[Electronics-talk] [EXTERNAL] Re: using SAP feature with Time Warner Cable foraudio description

Fri Feb 6 20:35:06 UTC 2015

The problem is that even if you activate the SAP, you won't get the
audio description. This is because they are not passing it through from
the broadcaster. I have 3 different remotes from them, and they don't
even put a nub on the 5 key. I think that they will have to be taken to
court, or something.

Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Christopher-Mark Gilland via Electronics-talk
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 12:28 PM
To: Brent Harding; Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Electronics-talk] using SAP feature with Time
Warner Cable foraudio description

Brent,

I've been going back and forth with them regarding this as well.

No.  It is not as easy with the box as hitting a toggle button.  They've
really made it a royal pain in the ass!  You have to press the Settings
button on the remote, then there are about 4 or 5 menus deep that you
have to scroll through to get there.

And, what makes it worse is, you can't really memorize these menus, as
for one, yes, all of them do! wrap around, and B, the problem that
you're going to have is, when you go into each of them, they're going to
land you on the last item you had focus on.  So, if that isn't the first
option in the menu, then, well, tough!  So you'll never really have good
orientation as to where you are sitting.

Frankly, I think that TW needs to really get themselves together
regarding this.  Comcast now has accessible boxes, and others are
becoming easier to make this happen.  So, what is the deal with TW not
really wanting to comply with the new accessibility law?  I don't know,
but it's driving me insane, I'll sure as h e double hocky stick tell you
that!

As for it working just by hittung the toggle button on your TV, that
isn't going to work most likely.  Mainly because the SAP audio comes
over a digital channel.  If you are using a splitter, then that tells me
you're going via coax cable, not via HDMI.  Yes, the signal itself may
be coming to you digitally, but the coax cord is then going to be
downmixing it back to annalog before it hits your TV screen.  Therefore,
the final signal you hear/see would be annalog, therefore losing all the
extra digital material, such as SAP.  Trust me with this, I used to do
some outsourcing work for a cable company, would rather not reveal which
one, but anyway, therefore, I've kind a been trained to a point on how
this stuff works.

What you'd need, actually, is one of those converter boxes.  This way,
you'd go into the box from your wall/splitter via coax, then, instead of
taking a second cord and running coax out of the box to coax in on the
TV, what you'd do instead is, you'd go out of the wall/splitter to coax
in on the box. 
Then you'd go HDMI out of the box, to one of your HDMI in ports on the
TV. 
If you don't have HDMI on your TV, then really honestly, you need to
upgrade.  it's just that plain and simple.  All TV's now adays for the
most part come standard with at least! 1 HDMI high deff poert.  You
might could get away with the black, green, and blue component composit
plugs, but don't count on that giving you SAP.  I've honestly never had
the need to try that. 
Really, your best bet would be go into the TV via HDMI with a box.  This
still doesn't help you much as far as enabling SAP, but at least then,
you'd be a bit closer to getting there, and this way, I can assure you
that your hardware would do the job.  Then, you'd not wanna use the
button on your TV, as you're not running your cable directly into the
TV.  You're actually running the box! directly into the TV, and your
cable! is going to the box. 
Does that make sense?

So, actually to then enable SAP, you'd do it on the box, not the toggle
button on the TV.  I'm not saying the TV's button wouldn't work, it
might, but I tend to lean more toward highly doubting it, because
somehow you gotta tell the box which audio channel to pipe through.
That would be up to the box in this dazy chain, not up to the TV itself.

If you have a more complex setup like a home theater receiver, or a
DVD/Bluray player, or maybe a VCR, or the like, then give me a call, and
I'll try to help you correctly get things dazy chained.  That's part of
the free tech support that my job offers.

You can call me directly at:

980-328-8909 Mon-Fri 8AM-5PM Eastern time.

Chris.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brent Harding via Electronics-talk" <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 3:05 PM
Subject: [Electronics-talk] using SAP feature with Time Warner Cable
foraudio description

> Hi there! I would like to be able to listen to some of the shows that 
> exist on TV with audio description. I have Time Warner Cable, and 
> right now, I just have the cable line hooked up to a splitter that 
> goes to my TV and modem. My TV does support digital, and has the MTS 
> button on it that would toggle SAP on and off. However, I have never 
> gotten any audio description on any of the channels. I know that
through my parents'
> DirecTV, I have heard descriptions on ABC and Fox for the same local 
> stations I get on cable, and on TNT and USA. I wasn't there when shows

> might've existed on the other 3 required cable channels, but I'd 
> imagine they would work there. If I decide to pay the extra to get a 
> box, will that likely unlock the SAP audio with TWC? If so, do they 
> have a remote that makes it easy to toggle on and off? I did email 
> their customer service listed on the accessibility page where they 
> mention this feature, and they told me it is supposed to normally work

> with or without a box, but mine doesn't seem to be. I've gotten 
> conflicting answers on whether a box might be available that has an 
> easy button to toggle it, the email people saying they didn't have 
> access to one where they were, and only the local office might know. 
> They couldn't give me a number to contact the local office though. 
> When I first called to get Internet hooked up, as we have free basic 
> here, the lady told me some box they had in that department did have a

> SAP button. How can I get to the bottom of this without spending lots 
> of money on cabs and/or install fees to find out it might not work
anyways?
> Thanks
> Brent
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