Hello My Fellow Teleholics, 

Click the following links, courtesy of the American Printing House for the Blind, to learn about some remarkable resources for those of us who want to take our digital televisions with us when we’re on the go. 

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WGBH’s Media Access Group has tested two of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration/NTIA-certified coupon eligible converter boxes and has determined that you can indeed receive and hear video description from a broadcast digital TV signal that properly includes it.

We tested two boxes:

Insignia from Best Buy
– Digital Stream from Radio Shack

We tuned in two different PBS kids programs broadcast on WGBH’s digital channel and heard the descriptions coming through.

Even better news is that both boxes have both CC and SAP (or audio) buttons on the remote controls that allow you to access the various caption signals and alternate audio channels without having to go through the set-up menus.

You will find discrepancies in the on-screen menus when you use the two different methods for controlling the alternate audio:

both boxes display “English 1” and “English 2” in the on-screen menu when you use the SAP or Audio button on the remote control. Use English 2 for accessing the video description (or Spanish if you are looking for that).

in their set-up menus, both boxes display “English/Spanish/French” as the options in the pick list in those menus.

and, of course, neither of the boxes have audible/talking menus for control of the set up and control of the boxes.

The broadcaster must be properly tagging and sending the alternate audio in order for the boxes to pick up those signals and present them to the viewer.

The WGBH – Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) has published a new Outreach and Policy Paper, Digital Television and Video Description: Service Continues, Consumer and Industry Efforts Required

NCAM previously published an overview of problems confronting deaf or hard-of-hearing people trying to access captions via DTV or through a converter box. The “DTVCC” paper can be found on NCAM’s Web site listed below.

This paper focuses on challenges facing blind or low vision viewers who rely on video description to enjoy and fully understand television programming. Topics covered include:

Set-top Converter Boxes

Accessible Menus

Tips for Finding Video Description in DTV

Troubleshooting

and a Technical Note about PSIP (or Program and System Information Protocol)
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Portable Digital Televisions

WGBH Access 

Enjoy,

Mark