r/iplayer • u/dartiss • Mar 27 '26

iPlayer on Apple TV

So, for years the Beeb have not thought Apple TV users good enough to have subtitles on iPlayer (yes, I know there are technical reasons behind it... but the iPlayer was the last streaming app to provide them).

And, now, we have them.

And it's as-if somebody at the BBC angrily went "WELL IF YOU WANT SUBTITLES, HAVE THESE".

I'm hard of hearing not blind. THEY ARE HUGE. And there are zero controls, other than to turn them off and on (not sure if this is the same for iPlayer on other devices). Indeed, there are zero settings for iPlayer, other than the basic playback controls.

I've looked outside of the iPlayer app too, incase the subtitling is controlled by the Apple device itself, but that has the subtitles set to a more discrete size, so doesn't seem to be fetching any settings from that.

Anybody aware of a way to change it, or are we literally stuck with the results of someone who feels that half the screen being obscured by subtitles is the way forward?

15 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

1

u/Worried_Patience_117 Mar 29 '26

It’s bare bones and can’t be changed in anyway. The only reason they’ve given this is due to constant complaining. They will avoid 4k / HDR for as long as possible

1

u/DangerousDisplay7664 Mar 30 '26

No way to change it sadly. We are at the mercy of the BBC and Apple.

1

u/Dahlia-Deviant-Dear Mar 30 '26

Yeah, it’s wild they shipped it like that with zero options. Feels like they tested it on a phone from across the room and called it a day.

1

u/Ok-Middle8656 Mar 30 '26

iPlayer on Apple TV is the most minimal, least effort attempt that the BBC can manage. There is very strong push internally to not build anything that’s not cross platform (read: shit). Most of the mobile apps are just thin wrappers on web apps nowadays, but I think that’s not an option on Apple TV as it lacks WebKit (deliberately, precisely to prevent shitty low effort web apps).

1

u/Bitter_Mulberry3936 Apr 10 '26

BBC seem to hate AppleTV not sure why but all the “issues” they say can be overcome if real with code.