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Subtitles too big

Chaslington
On our wavelength

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.

23 REPLIES 23

Completely agree, they are ridiculous. But I doubt if anything will be done, as nothing is done about the sometimes poor sound on Sky movies.

On second thoughts its not a tivo problem, it only records what the broadcasters put out, its just as bad on freeview or freesat. Netflix is great for subtitles you can even set the size!


@roddydogs wrote:

On second thoughts its not a tivo problem, it only records what the broadcasters put out


That's incorrect. The subtitle text is encoded into the stream. Just the text itself - not the way it's displayed. It's up to the box to decide how to display it. My old freesat box allowed you to set the font and size. 

Ok thanks didn't realise that, but then freesat and freeview can be equally criticised. PS watching "click" live had better subtitles ( white background ) that were better, as opposed to the recorded version,?

If a prog I want to watch is on BBC I now watch on I player as the subtitles are usually a lot more watchable, ie no black background.

Ah well it seems no one at Virgin is interested!

Still not bothered Virgin?  New customer here, not impressed by all the issues I see completely unresolved since I last used you years ago.  Ceefax subtitles on a 4k tv.  Good work 

dannylau
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Well at some point this year the boxes will be changed to the new horizon software, I've no idea if it will fix the problem but it's in-house rather than 3rd party so it should be more flexible in getting fixes 

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laf
Tuning in

I came on here for the same reason.  I need subtitles for certain programmes that have terrible sound quality, not even to do with being hard of hearing! 

I can't cope with the Virgin subtitles, as others have said they're too large, stretched, terrible font and positioned too high obscuring much of the screen.  Can Virgin confirm there is no fix for this?!  Every other platform is fine.  We use Netflix, Prime Video, Freeview and iplayer with decent subtitles.  I've forgotten which is my favoured one but Netflix is unusable.

Whoops I've just seen this post is a year old, I guess everyone's given up as Virgin have done nothing to resolve the problem.

Joined Virgin TV again after 18 months off. Pleased to see the new interface and remote, but how disappointed to see that the style of subtitles are, as mentioned, something from a distant past. Sad.

I’m Danish and prefer subtitles on certain shows/movies, where I can struggle to always understand the mumbling. My partner is British, so doesn’t need them but are forced to look at these big blocks taking up most of screen. 

Virgin, you should really put more effort into user experience. Learn from BBC iPlayer. They let you, in a simple manner, choose the style of the subtitles to your liking. Honestly, should be quite easy to do, and for your new box, you have it as a profile setting - so each user can set it to their liking. 

Come on, it’s honestly a bit embarrassing for you!