAME character, whilst earlier in the conversation it was person A, it might switch halfway through to being person B's words that are missing. There is also another problem in that sometimes the subtitles come up and disappear after a fraction of a second or they come up as a large block of text (there's nothing wrong with this, that's normal) but doesn't give you long enough to read it - half way through reading they will disappear. As a rule subtitles stay up for exactly the amount of time it takes for the character to say the words.

So that's my little problem and I would really appreciate any help. Good programmes to notice this on are quiz shows (where the answer might come up to a question which hasn't and vice versa... annnoying!) and soaps. One really weird thing about this is that we watched Eastenders one day on BBC1 with all of the above problems and then later in the vening we watched the same episode on BBC3 whilst waiting for Heroes and the subtitles were fine - for an identical programme!

To turn subtitles on (on Vigin at least) press the OK button. In the info box that comes up, in the bottom right corner will be an option to press the blue button to "show subtitles", which will then bring up a yes/no option (obviously, choose yes). Then a second or two later subtitles should start apprearing. To turn them off follw the same procedure, except this time the option for the blue button will be to "hide subtitles".

If you notice anything on yours, please post here so I can point Virgin Media in the direction of this thread to say, "look, I'm not the only one!" I'm wondering if there's some kind of conflict between the technology Virgin use for their TV and that which BBC use for their subtitles (but only on BBC1 and 2... which would be weird!) Lastly - even if you don't have Virgin (in which case I guess you gave up reading a while ago) could you please give it a try, so we can rule other service providers out... we have tried my mum-in-law's freeview and that was working fine.

Thanks again to anyone who can help me out with my weird request!

[Alexikokopops]

I'll ask my old housemates who have it and see if they have the problem. I've got Freeview at my current place and I'm pretty sure that the subtitles work fine (although I can't be certain if this is on other channels and not BBC1 or BBC2). My housemate's are Greek and occasionally like to have the subtitles on, especially if the programme has someone with a ridiculously strong accent. I'll look into it tonight

[Trav Le Bleu]

Thank Alex, much appreciated.

Can anyone else help me out please?

[Zingari]

Thank Alex, much appreciated.

Can anyone else help me out please?

probably a stupid question but , does your tv set have freeview built into it ?

if so you can try it out by pressing the AV button on the tv remote ( missing out virgin media ) and try the subtitles directly via the tv 's own set-up

my daughter sometimes does this if her sky box plays up and she just wants to watch the ordinary terrestrial channels

sorry that's all i can suggest as i don't know anyone with virgin

[Trav Le Bleu]

probably a stupid question but , does your tv set have freeview built into it ?

if so you can try it out by pressing the AV button on the tv remote ( missing out virgin media ) and try the subtitles directly via the tv 's own set-up

my daughter sometimes does this if her sky box plays up and she just wants to watch the ordinary terrestrial channels

sorry that's all i can suggest as i don't know anyone with virgin

Unfortunately not - which is a shame because as you say it would resolve the problem. Besides which, since we got cable we've never bothered getting the aerial sorted out (it's not connected), so buying a freeview TV wouldn't sort it either... frustrating!

Thanks for trying thought!

[Zingari]

Unfortunately not - which is a shame because as you say it would resolve the problem. Besides which, since we got cable we've never bothered getting the aerial sorted out (it's not connected), so buying a freeview TV wouldn't sort it either... frustrating!

Thanks for trying thought!

no problem ; one of my daughters is profoundly deaf , so i know better than most the problems your wife has to deal with in life ,

anyway i've just just read this on the bbc site , dunno if it helps, but it seems the main stations on virgin have 2 channel numbers , (one seems to be a dedicated audio display channel .)

probably you know this already though

AD on cable

If you have a Virgin Media set-top box, you already have AD. To turn it on:

* Press the Home or Guide button to see the menu.

* Select Settings (press 8).

* Select Change Display and Audio Settings (press 4).

* Scroll down the list to Audio Description, then press the right arrow key to enable it.

* Press OK to store the settings.

Virgin Media has separate AD channel numbers for the following: BBC One - 851; BBC Two - 852; ITV1 - 853; Channel 4 - 854; Five - 855. All other channels appear on their normal numbers.

[Trav Le Bleu]

no problem ; one of my daughters is profoundly deaf , so i know better than most the problems your wife has to deal with in life ,

anyway i've just just read this on the bbc site , dunno if it helps, but it seems the main stations on virgin have 2 channel numbers , (one seems to be a dedicated audio display channel .)

probably you know this already though

AD on cable

If you have a Virgin Media set-top box, you already have AD. To turn it on:

* Press the Home or Guide button to see the menu.

