How to Enable Closed Captions on a Roku Premiere Plus

To enable closed captions on a Roku Premiere Plus, press Home, open Settings > Accessibility > Captions mode, and choose On always. If your Roku has a Captions menu instead of Accessibility, open that menu. Captions appear only when the program supplies them, and some streaming apps require you to turn them on inside the app.

Closed captions, often abbreviated CC, display dialogue and relevant sounds as text. They can help when speech is hard to understand or you want to watch quietly. Turning them on does not create a caption track for a program that lacks one.

Before you begin

These instructions cover a Roku streaming device, including the Premiere Plus. Roku TV systems share many of the same caption controls, but some choices depend on the device, Roku software, and app. Follow the labels your screen actually shows.

Choose a program whose details or playback menu show CC, subtitles, or a caption language. Test during the program itself, while someone is talking. Ads, sponsor messages, opening logos, and silent scenes may not show captions even when the program has them.

Quick steps

1. Press Home on your Roku remote to leave the current app and open the Roku Home screen.
2. Use the directional arrows to highlight Settings, then open it with OK or the right arrow.
3. Open Accessibility. If that choice is missing, look for Captions instead.
4. Select Captions mode, then choose On always.

5. Return to your streaming app and play a program with captions. If no text appears during dialogue, check that app’s own playback controls below.

Choose the right Roku caption mode

Mode	When captions appear	Important limit
Off	Roku-controlled captions are disabled	Apps with their own settings may need a separate change
On always	Throughout programs with supplied caption tracks	It cannot add captions to an unsupported program
On replay	After using the remote’s Replay button	The content must support instant replay
On mute	When the sound is muted	This option is unavailable on some Roku devices

Choose On always when you want captions through the whole program. On replay is useful when you normally watch without captions but need help with a line you missed. It is not the same as leaving captions continuously enabled.

Not every Roku offers On mute. If yours doesn’t, use On always when you want text while watching quietly.

Turn captions on during playback

Many apps let you change Roku’s caption mode without returning to Home.

1. Open the streaming app and start playing the movie or episode. Wait until the program itself has started.
2. Press the Star (*) button on the Roku remote. In a supported app, an Options menu opens over the video.
3. Highlight Closed captioning. Some apps label the control Captions mode instead.
4. Choose On always to display available captions throughout playback. Use the directional arrows and OK as indicated by the menu.
5. Dismiss the menu with Star or the app’s displayed back control, and resume playback if it paused. Check for text during the next spoken lines.

Roku says caption changes made through its playback control are retained for future programs. That means turning captions off for one movie can affect the next program in an app that uses those settings. Recheck the mode if captions later seem to disappear unexpectedly.

If Star opens a different menu or provides no caption choice, use the service’s controls. Roku explicitly notes that device caption settings have no effect on content from services that manage captions within their own apps.

Make caption text easier to read

Turning on captions and styling them are separate steps. First make sure text appears; then adjust its size and contrast. Roku’s style settings only affect apps that use the device’s caption settings.

1. Press Home, then open Settings to return to the Roku settings screen.
2. Choose Accessibility > Caption style. If Accessibility is absent, open Captions and look for the style controls there.
3. Adjust text size if the letters are difficult to read from your seat. Use the on-screen preview to compare the available sizes.
4. Adjust the text’s font, edge effect, color, or opacity as needed. Opacity controls how transparent the text appears; very transparent text can be difficult to see.
5. Adjust background color and opacity, then window color and opacity if needed. The background sits behind the caption text; the window provides another surrounding area.
6. Go back to a captioned program and check how the captions look in both bright and dark scenes. If the app doesn’t use the style you picked, check its own subtitle settings.

To reverse a change, return to the same style setting and select its previous value. Keep a note of several changes if you are experimenting; there is no reason to factory reset the device to undo caption styling.

App-specific caption controls

Use these methods when Roku’s main caption mode does not control the program. The selected title and app version can affect which tracks and controls appear.

Netflix

1. Open Netflix and start a movie or episode.
2. Press the up or down arrow on your Roku remote to show playback controls.
3. Select Audio & Subtitles at the top or bottom of the screen. On some TV interfaces, language choices appear directly at the bottom instead of behind that icon.
4. Choose a subtitle or caption language from the list. If Other appears, it can show more languages.
5. Return to the video and check the next dialogue. Selecting an audio language changes what you hear; selecting a subtitle language changes the text.

For sound cues as well as dialogue, pick a track marked SDH (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing).

If a setting keeps resetting on a Kids title watched from an adult profile, switch to a Kids profile. See Netflix’s subtitle and audio instructions.

Hulu

1. Start a program in the Hulu app.
2. Press up on the Roku remote to display the playback bar.
3. Press up again to open the playback Settings menu.
4. Under Captions & Subtitles, select On, then return to the program to check the text.

If you don’t see Hulu’s caption control, use Roku’s Captions mode instead. Hulu saves caption settings per profile.

The same controls work on live channels, and watching live TV on Hulu walks through the Live Guide.

For another language, look for Subtitles in the same playback menu. Hulu’s caption guide lists the choices by device.

Hallmark+

Hallmark provides an in-app route and a Star-button route for Roku:

1. Start watching a movie in Hallmark+, then press the remote’s down arrow.
2. Highlight the chat bubble icon at the bottom-right of the screen to open the caption choices.
3. Select English to enable the offered captions, or Off to disable them.
4. Wait about five seconds for the app to return automatically to the movie screen, then press Play to continue.

You can also press Star during playback and choose On Always. Both routes come from Hallmark’s Roku caption instructions.

PBS

1. Open the PBS app and start the video you want to watch.
2. Wait for the sponsorship message to finish, then press Star on the Roku remote.
3. With Captions mode highlighted, press OK to change the setting and select On Always.
4. Press Star again to return to the video. Captions should begin appearing as playback resumes.

Choose Off through the same menu to disable them. PBS’s Roku caption guide documents this procedure.

Troubleshoot captions that are missing or incorrect

No captions appear in any program you try

Set Captions mode to On always, then play a title that lists CC or subtitles. Test during dialogue, not during ads or opening logos. If one title shows captions and another doesn’t, the second one has no caption track.

Captions work in one app but not another

Use that app’s playback menu instead of changing Roku’s main setting again and again. Check that it offers captions for that title and language. Some services control both turning captions on and how they look.

The language is wrong or captions are out of sync

Pick another track in the app’s subtitle or language menu. If captions are out of sync on only one title, close it and reopen it. If that doesn’t fix it, report the title to the streaming service.

A temporary playback problem persists

Restart the Roku: press Home, then choose Settings > System > Power > System restart (or System restart directly under System). A restart keeps your settings. The Roku restart guide also covers the power-cord method.

To check for updates, open Settings > System > Software update > Check Now (System update on older menus). See Roku’s software update instructions.

Turn captions off or restore your previous setup

For Roku-controlled captions, return to Settings > Accessibility > Captions mode and choose Off, or restore the mode you used before. You can also use the supported Star-button playback menu. If the app manages captions separately, choose Off in that app as well.

Text that remains after you turn captions off can be part of the video itself. Hulu calls this burned-in text and says it cannot be turned off or reformatted. Netflix also notes that some foreign-language dialogue shows subtitles even when subtitles are off.

Frequently asked questions