Alexander: Some online movies lack closed captioning

January 29, 2014 at 4:45PM

Q: I am hearing-impaired and need closed captioning on 11 films that I have downloaded to my tablet computer. All these movies have closed captioning capability, but I can't access this feature on any of them. Contacting movie providers Google and Target Ticket hasn't solved the problem.

Ned Fleishman, Coral Gables, Fla.

A: Strange as it may seem, you can't get closed captioning from all movie download services.

Target's "Target Ticket" service, which allows you to stream or download movies, doesn't provide closed captioning on any of its video, Target spokeswoman Kristy Welker said, but it will be added in the future.

Google's movie streaming and download service, Google Play, explains how to find out which of its videos have closed captioning at tinyurl.com/pdvf6zw.

The Federal Communications Commission requires closed captioning on Internet video previously seen on broadcast TV with closed captions. But that doesn't cover all movies available online.

Q: I have two computers running the same version of Windows 7. The laptop running Microsoft's Internet Explorer 10 finds the Fox Sports website when starting from MSN.com, but the desktop running Internet Explorer 11 can't.?

Dan Rakitnichan, Minneapolis

A: Others have reported a similar problem viewing Fox Sports (foxnews.com/sports) with Internet Explorer 11. It's unclear whether the problem is mainly browser-website interaction or the fault of advertisement-blocking software that can be added to the browser. If you are using ad-blocking software, add the Fox website to the list of exceptions. Otherwise, try another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox (tinyurl.com/ldqqnha) or Google Chrome (tinyurl.com/ng6tjfw).

Q: I read your recommendation that a day care provider share children's photos with parents using Dropbox, a free cloud storage service (see tinyurl.com/ncvhnbn). But what about Google Drive instead? It seems to work the same way, and offers 15 gigabytes of free space compared with 2 gigabytes for Dropbox. I use Microsoft's SkyDrive (7 gigabytes of free space) because I have Windows 8.1.

Dean Woolstencroft, Buffalo

A: I suggested Dropbox as it's easy to use and the care provider was willing to pay for a service. You could use Google Drive (tinyurl.com/kczp225) or SkyDrive (tinyurl.com/qxdma94), but they're more complex to set up.

E-mail tech questions to steve.j.alexander@
gmail.com or write to Tech Q&A, 425 ­Portland Av. S., ­ Minneapolis, MN 55488. Include name, city and phone number.

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