I had to blog this. If you have comcast HD and have the silver remote and receiver, there is a trick to enable closed-captions/subtitles. This is what you need to do: -
- switch on your TV and comcast box.
- On your remote, press the cable, power and menu button in sequence one after the other. You need to do this quickly, so locate the buttons first.
- On the “secret” menu on you screen move to about line 4 using the down arrow
- Use the right arrow to disable sub-titles
- press the power button twice
And you have accomplished what should be the most simple task.
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Filed under: closed captions, comcast, subtitles
This was so helpful. Thank you.
you are most welcome. I thought this should be at some obvious place but when we found what we, my wife and me, call the ‘secret menu’ I had to post it.
Thanks a lot for posting this..i was going crazy for past 2 weeks trying to disable the CC on my cable..
thank you soooooooooooooo much. i almost threw my remote at my tv many times 4 the cc getting in the way of an important parts of movies. u saved me a lot of money thank you again.
The action has changed slightly, or to clarify:
Tv should be on but cable box off.
Press “cable” button.
Press “menu” button.
The box needs to be off when the menu button is pressed for “secret” menu to appear instead of regular menu.
Thanks for helping out. Comcast now has an instructional video on demand.
I have a silver Cisco box and looks like Comcast have this on the regular menu now. No need to turn off the cablebox. You can go to “menu,” “setup,” press arrow down to “subtitle setup” (may be on the next page), and select “off” for “subtitle.”
I have a Cisco box and looks like Comcast has this on the regular menu. No need to turn off the cablebox. Select “menu,” “setup,” press arrow down to “subtitle setup,” and then select “off” for “subtitle.”
Quick resolution to a very annoying problem. Thanks so much.
I took 3 hours to get the CC erased from our TV. Called Comcast and they said they don’t even have a CC feature! THANK YOU!
you all are most welcome! I did get this info from a comcast support person but I have heard not everyone knows this, so put it up!
Thank you, saved my life.
A bit ridiculous that we have to do that, but thanks for posting this!
Thank you very much for posting this; I don’t think I would’ve found it by myself.
THANK YOU! It was driving me crazy.
I had cc on my tv for 6 months. Everyone wanted me to fix it, but I could not. Now my wife thinks I am the smartest guy around. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
thanks that was helpful.
Thank you soooooo much!
got rid of the annoying subtitles.. thanks for the info.
thank you so much, i am elderly and always asking my wife”what did he/she say?”during movies.. fortunately my wife is not subtitled. i cannot imagine a world where i hear all she has to say
You dont understand how long I have been trying to do this thank you so much! I can finally watch movies at night again and not disturb the Mrs.
Thank you!!! A quick google search and I easily remedied an annoying problem… Very helpful blog. Thank you
I have tried this repeatedly and no matter how fast I try to push the buttons, if I push the “cable” button followed by the “power” button the cable box immediately turns off before I can push the “menu” button. Is there some other way to get to this “secret” menu?
It is okay for the cable box to turn off. Please press the menu button after the cable box turns off & you should see the option to enable/disable closed-captioning.
Hello Vidur,
When I press CABLE then POWER, the cable box shuts off. If I press MENU after the cable box is off, nothing happens because the cable box is off. When should I turn the cable box back on? (ie, when should I press the power button again?). If I press the MENU button before the power button, I get the standard Menu icons but there is no option for enabling/disabling closed-captions. What does the “Secret Menu” look like?
Thank you so much for your help!
Thank you for posting this. i keep wondering how the subtitles even showed up one day….big mystery.
his nis why i want to go to satellite.
It worked!
For me, the “secret menu” only blinks on for a split second, but if you press and hold the menu button (after pressing CABLE then POWER) it reveals the “secret menu” which is a white screen with black writing that looks like an old computer program. As described, if you arrow down to the closed caption line and then use the right arrow you can toggle the function between “enabled” and “disabled” depending on what you are trying to do.
Thanks again!
Thank You….Thank You….Thank You!!!!
This is the second time this problem has happened….
Wow, thanks a lot for this, it was driving me crazy for weeks and i thought it was my tv. Stupid comcast box
That was a big help… Thanks.
wwooooww!! im not sure how i got them ON in the first place. just turned the tv on and had captions…but couldn’t figure out how to get them off for the life of me! Thank you\, very helpful!!
Thank god it’s over. Thank you so much!! Reading TV is not my lifestyle.
Thank you so much, Vidur! I have searched and spent so much time looking for Subtitles. Your site is so helpful!
no good
We have been suffering for weeks until I ran across your solution. We just stopped using the TV because the other troubleshooting suggestions didn’t work….
Sincere thanks,
Thank you! The repair man came a few minutes ago and right after he left I noticed the closed captioning was enabled some how. I thought I was going to go crazy having the subtitles on.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!! My toddler found the remote and turned CC on. You are the only one with the “answer”. : )
thanks it worked for me too
Thank you!!!!
Thank you so much! A technician came today to “fix” my DVR issues and left me with closed captions that I had no idea how to get rid of until I found this.
Thanks for the information, I always wondered how to actually turn them on when I wanted to. Your the man
THANK YOU A TON!!!!! this helped alot.
Thank you so much! You should really write to Comcast!
Thank you! The cable guy said I needed to use my old TV remote, which didn’t work of course. This was a lifesaver! I feel sorry for people who don’t search the internet for advice…
Had to turn on subtitles for my mom – thank you from her as well!
Wow!
Why do they make this so hard? That was a rhetorical question.
