Tips & How tos

How to Turn Off Voice on Roku TV

If your Roku TV is talking out loud, you may have enabled one of the accessibility features on your Roku TV. Frankly, it can be very unpleasant if you cannot turn the volume off. And sometimes, it gets worse if turning off the accessibility feature does not help you turn off the voice on Roku TV.

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In this article, you will find multiple ways to turn down your Roku TV’s sound when it is not required and answer the big question – How do I get my Roku to stop talking?

   Turn Off Voice on Roku TV – Quick Solution

If you are unable to turn off voice narration on Roku TV, try to disable the Screen Reader option. It is possible that this feature was mistakenly switched off in the Accessibility settings. However, you can permanently remove it. All you need to do is press the asterisk button on your Roku TV remote four times quickly. Once done, you will receive a message confirming the Audio Narration Guide is disabled and solve your problem.

Please read the easy methods below to find out more ways to fix when the Roku audio guide doesn’t turn off.

         Method 1: Turn Off Screen Reader/Audio Guide

The first thing you can do when the Roku TV’s voice narration feature becomes active is try to disable it with accessibility settings.

One of the accessibility modes on your Roku TV, the Screen Reader, is designed to help visually impaired people, letting them know where they are on the Roku TV screen. However, for a person with no disability, this feature is of no use and can be turned on if you mistakenly press the asterisk button on your Roku remote controller.

Here are two ways of disabling the Screen Reader mode on Roku TV.

                  With Remote Shortcut  

Suppose you have mistakenly pressed the asterisk button on your Roku TV remote. In that case, the only way to disable the Screen Reader feature is by pressing the asterisk button four times quickly. If this works, you will receive an Audio Guide disabled message on your TV screen.

However, pressing the button on your Roku remote control does not solve the problem; you should try the following method.

With Accessibility Setting

You can also disable the Screen Reader function from the Roku TV. To do this, follow the below steps:

·   On your TV screen, go to the Roku app home screen. Here, go to the Settings tab.

·   Now, click on the Accessibility option.

·   Here, select the Screen Reader or Audio Guide button.

·   Under this section, select the Off option to disable the feature.

After this, your Roku TV’s voice should get turned off. If this does not happen, you can try the following method.

         Method 2: Change Audio Track

Another method you can opt for if you cannot turn down the Roku TV’s sound is changing the audio track within the home screen. 

The audio settings in Roku allow you to have simple audio options and ones that offer an audio description feature.

There are two different types of sound settings in Roku. One allows for simple options, while the other provides audio with description features.

While the primary audio language option would offer language support when required, the language option with audio description support would describe all scenes, dialogues, and even sound effects.

Here’s what you can do it stop it:

  • Go to the Roku TV app and play a video so that you know the voice narrator is working on your device. 
  • Now, pause the video and press the asterisk button on the Roku TV remote controller. 
  • It will pop up in the menu tab. Here, click on the Accessibility & Captions option.
  • Within the Accessibility menu, go to the Audio Track tab.
  • After this, go to the selected audio language and see if its description says Audio Description and other details; you should know that the chosen language is incorrect.
  • There will be another option for the same language without the Audi Description add-on. Select that language option.

It will change the audio track on the Roku TV app and shut down the annoying voice narrator on your TV. However, if the problem persists, you should move to the next solution to resolve this voiceover issue.

        Method 3: Turn Off Menu Voice

If the above method is not helpful, you could switch off the voice control or audio guide on Roku TV by turning off the menu voice. Follow one of the below options if the audio guide is off but still talking:

  • Go to the Settings menu and press the asterisk button four times quickly. It would switch off the menu voice.
  • Alternatively, you can also disable the audio by going into the Accessibility menu, and in the Speech rate and volume section, you can now reduce the levels. 
  • You can also go to the Settings menu and disable the menu voice option altogether.

You can choose one of the above three options to disable the menu voice and switch off the Roku TV audio guide.

Watch this video for more information;

         Method 4: Turn Off Narrator on Roku (Disney+)

The following solution will help you resolve how to turn off the narrator on Disney Plus Roku TV. You can do this by turning off the narrator. Here is how you can do it by turning the Audio descriptions off.

  • Open and start playback for a movie or series in the Roku TV app, which has audio Descriptions available.
  • Now, select the Subtitles and Audio option in the movie’s playback controls by swiping down on the screen.
  • After this, go to the Accessibility menu and select the Audio Track option. 
  • Here, select an audio track or language option that does not have Audio Description mentioned in the details section. 
  • The audio track will change, and the audio description will disappear when you play the movie again.

Hence, this will turn off the narrator option on the Roku app.

         Method 5: Disable Descriptive Audio

Another accessibility feature is Descriptive Audio, which helps you by narrating voice captions on the screen. It includes dialogues, song lyrics, and sound effects. This feature is default switched off but can function without switching on in several streaming apps such as Hulu, Netflix, etc.

You can disable the Descriptive Audio option by switching off the Audio Guide.

Remember to go to Settings tab > Accessibility tab > Audio Guide and select the Off button. It will disable the Descriptive Audio option.

The method to disable the Descriptive Audio option varies for different streaming apps. The steps mentioned above apply to the Roku TV app. Below are some other streaming apps and where you can find the proper controls to disable this feature in these apps.

  • Netflix– In the Netflix app, you will have to press the Up button on the Netflix remote controller to look at the various language options available. Once you have the options on the screen, you can change the language selection from an Audio Description language to another option for the same language without the Audio Description option. 

Forex.: If the select shows English – Audio Description as the language, find English without audio description above/below this option and select it to disable the narration.

  • Prime Video– For the Prime Video app, you can use the Roku remote control and press the Up button and when the screen pops up, click on the Audio & Languages option. Select the language option without an audio description to disable this annoying feature.
  • HBO Max– To remove the audio description option for the HBO Max app, press the asterisk button on your Roku remote controller and select the Accessibility & Captions tab. Here, go to the Audio Track option and select a language that does not have an audio description added in the details.
  • Apple TV– In Apple TV, you can click on the Settings icon at the top of the app’s home screen and select Accessibility tab > Audio Descriptions > and select Off option.
  • Hulu– Last on the list is Hulu streaming app. To disable the descriptive audio option, press the Up button on your Roku remote controller. Now, go to the Settings option and the Audio section. Select a language option that does not show an audio description under the details section.

If the TV set is a traditional cable TV connected to the Roku TV app, you might want to disconnect the cable network’s Secondary Audio Programming (SAP). Cable TV programming can also cause descriptive audio issues.

   Conclusion

With the help of the above mentioned methods, you will be able to resolve the unwanted audio descriptions on your Roku TV, saving you some trouble listening to descriptive dialogues and scenes you can understand without help.

I hope this solves your issues with the Roku TV app. Also, to remind you what we have learned in this article, here is a list of everything discussed in the text above.

  • You can turn Off the Screen Reader
  • Go with the audio track option
  • Switch off the menu voice
  • Turn off the narrator option
  • Disable the Descriptive Audio feature
  • Customize Voice Guide on Roku