* Select Settings (press 8).

* Select Change Display and Audio Settings (press 4).

* Scroll down the list to Audio Description, then press the right arrow key to enable it.

* Press OK to store the settings.

Virgin Media has separate AD channel numbers for the following: BBC One - 851; BBC Two - 852; ITV1 - 853; Channel 4 - 854; Five - 855. All other channels appear on their normal numbers.

thanks Zin - however AD is for blind people - kinda the opposite of subtitles in that things that are seen are described in a voice over.

Thanks for the thought though!

[Zingari]

thanks Zin - however AD is for blind people - kinda the opposite of subtitles in that things that are seen are described in a voice over.

Thanks for the thought though!

I knew I shouldn't get involved in all this technical stuff , best o' luck sorting it out though

[Trav Le Bleu]

Were you able to find anything Alex? (amongst all the celebrations this weekend I'll understand if you forgot )

Oh and also to bump the thread amidst the chaos of the weekend if anyone else might be kind enough to help.

[Alexikokopops]

Were you able to find anything Alex? (amongst all the celebrations this weekend I'll understand if you forgot )

Oh and also to bump the thread amidst the chaos of the weekend if anyone else might be kind enough to help.

I'll ask my mate. He told me to remind him (which I didn't, whoops) so he probably forgot! I'll remind him tonight!

[Babylon]

Were you able to find anything Alex? (amongst all the celebrations this weekend I'll understand if you forgot )

Oh and also to bump the thread amidst the chaos of the weekend if anyone else might be kind enough to help.

My Mrs is deaf also, I have to say I've not noticed anything wrong... only on some live programmes when you get a 3 minute blooming delay.

I will have a good look when I get home though as i'm not sure if we have been watching BBC much. We watched Louis Theroux last night though and that was ok on BBC2

[Trav Le Bleu]

My Mrs is deaf also, I have to say I've not noticed anything wrong... only on some live programmes when you get a 3 minute blooming delay.

I will have a good look when I get home though as i'm not sure if we have been watching BBC much. We watched Louis Theroux last night though and that was ok on BBC2

Cheers Babs. If there is no problem then that scuppers my theory that it's a "area" thing, since you are also a Wigstonite. (I'm only a Wigstonite by migration! )

Appreciate if you can have another look, ta. Nice also because it will be someone who knows what subtitles should look like. (I had a nightmare trying to explain to the problem to someone in a call centre in India! Sure their English was good and they would be more than able to get around everyday life in the UK, but explaining technical faults to them with out using uncommon words was a joke! )

[Koke]

My younger sister is deaf as well. I'll ask her later tonight if has had any problems with subtitles.

[Babylon]

6.15pm - BBC 1 News - FINE

6.26 - Eggheads - FINE

I'll keep checking later on, i'll force myself to watch eastenders!!!

[Samilktray]

My Sky Sports 1 isnt currently working on Virgin.

[Babylon]

I had a nightmare trying to explain to the problem to someone in a call centre in India! Sure their English was good and they would be more than able to get around everyday life in the UK, but explaining technical faults to them with out using uncommon words was a joke! )

Don't even go there!!! Try attempting to stop a service with them....

[Webbo]

6.15pm - BBC 1 News - FINE

6.26 - Eggheads - FINE

I'll keep checking later on, i'll force myself to watch eastenders!!!

That's too much to ask any man.

[Babylon]

That's too much to ask any man.

I watched as much as possible.... i'm now off to wash my eyeballs with wirewool.

ps... subtitles looked fine. Will keep my eye out though.

[Trav Le Bleu]

I watched as much as possible.... i'm now off to wash my eyeballs with wirewool.

ps... subtitles looked fine. Will keep my eye out though.

Cheers Babs.

I spent 20 mins watching subtitles on my bros Sky Digital and that was fine too.

Time to get back to Virgin... <sigh>

[Alexikokopops]

Appreciate if you can have another look, ta. Nice also because it will be someone who knows what subtitles should look like. (I had a nightmare trying to explain to the problem to someone in a call centre in India! Sure their English was good and they would be more than able to get around everyday life in the UK, but explaining technical faults to them with out using uncommon words was a joke! )

Don't even go there!!! Try attempting to stop a service with them....

That's the fun of inheriting a lot of business practices from Ntl. The customer experience is improving so you should be able to leave as easy as you like soon!