[leesweet]

From what I've seen, Closed Captions have been on for some of the ALCS games and off for others on the Fox HD net. (Both over D*'s 88 and my local OTA, so it has to be a network issue.) The SD broadcast has had CC fine (example: SD on last night, HD off; previous night, both were on).


So, how the heck do I call Fox Network Ops and tell them? It has to be some switch they aren't flipping on their end, right?


Anyway, anyone got a contact at Fox Network Ops to fix this? I'd like dependable HD CC for tonight and next week!

 

[leesweet]

I'm going to bump this just once since it's been six hours with no replies in order to reach the afternoon folks.


No one knows how to reach Fox Net Ops or where I could find a contact number/email that would work? (I did send an email to the local affil where I do have a contact, but since it's not their problem, I'd rather get straight to the source! ) Thanks!

 

[stephenC]

I think you might try the FCC website. I believe Closed Captioning is a requirement for the networks, even on digital.

 

[leesweet]

Thanks, but that's not the point. They are doing CC over HD and quite well, but some nights they don't flip some switch and it's off for the duration. This isn't the story of 'no CC on HD' as we went through for HBO-HD and SHO-HD. I've been through all that over many months.


(A request to the FCC for a contact person will get a response in about a week. I still don't have anything for D*'s new contact since their old one seems to have evaporated!)


I'm just trying to find someone or a phone number to get to Fox Ops to be sure that they *know* that they are (1) in violation and (2) to flip that darn switch to turn on CC over HD tonight and for the WS!


Note that many broadcasters don't check CC, especially over DT/HD, and need to be told of problems, especially sporadic ones... and this one is a net one, not a local one.

 

[FOX guy]

first off, i dont think were in violation cause i think the FCC mandates only 80% or so to be captioned, seccondly its not a switch to be thrown. based on all the other things that are going on in the network center, the equipment may or may not be available or in working order. the problem may not even be with the captioning equipment but may be lost in the uplink process due to glitches in the various peices of equipment in the uplink process.


it is however something we need to be made aware of from time to time. thanks for the info.

 

[leesweet]

Well, thanks for responding but why would about it seems one game be fine then the next be not, then the next be fine, and now (I'm watching the NLCS) be fine? No reason for that at all.


Every thing on *every* net is captioned in primetime on HD, if it's CC in SD. But this random on and off makes no sense. *That's* why, as I said, it has to be some sort of switch not being thrown.


It can't vary over less than 24 hours and the next 24 hours that consistently....

 

[Ken H]

Quote:

Originally posted by leesweet It can't vary over less than 24 hours and the next 24 hours that consistently....

Sure it can. FOX guy knows.

 

[foxeng]

I think you have to remember that the closed captioning DOES NOT happen on site but companies are hired who provide stenographers who are somewhere else in the world and they call into a special phone number that has the audio for the program to be captioned and then it is typed into a computer as it is happening and is then sent back to the program originator via another computer data link and then is inserted into the program stream by the content owner. How it is inserted back into the stream can be as a convoluted process as any that can be thought of. It isn't as straight forward as it seems. Problems do happen particularly when it is a live event, the toughest type show to produce all the way from the equipment to the transmission. You don't get a second chance with live, just ask Janet Jackson.

 

[leesweet]

Thanks for the info, but I'm still confused, and I'm not sure we're on the same page.... Are we talking mechanical failures that are being repaired over night in *this* case?


The only thing that explains what I'm seeing is a mechanical issue, and foxguy hinted at that. foxeng talks about general CC issues, but in every case this week for the ALCS and NLCS, the games and pregames, the *SD* channel had CC fine and 100% perfect.


In another answer in the main ALCS/Fox thread, I believe foxguy said something about the pregame show not being captioned, but I'm 99.9% sure I did check the SD version and it was captioned. (Remember that HD CC is just the SD CC retransmitted and reencoded, from what my local Fox O&O engineer has told me. It's not a separate CC transcription process.)


Thus, all this together leads me to believe either something was turned off on the nights there was no HD CC or something was broken and it was fixed for the next night (but the 10/20 pregame was strange).


I appreciate Fox's CC'ing all of this, and I'm just trying to find out what could have happened here. One reason I started this was last season local net affils (not Fox) had a bad habit of not running CC on HD, and people had to call to goose them to turn it on, which took a few seconds (just like turning HD on when they forget to flip the switch). Which is what started me on thinking that was the same problem here in the first place!