Remember the day you got your first Closed Captioning Decoder?

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Linda2001

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Hi Everyone!

I'm doing research regarding the history of television closed captioning and while researching, I came across a few blogs recounting detailed personal experiences of the day the bloggers got their first decoder and how it literally changed their lives overnight. Would anyone else like to share their story? Personal stories are so much more powerful than a timeline of "this happened then". Any insight into that huge event in history, the day decoders became available, would be greatly appreciated!!!! If anyone is interested, I can post the reponses I've received from other forums.

Thanks!

Linda
 
Oh my memories of my first closed captioned decoder box is flooding back to me :)

I remember it was in 1983 when I went to Sears with my mom to buy it. I was so excited when my dad hooked it up to the TV. I got hooked to the shows that were closed captioned and I couldn't get off the TV :lol:
I also remember being disappointed with some shows not being captioned. Back then not all shows were captioned but now more and more shows are being captioned :)
 
I remember the time my parents got the CC decoder and hooked it up on to the TV when I was like in first grade or so, (although alot but not all tvs were cc back in the early 1990s) and I remember watching some saturday morning cartoons on TV and only weird thing is that it can only work with just one channel and not other channels so somehow the decoder is messed up and some cable man came and try to fix it and he said he doesnt know why its like that and that it's proably meant to work with only one channel ugh that sure sucks eh? lol
 
:ily:Yes!!!!! My mom got me my very first closed captioned decoder and it was tan & gray. I think my mom still has the c.c. machine in storage. :ily:
 
Oh yeah, my parents got me a CC decoder for my h.s. graduate gift in 1980.
 
:) It was back in the middle 80's sometime, my husband who is deaf, I myself am hearing, went to Lechmere Department Store, and bought a closed caption decoder. It was a Monday night, my husband installed it, and the first program we watched with CC was Alf. Well, I never have seen my husband laugh so hard as he was reading the captioning and watching the program. It made me feel so good that he could enjoy the program as much as my daughters and I did. It was such a good experience for him that first time. :)
 
I remember that I had the Telecaption II decoder. It had silvery front fascade with red LED numbers and it was pretty big, too! My parent got it for me on my birthday in 1987 and I was excited to understand what they're talking about on TV! It was a great birthday present that my parent gave me! :D
 
CODAchild said:
:) It was back in the middle 80's sometime, my husband who is deaf, I myself am hearing, went to Lechmere Department Store, and bought a closed caption decoder. It was a Monday night, my husband installed it, and the first program we watched with CC was Alf. Well, I never have seen my husband laugh so hard as he was reading the captioning and watching the program. It made me feel so good that he could enjoy the program as much as my daughters and I did. It was such a good experience for him that first time. :)
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I had forgotten about Alf. That was a good t.v. show. :) :thumb:
 
sequoias said:
I remember that I had the Telecaption II decoder. It had silvery front fascade with red LED numbers and it was pretty big, too! My parent got it for me on my birthday in 1987 and I was excited to understand what they're talking about on TV! It was a great birthday present that my parent gave me! :D
Click to expand...

The tan and gray c.c. box with the awesome remote control ? :deaf: :thumb:
 
I received a free black CC box (with red LED lights as well) that was given out by some company (I had no idea which!) at my elementary school. I was probably in first grade... age five or something. I remembered the interpreter spelled out my name. I was like "huh?" while the audience applauded (I thinki was busy chatting wtih my deaf classmates) and I slowly walked up to the platform and a dark-haired woman beamed as she handed me the brown cardboard box to me... I took it home and realized it was for me to understand my cartoon programs. I watched LittlePony, Rainbow BRites, and whatnot. ;)

I gave my first boyfriend his first CC box at age 18 (I was 14) and he was so happy that he didn;t have to go over to his deaf friends' homes to watch some movies.
 
My first CC decoder was one that came installed in a TV... It happened to be the TV at the place my parents rent for the last week of the summer every year.

It was awesome. :D Until my parents complained and made me turn it off. :wtf:

We didn't have CC with our TV at home at the time (the TV in question has since been replaced by one that has a built-in decoder), but I don't live with my parents anymore (my TV has a built-in decoder also), so now I can use it whenever I want. :)
 
Yeah, I got it the first time in 1983 when my parents bought me. It was a brown and silver with no remote and quite a big one. It was awesome feeling that something a big tech breakthrough that time. Not many shows were captioned at the time. By now they're rather so much a joke to compare what we have now, wow .. ah, these old days!
 
I remembered I got Caption 3000 as a gift. Later it got problem and I bought caption 4000. i was so excited when I got it! LOL!
 
i had cc decoder in 1989 because my parents did not know what to do since they found out that I was deaf so they brought cc decoder. in 1994, we replaced the tv with first tv built in cc decoder.
 
I cant remember, i was born 1986, and i guess after they found out i was deaf they got it immediately. I had closed caption for as long as i remember lol.

I used to have that old black box for cc, then my parent got new tv with closed caption included so he put the other cc on my parent tv (me and bro tend to watch tv in parent bedroom if my mom and dad are watching something else in living room) then my brother got his tv, and then later i got my own tv, my parent got new tv for their bedroom, so i got their old tv, which is with the cc box, til i got new tv with cc included, now all the tv in my house has cc included, so that cc box got left hidden somewhere in my living room, until i decided to give that cc to my good friend for her family's tv (she had never had cc in her whole life til she was 16, when i gave it to her) she was soo happy lol.
 
I was in high school when I got my first decoder in 1981 -- Dad ordered it through a Sears catalog. I still remember the first captioned show I ever saw -- it was one of the episodes of King Arthur on PBS (maybe part of Masterpiece Theatre?). There were very few captioned shows back then -- something like 10-15 hours per week, I believe. Some of the shows that I remember was "Barney," a sitcom about cops and some silly series named "That's Incredible". PBS was kind of ahead of the time in that it had more captioning than any other channel, so I wound up watching more PBS than your average high school kid. :)

Two years later, I got a TV with a built-in decoder, also from Sears. It was built pretty well -- it lasted for almost 20 years before going to the big TV-land in the sky.
 
I still have that decoder i got in the late 70's.'s sitting on a shelf in my office.

Richard
 
For the first time I see subtitles with "Blue Peter" a British's favourite TV programme for children at Boarding School in Great Britain.

Back then, it was used to typed white letters with black background, soon afterward it was changed to colors to make it easier for us to understand which actors saying that colors etc. We were later asked in voting which colors we prefer to read - too bright or dull and so forth.

When I first read the subtitles, I was hooked to it and thought to myself I don't miss out everything A to Z, far much better than watching my teachers written on the blackboard next to the TV for us to read what newsreader, actors you named it talking about in TV etc. Teachers written story cut in short to suit them!!
 
CC 2 sometime around 1885 or so. I was glad to ave it, but didn't watch much TV then.
 
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