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Originally Posted by Chad Hauris
Most closed caption decoders or closed caption capable sets I have seen have 4 modes: Caption 1 and 2 and Text 1 and 2...most c.c. capable sets can display the text but I have never seen any actual text on them either.
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Chad -
Thanks for the info on teletext. However, I have another question: You mentioned that most TVs with closed-caption decoders have teletext capability as well. My Zenith Sentry 2 (1995) has it (as I mentioned in my post) as Text 1 and Text 2, but my RCA/Thomson CTC185 (1999) has CC1 and CC2 on the OSD "screen" menu. Nothing for teletext that I can see. CC1 works as expected, as a standard closed-caption decoder; however, in almost seven years of owning the CTC185, I have never seen anything on CC2, not even Spanish CC text. There are no other options on this menu, except the usual ones to add or delete channels from the scan list and an option to set on-screen channel labels.
Update: I was watching The Tonight Show on NBC All Night tonight (a late-night repeat of NBC's 11:35 EST showing of the program) and, out of sheer curiosity, switched on my RCA TV's closed-caption decoder. CC1 produced normal English captions, as expected. However, when I switched the decoder to CC2, I found Spanish captions, so the CC2 mode does work--at least for NBC programming; the network apparently puts Spanish-language captions on its broadcasts as well. I'll have to look at NBC Nightly News tomorrow to see if that broadcast is also captioned in Spanish (it is captioned in English). I understand ABC's World News Tonight has had a Spanish language SAP subchannel for some time, so the program should also have Spanish captions.
BTW, I was surprised and almost shocked to find out the lyrics to one of the songs the music group on Leno's program was singing tonight. I cannot make out what these rap groups are saying when I listen strictly to the audio, but seeing the lyrics on closed captions is a real eye opener, to say the least. No wonder so many parents these days are up in arms over the content of most rap music, and why some of the stuff is rated as unsuitable for children under a certain age (I think it's 17).
For Kaye-Halbert TV (Charles) : Yes, many people are baffled when they lose their TV sound for English broadcasts, only to find that the SAP mode was left enabled by mistake. Turn the SAP decoder off and the problem is solved, but a lot of folks don't know how to enable or disable the feature. I know at least one person who knows only how to turn their TV on and off, adjust the volume, and change the channels--everything else on the TV set is Greek to this person. In fact, I think most people who own TVs with fancy features such as CC decoders, teletext, or even SAP decoders (all sets with MTS stereo sound have them) are not even aware the features are there, let alone how to operate them.
Stereo sound on most table-model TVs is a joke anyhow, IMO, because of the puny speakers used in most sets and because table models are nowhere near wide enough to provide even the minimum acceptable stereo separation. Consoles with MTS stereo are little better. If TVs were still being made in seven-foot-long real wood cabinets, the stereo effect might be noticed, but not with today's small consoles in pressed-wood cabinets and photo-finish faux wood veneers. My RCA CTC185 looks as if it has MTS stereo (there are actually two speaker openings and grilles below the CRT), but it doesn't. The left speaker opening is empty; if you look through it you can see straight through to the back of the set. The TV's speaker is behind the right grille. I think RCA (Thomson) must have used the same basic cabinet for its mono and stereo table TVs when my set was new almost seven years ago, though probably all of their CRT-based sets, and certainly all their flat panels, have MTS stereo sound these days.
The effect caused by leaving teletext on when there is no content (a black box covering almost the entire bottom half of the picture) leads many people to believe their TV picture has shrunk, as noted. My Zenith Sentry 2 will do that, but I know it's because the teletext is on. Many people don't know the teletext feature is even on their set (on my Zenith the feature is enabled/disabled via a small OSD menu), so if their kids, for example, start playing with the front-panel buttons (the Sentry 2 models do not, to the best of my knowledge, have child lockout settings for the panel controls), they can unwittingly engage teletext/CC or even foul up the color adjustments, etc. The parents won't know it until they turn the set on and see the picture in some weird combination of colors, the screen half blanked out by the teletext box, or even the sound volume being up so high it all but blows them out of the room (if it doesn't pop the speaker[s'] voice coils first).
