An Audio Guide or a narrator is an essential feature of any smart device. It is installed to serve disabled people who have lost their eyesight. Like any other smart tool Roku player also comes with a built-in voice assistant. It is activated/enabled if your tv starts to read the interface aloud as you navigate and make selections with the remote control. When you are watching a movie or a Tv series on Roku, and it narrates everything happening in it, that means the narration feature is on.
For disabled people, this can be very annoying. It can be switched on accidentally, or in some cases, it comes turned on by default in a new TV, and it can be turned off easily or customized through settings. In this blog, TechNinjaPro has lined up all the methods and will be explaining every one of them in detail further in this article.
What is Audio Guide & How to turn it off on Roku?
If you find your Roku player talking to you, that means its Roku Voice Assistant is on. This feature is also called text-to-speech, which efficiently reads the text displayed on your Roku screen.
By reading the options, it helps you to move from one place to another on the menu of Roku. If it has been turned on by accident and you want to turn it off, it can be done multiple times, but a remote control shortcut is the quickest way.
1. Switch off Roku Voice Assistant from Remote
Roku player provides remote control with its primary device, and on the remote, there is a designated button to operate Roku’s Voice Assistant. All The TCL Roku TVs also come with a dedicated shortcut to activate or deactivate the audio guide. It is very common to press the button to start the audio features accidentally. All you need to do is press that button again to turn it off.
Press the Star “*” button on your remote four times to make the audio guide stop. It may take a couple of seconds to shut down, but it will eventually stop. If this solution does not work for you or your remote does not have the Star “*” button or is broken, there is no need to worry. TechNinjaPro has some other options next in the article to help you get rid of the audio guide.
2. Switch Off Roku Voice Assistant from the Settings
You can also deactivate the Roku Voice Assistant feature from the settings. It could be easy for some people, so follow the given steps if you also want to deactivate the Roku Voice Assistant feature from your Roku screen.
- First, you need to go to the Home screen of the Roku player.
- If you are already on the home page, open Settings from the menu on the left-hand side of the screen.
- Here you will find the Accessibility tab
- In the Accessibility menu, click on the Audio Guide and open the tab that will appear under it with the same name
- On the next screen, it will give you two options, one will be “OFF,” and the second will be “ON.”
- Select the “OFF” option, and your audio guide will be turned off.
- If you wish to undo the process in the future, follow the same steps.
How to disable Audio Guide Remote Shortcut
Accidentally pressing the Voice Assistant’s remote shortcut may get very annoying, and if you have kids, they will most probably keep disturbing you by pressing it all the time. Fortunately, there is an option given by the Roku player that enables you to deactivate the Remote shortcut instead of shutting the audio guide down completely. Follow the given steps to disable the voice assistant shortcut.
- Tap the Home button on the remote control.
- After you land on Roku’s home page, open Settings.
- Click on the Accessibility menu and navigate to the Audio Guide.
- Under the Audio Guide, open the Shortcut option.
- Here it will give the option to Deactivate it. Just click on it and get done with it.
- Press the Star “*” button four times to test if it is working or not.
The Advantages of Audio Guide
While some people may not require an audio guide, others may need it. It’s possible to make Roku menus more pleasurable with proper settings. After reading out a specific, actionable menu item, the remote button will activate it.
If you wish to turn off the Audio Guide, knowing how to switch it back on is useful.
How to Customize Voice Guide
Roku player allows you to customize its audio guide in two ways, one is Speed Rate, and the other one is Volume. By going to Settings -> Accessibility, you will find them under the Audio Guide option.
The Speed Rate option lets you customize the audio guide to speak at the speech rate of your choice. It will show you four options – Slow, Normal, Fast and Very Fast and you can choose any one of them. It will determine the speed for your voice assistant, so carefully select one.
The volume option helps you set the loudness of your voice assistant. In the volume section, Roku will provide three options:
- Low
- Medium
- High
Select the volume level that suits your preferences.
How to turn off Scene Narration on Roku
As TechNinjaPro discussed at the start, there are two places where your Roku Player speaks; one is “Audio Guide,” which we discussed earlier, and the other one is scene narration. You can experience this when watching a movie or a tv series. This is only for those people who have eyesight-related issues, but it isn’t enjoyable for others.
The methods to stop descriptive audio will vary depending on the streaming service you are using. For example, on Netflix, you will have to follow a different path to turn off this feature than the one you will do on amazon prime. TechNinjaPro will tell you How you can turn off descriptive audio on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu, and Apple Tv.
Netflix
To see the language option on Netflix, press the Up button on the remote control. Switch from English – Audio Description to a language that does not have audio description.
Amazon Prime Video
On Amazon Prime Video, Select Audio & Languages by pressing the Up button on the Roku remote. Select a language without an audio description from the drop-down menu.
HBO Max & Hulu
You need to follow the steps for HBO Max and Hulu streaming services. Select Accessibility & Captions after pressing the Star button on Roku remote control. Then scroll down to Audio Track. Select a language that does not include descriptive audio.
Apple Tv
Go to the setting by clicking on the icon at the top of the apple tv home screen. In settings, click on Accessibility > Audio Descriptions > and select Off.
Turn off Descriptive Audio on Cable TV
If you use cable tv on your Roku tv and face the same descriptive audio issue on the movies or tv series you watch. Then you need to turn off Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) settings.
SAP setting depends on the cable company you are using. For instance, if you are a user of Spectrum Tv, then go to Settings -> Preferences and audio language using the remote control. Select the option that does not include descriptive audio.
FAQs
- Go to the Settings of Roku from the Homepage.
- Navigate to Accessibility, Captions Mode, and turn it off.
If the closed caption still keeps showing, you must check the in-app settings. For instance, to turn off closed captions on Netflix, you must disable it from its settings.
- While watching any show on Amazon Prime, press the Up button on your Roku remote.
- Click on subtitles, and then turn it Off.
Roku gives you the option to listen to whatever you are watching on the Tv without disturbing anyone near you. Using the Roku private listening feature only, Allows you to listen to the program you are watching. Roku remote control comes with a headphone jack.
All you need to do is plug in your headphone and enjoy watching. You can also use your smartphone for private listening. Download the Roku mobile app, plug in your headphones, and tap the headphones icon.
Conclusion
In the article, TechNinjaPro has tried to cover all the aspects of your query, but you should visit Customer Support of the Roku if you still have any doubts.