This makes trying to find the universal remote codes on an old TV look like a walk in the park. If the Pentagon had this kind of security we may not have had the Wikileaks issue.
My wife is so happy now. Thank you.
P.S. You have to push the cable, power, menu buttons almost simultaneously.
DONT BE GULLABLE PEOPLE, THIS IS A JOKE! My comment will probably be deleted before anyone gets to see, but if you’re reading this, dont waste your time. All these responses are frauds in order to get you to waste time turning off and on your cable box like an idiot
well, as long as you use appropriate language, your comment will be approved. Also, I can assure you these responses are not fraud coz I was mystified myself and thus wrote this entry. It works only on silver box from motorola. If you have a better and easier way to fix this, please let us know. thanks!
This is NOT A JOKE! I tried every possible thing both on the Comcast HD box remote and my TV remote to get to subtitles option, and this is the only way to get to it. You probably do not have the same type of box or you never tried this the right way.
Vidur, thanks a whole bunch for posting this!
fail troll is fail
probably a comcast employee doing what they do best
it didnt work on my cable. Every time that i pressed cable off menu, no menu appeared. And when i turned on the cable again the subtitles kept reapearing
Thank you, this worked. Actually, I have been trying to do the opposite of what everyone is doing which is turning *ON* CC. I have the smaller black HD box (no DVR). Thanks!
It worked, people. Honest to god, it worked. This is for real. I sincerely thank the person who posted this.
Thanks for posting this! I wanted to avoid calling Comcast at all costs…lol. thank you.
Thank you so much! You rock world! Been trying for a days for CC and finally!!! Yaay
Worked! Thank you for posting this
I had to keep the menu button pressed for a few secs and then wait for a couple of secs before the menu on white background showed up
What an idiotic design, its like an easter egg!
works on both my silver hd box as well as my new black high definition box. thanks!
The method of using the “secret menu” to control CC does indeed work. However, it is rather inconvenient. The functionality should have been surfaced to the ordinary control UI level. Although our hearing is normal, we sometimes watch with CC on after our child has gone to sleep. And our older Mitsubishi analog TV used to offere the capability of enabling CC only when the sound is muted, which is very useful — especially if you’re bleeping commercials. Change is not always progress.
I cant get to the Secret Menu!! HelP!
I’m uncertain if its changed from when u first posted but since this blog post comes so high (top rated) in searches u should update. The box needs to be off and the tv on. Then simply press “menu” to reach secret menu. Scroll to cc…
thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much you are a saver
Just hitting the menu button gives me access on my unit. No need for hitting the other two buttons at all . . .
This is a life saver – thanks a lot!!!
Didn’t work for me.
What did work – after having tried every suggestion I could find on-line – was getting out the remote control which came with my TV – which happens to be a Samsung.
Lo’ and behold in the upper right corner is a big button labeled “caption.” I clicked it. The closed captioning disappeared.
BTW: I hadn’t used my Samsung remote since the Comcast installer told me to only use the Comcast remote with my new service.
[...] of the comments on my original post noted that things have changed now. This is what Chris mentioned” The action has changed [...]
You are amazing. I’ve been trying to het rid of those for two months! Thank you thank you thank you!
[...] Comcast: enable/disable closed-captions [...]
2 years later this thread is still helping people out!! Thanks for posting!!
thankssssssssssssssss so much
hi..do have any idea how to enable the cc…mine doesnt work i don’t know what to do.
this saved my life, thank-you. i was watching HP and i couldn’t understand what they said some of the time partly cause of distractions in the room.
U R the best! Thank you soooo much. My son somehow managed to turn subtitles on and I tried everything to turn it off. This was just what I needed. Thank You !!!!!!!!!!!
Worked, thanks for the info
Is there a way to get Spanish closed captioning? I have guests from Spain.
I don’t know. I don’t have comcast anywhere, so can’t play with the menu too. Good luck!
thank you that helped sooooooo much. I was about to kill the t.v.
Worked perfect. Checked other websites and struggled for a while. This was simple and quick…thanks so much!!!
Ok great – now how do I translate the captions from Spanish to English?
Do this: Press the Cable button. Press the Power button next to it. This will turn off your cable box. Then press the Menu button. You should see the menu where you can turn closed caption on or off. When you’re finished, press the Menu button. Then press the Power button. There’s no need to rush or press more than one button at a time.
You are correct! I had done a newer entry on my blog but somehow this seems to be more popular. This is the link to the latest entry:
http://blog.vidur.name/2011/01/18/comcast-enabledisable-closed-captions-part-ii/
Thank you very much for posting this…. it worked.problem solved.my in laws think i’m a genious.LOL:)
THANK YOU SO MUCH, Works like a charm.
Just used this solution and it worked for me.
Another happy reader of your post – wanted to turn captioning on and tried every combination I could think of –the nothing worked until tonight when I read your post. Thank you so much!!
Absolutely ridiculous that you have to go to all this trouble to simply turn CC on or off. Plus, the CC is at a ridiculous position on the screen when viewing regular programs….movies have the CC perfectly at the bottom of the screen. Comcast needs to put a “button” in the menu Settings box for CC….ridiculous that you have jump thru all these hoops to turn on CC.
Thank you so much. This was very helpful and very necessary!
Thank you so much for this post! My family has been trying to get this off my grandmother’s tv forever! No one could figure it out and I looked this up through google! We finally fixed it! Thanks so much!
Another big thank you!! My 88 year old mother was having such a hard time understanding. This did it!!
thank you so much!!!!