A narrator voice and stuck captions are separate switches
This is the call we get from half of Bakersfield’s grandparents, and it is nearly always an accessibility shortcut pressed by accident. Know which problem you have: a voice reading the menus aloud is a screen reader; a voice describing the action in shows (“he walks to the door”) is audio description, a separate audio track; and text on screen is captions. Each has its own off switch — and its own accidental on switch.
Samsung — Voice Guide
Settings → General (& Privacy) → Accessibility → Voice Guide Settings → Off. The accidental trigger: holding the volume button opens the accessibility shortcut — which is exactly how it got turned on. Show narration instead? Same Accessibility menu → Audio Description → Off.
LG — Audio Guidance
Press and hold the Mute button until the Accessibility menu appears, then switch Audio Guidance off. LG’s own docs note that show-content narration usually comes from the streaming app or cable box, not the TV — if a voice still describes the action, check the app’s audio-track menu next.
Roku — the four-press star trick
Roku’s menu narrator is the Screen Reader, and pressing the star (*) button four times quickly toggles it — both on and off. That quadruple-press is precisely how it gets enabled by a remote in a couch cushion. Menu path: Settings → Accessibility → Screen reader.
Fire TV — VoiceView
Hold Back + Menu (the three-line button) together about four seconds until it announces “VoiceView exiting.” For show narration: Settings → Accessibility → Audio Description → Off, and in Prime Video check the playback audio track is not the “[Audio Description]” one.
Vizio — Talk Back
Menu → System / Accessibility → Talk Back → Off. Described shows on Vizio usually ride the alternate audio (SAP) track — set Audio → SAP/Audio Language back to English.
Cable box narrating? It’s the SAP track
On Spectrum boxes look under Settings & Support → Accessibility for Audio Description (SAP), or set the audio language back to English — described video is delivered as a second audio stream.
Text you cannot get rid of
Captions have three layers — the TV, the streaming app, and the cable box — and the one showing text wins. Turn off the TV layer first: Samsung under Accessibility → Caption Settings; LG under Accessibility → Closed Captions; Roku under Settings → Captions (note the sneaky “On replay” mode, which pops captions up only after you rewind — that one confuses everybody). If text persists in one app only, the app’s own subtitle setting is the culprit — on most apps it lives right on the playback screen under the speech-bubble icon.
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More guides: Samsung & LG remote fixes · Fix a Roku remote · Fix a Spectrum cable box
Quick answers
My TV suddenly describes everything happening in the show.
That is Audio Description — an alternate audio track, not a TV malfunction. Turn it off in the TV’s Accessibility menu, and if it persists in one app, switch that app’s audio track back to standard English.
The menus talk but shows sound normal — what turned that on?
An accessibility shortcut: holding volume on Samsung remotes, holding Mute on LG, four star-presses on Roku. Couch cushions and toddlers are the usual suspects, and the same shortcut turns it back off.
Captions only appear when I rewind, then disappear.
That is Roku’s “On replay” captions mode working as designed — set Captions mode to Off to stop it entirely.
Captions are on in one app but nowhere else.
Streaming apps keep their own subtitle settings per profile. Open the app’s playback screen, find the speech-bubble or CC icon, and turn subtitles off there.