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iTunes films have garbled subtitles when played on Apple TV

ThirithThirith Registered User regular
in Help / Advice Forum
Recently, we rented and purchased some films on iTunes in order to watch them on Apple TV (4K model, second gen) - but it turns out that the subtitles are often garbled or out-of-sync; for instance, with Cleopatra the subtitles were incomplete and came about half a minute after the actual dialogue, and with Close Encounters of the Third Kind they were spot-on some of the time, but most of the time they were garbled versions of what was actually said, with seemingly random symbols making up for most of the text. This is a problem we've never had so far with any of the Apple-produced TV series we've watched or with any of the other streaming apps.

I've searched the web but haven't really found anything about this issue. Does anyone here have any relevant information? And might there be a way to make the subtitles work as they should?

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"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods

Posts

  • SatsumomoSatsumomo Rated PG! Registered User regular
    Does this happen on other devices as well, or only on your AppleTV?

    If anything, I'd recommend clearing the device's cache or reinstalling the iTunes app.

  • ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    So far it's only happened on our Apple TV. I'll definitely try clearing the cache. The thing that's weird is that e.g. Apple originals and most new films don't have the garbled subtitles, and the behaviour is generally not consistent. At the same time, I don't find anything on Google that others are having this particular problem, so it may well be specific to my device. Fingers crossed...

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
  • SatsumomoSatsumomo Rated PG! Registered User regular
    Any luck? If you're still having issues, it might be worth contacting iTunes support, as it would seem it's their videos that might have an issue with the AppleTV.

  • ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    Sadly, clearing the cache didn't work. However, I did try playing a film that had caused problems on my iPad and then streaming to the Apple TV box, and weirdly, this worked just fine. It's a bit annoying having to do it like this, but hey, if it works I'm reasonably happy.

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
  • ThirithThirith Registered User regular
    Okay, here's a weird wrinkle: when I open the film via iTunes Movies, the subtitles don't work properly. However, I then tried opening the film via the Apple TV app - and hey presto, the subtitles do what they're supposed to do. I've not done any in-depth testing, but... huh. And yay, kind of.

    webp-net-resizeimage.jpg
    "Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
  • SatsumomoSatsumomo Rated PG! Registered User regular
    Yeah that seems like they've loaded subs into that movie that are incompatible with iTunes Movies, no real way around it except letting them know.

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