Virgin Media Community

[Chaslington]

Please, please, please remove the black background behind subtitles, make the font smaller and move them closer to the screen's bottom.

We're not in the mid 1990s with teletext anymore so why are the subtitles blocking most of the picture?

The BBC iplayer app is a good example of how subtitles should look.

[Craig_D]

Hi Chaslington

Welcome to the Community, we're always looking for ways to improve our service so thanks for taking the time to get in touch with us about this. 

Your feedback has been taken on board and we'll be here should you need any assistance or support with your services moving forward.

Take care

Craig

[zambo]

Ten months later and still the same, intrusive, covering faces, too high, too big, unnecessary black backround. Not all deaf people have sight problems.

[Hollie_B]

Hi Zambo. Thanks for your post. 

Really sorry that this is still causing you issues, we do pass feedback on and do our best to subtitle as many programmes as we can, though it is usually out of our control and by a third party. We will pass this feedback along again, and very sorry for the inconvenience.

Hollie_B

[Hollie_B]

Zambo, just checking what box is it that you have these subtitles issues on? 

Thanks, 

Hollie_B

[zambo]

Hello Hollie, thanks for your replies, it's a V6, but was same on Tivo. Have noticed viewing on Freeview that they are much smaller and nearer the bottom. The ideal model is Amazon Prime, where subtitles are at the foot of the screen, smaller with no black background.

[Mia_C]

Hi, Zambo.

Thanks for posting here in the Virgin Community.

Does the subtitle issue happen to all Freeview channels or just specific ones?

Have you tried changing the aspect ration to get rid of the black background?

To change the way that the picture shows on your TV, like widescreen and output format, you’ll need to adjust the display format.

1. Press Home on your remote
2. Select Help & Settings
3. Choose Settings
4. Select Video Output

You can choose

Aspect Correction Mode
This lets you adjust the way the TV picture fits into your TV screen. It depends whether the picture is in 4:3 or 16:9 (Widescreen) format.

If the picture looks stretched, means it's not fit for Widescreen format. You can try to change the black bar to gray using the Letterbox colour and see if you'll be able to read the subtitles with that instead. Changing the colour will only apply where the box has added the bars and not where they were added by the broadcaster – changing the colour can help to determine this.

For bars that has been added by the broadcaster, we can raise it as a feedback but can't really change it.

Please let me know.

Mia_C

[aaceuk]

The above answer is completely irrelevant to the issue the OP posted about.

The issue is the ridiculously huge text size of the subtitles.

Subtitles on the Virgin TV box are large, blocky, low resolution, with black backgrounds. They look completely out of date, like Ceefax subtitles from the 1980s. 

It is nothing to do with the aspect ratio. It is the same on all channels including widescreen HD channels. 

Virgin, please take this message as another request to bring your subtitle format up to date and into the 21st century.

[zambo]

Yep, completely intrusive. Watch a lot of programmes now on MyView. Mainly use Virgin to record. In fact on my tv, the HD picture is better on MyView than on Virgin.

[davy-m]

Hi.

I need the subtitles when watching most TV programs but my wife does not.  It is most annoying that the huge black boxes with massive text wthin, hide important items on the screen.  I am partially deaf but not blind. 

Who is responsible for the generation of these electronic billboards?  If they are provided by a third party please request that they sort them out using the suggestions posted by other posters.  If they can't/won't, might I suggest using another provider.  Maybe the one Netflix uses.

I can see me dumping Virgin TV and fully utilising my Netflix and Amazon accounts.

I note the date of Chaslington's initial post.

Many thanks