How to adjust the Closed Captioning on U-verse TV

The following information can be found at:

https://bbc.github.io/subtitle-guidelines/

10.1 Vertical positioning

The normally accepted position for subtitles is towards the bottom of the screen (Teletext lines 20 and 22. Line 18 is used if three subtitle lines are required). In obeying this convention it is most important to avoid obscuring ‘on-screen’ captions, any part of a speaker’s mouth or any other important activity. Certain special programme types carry a lot of information in the lower part of the screen (e.g. snooker, where most of the activity tends to centre around the black ball) and in such cases top screen positioning will be a more acceptable standard.

Generally, vertical displacement should be used to avoid obscuring important information (such as captions) while horizontal displacement should be reserved for indicating speakers (see Identifying Speakers).

In some cases vertical displacement is not sufficient to avoid obscuring important information, for example when placing the captions above a graphic would cover a face. In such cases, horizontal positioning may be used.

10.2 Under image positioning

Some platforms (e.g. online media player) support the display of subtitles under the image. If the media player is embedded in the page the layout should change to accommodate the subtitle display.

When subtitles are displayed under the image area, vertical displacement will be ignored by the device and only horizontal positioning will be used (e.g. to identify speakers).

10.3 Horizontal positioning

Prepared subtitles are normally centre-aligned within a subtitle region that is horizontally centred relative to the video. Live subtitles (cued blocks and cumulative) are normally left-aligned.

Other horizontal positioning may be used to:

• Avoid obscuring important information (such as captions and mouths) when vertical positioning is not sufficient (see below).
• Indicate the direction of off-screen sounds. See arrows for off-screen voices.
• Identifying in-vision speakers (legacy technique). See Identifying speakers with horizontal positioning.

In some cases vertical positioning is not sufficient to avoid obscuring important information, for example when placing the captions above a graphic would cover a face. In such cases, prioritise the important information over speaker identification, using horizontal positioning if appropriate.

I agree you can either turn captions on or off but U-verse technicians need to address the issue of location of captions. Streaming services don't seem to have a problem, why does U-verse?

I agree you can either turn captions on or off but U-verse technicians need to address the issue of location of captions. Streaming services don't seem to have a problem, why does U-verse?

I would not expect that any changes would be made to the CC implementation on the U-verse platform at this point in its life. 

Why not??? It has been requested for many years. People are using captions more and more as the population gets older.

Because U-verse is basically winding down.  It hasn't accepted new customers for a year.  AT&T may even announce it's going away (they have not yet, but many expect that they will at some point).  If you would like to make this suggestion where it might make a difference, try their AT&T TV product.

I have heard the rumors but I have also heard that because U-verse is in many apt. buildings it won't go away anytime soon.

Hard to say.  AT&T no longer breaks out U-verse subscribers in its financial reporting to investors.