In XP MCE I had a very nice way of showing the TV (not DVD) subtitles (closed captioning) with the background being not completely black, but semi-transparent. This feature is lost when I upgraded to Vista MCE - my background is completely black. Some people like it, but I don't.

I tried the to change the following keys in [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media , but they make no difference.

"CCTextColor"=dword:ffffffff -> 7FFFFFFF
"CCTextOpacity"=dword:ffffffff -> 7FFFFFFF

"CCEdgeColor"=dword:ffffffff -> 7FFFFFFF
"CCEdgeType"=dword:ffffffff -> 7FFFFFFF
"CCWindowColor"=dword:ffffffff -> 7FFFFFFF
"CCWindowOpacity"=dword:ffffffff -> 7FFFFFFF

Anybody knows how to change the attributes?

That's odd, cause here subtitles are halfway transparent in VMC.
Sure it 's not your graphics driver that's causing this issue ?

I didn't know you can get subtitles for TV in vista, please tell me how!

Hi

I find that they appear for certain programs, but not others, and these are on the same tv channel - I think its when the subtitles option appears in the program description - think they are provided over the internet rather than in the tv data - however when you record the program, from what I can remember, the subtitles are recorded as well - which is great.

Generally I find they appear when you press the mute button.

Tony

Thanks for the reply Tony,

I just tried it out on a TV series episode recorded from BBC2 with 'Subtitles' noted in the program info -I pressed the mute buttoon but no magic subtitles.

I wonder if there is a way for a user to toggle subtitles on/off (when available of course), I noticed another post which suggested that there is a setting that can be selected but I don't know if that was MCE2005 or VMC being used in the USA which is different.

Shame there is no teletext, an excellent medium for live subtitles.

 

If you are receiving BBC via DVB-T (Freeview) you wil not be able to get subtitles because VMC does not support the DVB-T subtitle system.

ildoc

 

 

In Europe, they are broadcast via Teletext (in Mediacenter : only implemented on analogue cable TV I think).
In US, via closed captions.

If they are broadcast and Media Center supports them, try pressing Ctrl+Shift+C

Having just switched to VMC from XP MCE i found the solution.

1. closed captions are controlled though Settings -> TV -> Closed Captions
2. DVDs have there own settings for closed captions which allows you to turn it on of TV but off for DVD and visa versa. In XP is was globally on or off for both with 1 setting.
3. In the registry you need to changes the settings under: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoSettings
4. You are looking for the key CCBGOpacity and want to change the value to 1
5. Here is the trick, this setting is ignored unless you tell VMC to use your custom settings for captions There are two ways to do this:
   1. change the registry key IsDCCUseCustomSettings to value 1 or
   2. go to Settings -> TV -> Closed Captions -> Advanced and on the right had site select the button to "use custom settings below". You do not need to make any changes to the settings listed, but can if you like. All that matters is that the button is set to custom settings.

As someone with bad hearing who depends on CCs for NTSC, ATSC, and CableCard programing, I can say beyond a doubt that the CC support and controls in XP MCE were far superior to VMC. I have messed with every setting and registry key in VMC and can not get the captions to look as good nor funtion as well as in XP.

Good luck!

I set IsDCCUseCustomSettings = 1 I check Settings -> TV -> Closed Captions -> Advanced, they did not show, how????

Excellent post, AmiraTech, thank you very much! My goal was to try to make the subtitles similar to DVD. Now, thanks to your post, I was able to set the transparent background, white text color and black edge, so my subtitles do not block the picture, are quite readable and not annoying. There is probably a lot more to discover. What I have found so far is that CCTextColor value sets one of 8 the font colors:

CCTextColor 0 - black; 1 - red; 2 - green; 3 - blue; 4 - cyan; 5 - purple; 6 - yellow; 7 - white. My setting is 7 - white.

CCEdgeColor sets the color of the font edge. My setting is 0 - black.

CCBGOpacity sets the background opacity. My setting is 2 - transparent.

CCTextStyle is responsible for the font used for the subtitles. I tried different fonts and the value of 3 works the best for me.

I set CCEdgeType to 1, I didn't play much with this key.

If somebody wants to play with these or other settings, please keep in mind that you should close the MCE shell program while making the changes. The new settings will be picked up next time you start Media Center.

Following are my current registry settings, and I am quite happy with them:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoSettings]
"CCMode"=dword:00000001
"ZoomMode_Video"=dword:00000003
"DVDMenuLang"=dword:00000000
"Letterbox"=dword:ff000000
"fNeedToPromptForMediaDiscovery"=dword:00000001
"DVDSubtitleLang"=dword:00000000
"MovieViewAsGallery"=dword:00000000
"MovieSortMethod"="SortByStarRating"
"DVDChangeSoundMenuLang"=dword:00000001
"DVDSoundtrackLang"=dword:00000000
"CaptionDisplay"=dword:00000002
"VideosSortByDate"=dword:00000000
"ZoomMode_DVD"=dword:00000000
"LastDVDId"="13660019070764909356"
"SAPOn"=dword:00000000
"CaptionDisplayDVD"=dword:00000000
"CCModeDVD"=dword:00000001
"CaptionDisplayTV"=dword:00000000
"CCModeTV"=dword:00000001
"DigitalCCMode"=dword:00000001
"DigitalCCLanguage"=dword:00000000
"IsDCCUseCustomSetting"=dword:00000001
"CCTextSize"=dword:ffffffff
"CCTextStyle"=dword:00000003
"CCTextColor"=dword:00000007
"CCTextOpacity"=dword:ffffffff
"CCEdgeColor"=dword:00000000
"CCEdgeType"=dword:00000001
"CCWindowColor"=dword:ffffffff
"CCWindowOpacity"=dword:ffffffff
"CCBGColor"=dword:ffffffff
"CCBGOpacity"=dword:00000002
"PreferredLanguageID"=dword:00000409
"_tvChannel"="4"
"_tvChannelPrev"="28"
"SortRecorded"="name"
"SortPriorities"="priority"
"SortScheduled"="date"
"SortErrors"="date"
"SortCategoriesByTitle"=dword:00000001
"dtLastEPGDownloadRequest"="01/01/0001 00:00:00"
"dbr"="Private"
"TeletextSubtitlePage"=dword:00000000
"SilentLicenseAcquisition"=dword:00000000
"ZoomMode_TV"=dword:00000003
"ZoomMode_ATSC"=dword:00000000
"AutoStartLiveTV"=dword:00000001
"InstantReplayInterval"=dword:00001388
"SkipAheadInterval"=dword:00002710
"DefaultChannel"="2"
"VideosDefaultRootPivot"="Folders"
"VideosGalleryView"="LargeThumbs"
"RecordedTVViewBy"="List"
"RecordedTVListViewPrompted"=dword:00000001
"Version"="65537"

 

Keep in mind that the opacity setting is not exposed in the VMC GUI, where as i believe every other setting you changed is controlled through the GUI at Settings-TV-Closed Captions-Advanced.

Just a thought.

No, you talk about Settings->TV->Closed Captions->Advanced that only for ATSC / Digital Card but ANALOG Card don't have it, It for only CC1 & CC2

AmiraTech:

Keep in mind that the opacity setting is not exposed in the VMC GUI, where as i believe every other setting you changed is controlled through the GUI at Settings-TV-Closed Captions-Advanced.

Just a thought.

I tried to change the subtitles on Windows XP MCE 2005, and found that the registry set is pretty much same for the subtitles, but changing the values does not produce any effect. I set IsDCCUseCustomSettings = 1.  Anybody knows how to unlock custom settings for XP?