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

Fri Feb 6 21:49:24 UTC 2015

I had the same experience with that box, and encountered the same
resistance when asking for a tech. I didn't know that they had any kind
of special remote. I can use the regular remote, but I wish that they
had marked a few buttons for reference.

Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: Electronics-talk [mailto:electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Gerald Levy via Electronics-talk
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 1:42 PM
To: Christopher-Mark Gilland; Discussion of accessible electronics and
appliances
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Electronics-talk] using SAP feature with Time
Warner Cableforaudio description

Well, the reason that Time Warner is dragging its feet about complying
with the telecommunications law is that they can do so with relative
impunity. 
This law lacks teeth and imposes only nominal fines for failure to
comply, which Time Warner can simply pass along to their customers in
the form of higher cable bills.  So why should they bother to spend
millions of dollars to develop an accessible set-top box that would only
be of interest to a handful of customers?  Paying a fine is probably
cheaper in the long run. 
Their only commitment to "accessibility" is the large button remote they
offer visually impaired customers upon request. As far as offering a box
with a separate SAP toggle, forget it.  The box which is now used in
most installations is made by Cisco and lacks any buttons or controls of
any kind except for a power button.  It doesn't even have channel and
volume up/down buttons like the older boxes.  A technician told me that
this is the only box they install now to replace a defective older box.
This box has a glitch that shuts it off automatically by default to
"conserve power" if nochannel or other funcion has not been selected
from the remote for two hours.  This shuts off the box and returns it to
channel 1, which is very annoying.  You have to go through a whole
series of menus to turn off this idiotic option. 
I had to have a technicianmake a service call just to turn off this
option for me because I didn't have sighted help on hand to navigate
through the onscreen menus.  At first, they balked at sending a
technician to resolve such a minor issue, but I explained to the service
agent that I was blind and would file a complaint against them withthe
the FCC for failing to make their box accessible unless they did.

Gerald

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher-Mark Gilland via Electronics-talk" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
To: "Brent Harding" <brent at hostany.net>; "Discussion of accessible
electronics and appliances" <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] using SAP feature with Time Warner
Cableforaudio 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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>
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