topic Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q? in Sky Accessibility

Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Friars+Boulan — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 16:06:04 GMT

We've just upgraded to Sky Q UHD and a new UHD TV but since then we've not been able to have subtitles on any UHD programmes.
Is it because UHD programmes don't NT broadcast with subtitles?

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

oldfella — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 16:11:31 GMT

@Friars+Boulan wrote:

We've just upgraded to Sky Q UHD and a new UHD TV but since then we've not been able to have subtitles on any UHD programmes.
Is it because UHD programmes don't NT broadcast with subtitles?

Hi @Friars+Boulan

Unfortunately it is very rare to find UltraHD content with subtitles.

Any content that does have subtitles will show an S in the tile synopsis.

Edit

if you scroll to the bottom of On Demand content in the Home menu you will. Find a Subtitle category.

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Friars+Boulan — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 16:54:18 GMT

Thanks so much - you've saved us hours being on hold for Sky customer services! Just seems a bit weird that an major increase in technology removes something as simple as subtitles!

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

oldfella — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 17:18:36 GMT

@Friars+Boulan wrote:

Thanks so much - you've saved us hours being on hold for Sky customer services! Just seems a bit weird that an major increase in technology removes something as simple as subtitles!

Hi @Friars+Boulan

Subtitles for UltraHD and other On Demand content is something that Sky say they are working on. However not much seems to be arriving yet

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

EmPleh — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 21:01:28 GMT

Sorry. Why is this an acceptable answer? Why do you think it is ok to provide UHD shows and films without subtitles? Is this clearly explained to customers.befotr they sign up to the UHD add-on package? This is 2020 for crying out loud. Any other streaming service with UHD has subtitles!

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Laing1 — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 21:31:29 GMT

@EmPleh wrote:

Sorry. Why is this an acceptable answer? Why do you think it is ok to provide UHD shows and films without subtitles? Is this clearly explained to customers.befotr they sign up to the UHD add-on package? This is 2020 for crying out loud. Any other streaming service with UHD has subtitles!

@EmPleh its not an acceptable answer but @oldfella is a customer like you and I and is only stating what Sky have said previously

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

EmPleh — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 19:47:11 GMT

Sorry. You are absolutely right. My apologies for misunderstanding this. Thanks for providing the update.

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

ElSordo — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 18:25:43 GMT

Sky have been "working on" subtitles for UHD programmes since the Q box was launched. (HD programmes work just fine, so it's obviously a technical issue).

If the Q box was missing sound for UHD it would have been fixed ages ago, but deaf people seemingly don't count.

This is discriminatory. If anyone in Sky is reading: please get it sorted.

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

EmPleh — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 20:39:18 GMT

That's right mate. Deaf people are already disabled - why would they care about experiencing UHD content? They should just be happy they can see!

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Barleyman — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 18:40:10 GMT

That's something you can bag and grow potatoes on.

Sky is an incredibly hostile company for deaf slash hard of hearing folks, they do the absolute minimum Ofcom demands and then only when there's a prospect of actual sanctions on doing nothing. This whole "HD has subtitles, UHD does not" just shows the attitude - They can say this program is available with subtitles so what are you complaining about? It'd take minimal effort on Sky's end to add the subtitles to the UHD stream since they already exist for HD, but minimal is too much already.

It's the same story as why don't BBC programs on recap have subtitles via Sky Q but they absolutely do have on iPlayer.

Sky just doesn't care. I feel I threw money on the ground paying for UHD service as I can't use it. If I want UHD I have to download the show (which is already paid for in Sky!) so I can put subtitles on it.

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Hurricane+Katrina — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 22:39:38 GMT

I agree I think this is discriminatory behaviour concerning ultra HD we weren't advised of this shortfall concerning subtitles and my husband is partially deaf it limits our viewing experience and should be challenged

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Hurricane+Katrina — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 22:41:28 GMT

This is sad and not inclusive as a business

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

EmPleh — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 22:49:28 GMT

It is just down right poor customer experience

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Nerdrager — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 23:11:36 GMT

I agree that this is unacceptably poor customer service, especially when we pay a premium price for the service.

I'm a little hard of hearing myself, so even though I can watch a program without subtitles, I tend to not be able to hear certain words, even when replaying and turning the volume up a bit. It's worse on some shows, depending on the sound quality and this happens quite frequently too, which makes for a frustrating viewing experience.

Putting subtitles on largely fixes the problem, so it's annoying that they're not available on UHD programs for no good reason. Again, we pay a premium price for this, so why don't Sky deliver a proper service.

And I say "largely", because have you noticed how the subtitles don't exactly match the dialog? Besides occasional outright errors, they often summarize the sentence (why?!) and also tend to miss out the word I couldn't hear properly, perhaps because the subtitler couldn't hear it either.

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Chloe-W22 — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 10:54:21 GMT

Hi all, I'm really sorry we're not quite there with offering subtitles on the content you're looking for!😔

Please click here on where you can raise a complaint, all feedback is encouraged.

Thanks,

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

bob1234 — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 10:59:47 GMT

Perhaps if the programme suppliers realised that dialogue is more important than music it may help.

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

TimmyBGood — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:06:04 GMT

@bob1234

Or recognised that most viewing is still on devices with L/R audio only (in the case of the vast majority of televisions via tiny rear-facing drivers) rather than mixing for 5.1 separates by default.

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

SDR — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:12:23 GMT

@TimmyBGood wrote:

@bob1234

Or recognised that most viewing is still on devices with L/R audio only (in the case of the vast majority of televisions via tiny rear-facing drivers) rather than mixing for 5.1 separates by default.

Totally agree I can watch old films on Talking Pictures for example without subtitles but modern 5.1 sound defeats me. I wish I could buy a speaker system that emphasised voice

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

bob1234 — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 12:26:10 GMT

@SDR wrote:
@TimmyBGood wrote:
@bob1234

Or recognised that most viewing is still on devices with L/R audio only (in the case of the vast majority of televisions via tiny rear-facing drivers) rather than mixing for 5.1 separates by default.
Totally agree I can watch old films on Talking Pictures for example without subtitles but modern 5.1 sound defeats me. I wish I could buy a speaker system that emphasised voice

My TV (Sony) has a voice zoom setting but it does not seem to make any difference.

Re: Subtitles on UHD Sky Q?

Barleyman — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 23:22:20 GMT

I guess the nicest thing you can say about the state of UHD for deaf/hard of hearing folks is that you get Netflix premium on discount. I'm sure if Sky could somehow remove subtitles from the bundled Netflix on 4k material, they would. Never tried Netflix on the Q-box, though, maybe they *do* remove them? I should check..

Depends on your discounts of course but ultimate tv is max £6 and UHD max £4 so you get £3.99 off on Netflix UHD subscription..