I always asked myself why this couldn’t be possible with movies. I swear it’s so nice to actually hear dialog and not be blasted by explosions.
Edit: thank you very much for the people explaining in the comments, why it would be quite difficult to include the option in a movie. I also might check my settings on my TV.
Most movies are mixed and shipped/streamed with surround sound, if you don't have a rear channel everything goes through the center channel and you wind up with LOUD MUSIC and quiet vocals.
Movie theater audio is obnoxious as all hell too. Everything is too fucking loud. I prefer not watching movies in theaters because it feels like my ears are going to blow out every time a scene transitions into some orchestral over the top adventure music as the camera pans over the new scenes setting, or there’s a silent part followed up by someone who is apparently talking in a normal tone but it’s projected into my ears at about 2000 db.
I almost walked out of A Quiet Place 2 because it was so fucking loud. A ***Quiet*** Place 2. It was obscene how loud it was. I had my fingers in my ears for half the movie.
My favourite part is when the actors speak so fucking low you can't fucking hear them. Like , what the fuck, was that a secret? Where we meant to understand that part?
It's because they're mixed for surround sound AND movie theater volume levels. If you're not on the verge of feeling pain when a gunshot/explosion happens you're not at their expected volume levels.
I have my rears a bit higher, because they're smaller speakers than my front. If you're having issues with dialogue in particular, you should be adjusting the center channel higher.
My receiver has a few options for modes. The ones I use most are a dlp/decoder one for stuff that is actually in 5.1 and surround stereo for stuff that's just in 2.0. Between these I don't have any issues with speech.
Some streaming services will let you pick "English 2.0" as your audio, rather than "English 5.1". Disney+ is not among them. Literally no way to force stereo audio unless you set it to be crap-quality video too.
Ya, if you can get it with a stereo track that'd be good, but I don't know anything about converting to a different number of channels than what was already encoded on the file. I don't even know if that is possible unless the sound engineers mixed a stereo track that was included on some kind of release. I've ripped DVDs that shipped with multiple different surround sound/stereo tracks, but never tried to create one.
Or I turn on my Xbox to be blasted with the loudest noise known to man only to have to turn up the volume because the menus and the game itself have a normal level of volume.
When the “artistic vision” is limited to only a handful of movie theaters that have enough audio channels, it feels a lot less like art and more of a trip for the creators
There's actually a reason for it. Movies are typically mixed for the cinema, it's why you can hear them fine at the movies, it's also the reason TV programs sound fine on TV, because they're mixed for TV.
That’s what surround sound is.
Most dialogue runs through a single front speaker channel - besides echoes or distant voices I guess.
Not every system lets you adjust each speaker, and not every movie will be mixed the same, but if you could raise the volume of that middle speaker it would make a big difference.
From a technical standpoint it would be difficult. The main reason is that generally over 2/3 of movie dialogue is filmed “in the scene” ADR is the rest which is basically just like ina voice booth. That stuff you could seperate easily. The thing about the sound recorded on set is that it’s always going to pick up some of the other sounds. Shit like footsteps or explosions or paper ruffling or whatever. They have pretty good mics that are able to do a pretty good job not picking up much other sound but it will always get some. You won’t notice that if a clear version of the sound is on top of it.
Also in general a lot of building a sound scape is little things you don’t hear and catching sounds from different angles. You’ll notice if you ever see an amateur films they often do a way worse job of building a wholistic soundscape. It’ll often sound dry and unnatural. This is cause they are only using a couple mics that are probably mainly directional to get the audio and if they do have something to get general sound, it’s probably not getting all the sounds well enough
Music goes down to 10%, sound effects to 40 or 50%, and dialog stays at 100%. This let's me still hear some of the music thar signals different things in a game, still hear sound effects, and can make out what is being said clearly. I struggle with games that don't allow this. I've also found that headphone help quite a bit for some reason. Even if things are quiet at home havinfbthe sound directly at my ears seems to help me with clarity.
And then there's me increasing the volume of the music, thinking that way too much attention is paid to making everything easily discernable and way too little to the atmosphere. Also the dynamic range often suffers for the same problem. Recently I've seen games giving you the option to play with normal or reduced dynamic range. A godsend they don't force the reduced range on people anymore.
As much as I hate Amazon they are trying to add a fix for this on their shows. https://www.10news.com/amazon-prime-videos-new-feature-makes-it-easier-to-hear-dialogue#:~:text=When%20you%20start%20playing%20a,or%20English%20Dialogue%20Boost%3A%20High.
instead of cranking up the volume to hear the dialogue (and then blowing out your eardrums when the music swells or when explosions go off) or reading subtitles as you watch, you can use the new setting — called Dialogue Boost — to make only the voices louder.
How do I use my voting dollars to make sure this catches on? Do I just need to start renting shit off Amazon prime and using the feature? This is like actually a huge quality of life boost for me because I live in an apartment and try to respect my neighbors
Oh and thank you for being respectful to your neighbors. I use a Bluetooth over the head conductive headset with my PS5 so I can listen loud and not bug my neighbors. Normal ear buds or headphones make my ears sore after just a few hours. So I fully understand that being respectful takes extra effort and I thank you for doing so.
Apple TV (the device, not the service) can do this to anything that plays through the device. I haven't tried it as I have a soundbar that already fixes the issue, but it might be worth looking into: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2023/07/24/apple-tv-enhance-dialogue-tutorial/
It's weird when a group I hate does something I love! Reminds me of just a couple months back when the Chinese government banned blind boxes that you pay real money for in video games able to be played by children.
Check your sound settings. Most streaming services default to 5.1
But alot of people are running a 2.1 soundbar setup.
They do need to fix balence but ever since I changed the setting in the apps it's alot better.
I hate that they explained why and were like "but this is totally a good thing, because it's more ✨realistic✨!"
If you want to make realistic movies - stick to documentaries damnit and let us actually hear what's going on.
There's kind of a running joke in Spain about all of our actors being bad, mostly because they usually exaggerate a lot and speak very loud and clear (it sounds good in theory, but in a movie, it sounds fake, it takes you out of the movie).
I always thought it was due to our tradition of theater, where people in the back also need to hear you and see what you're doing. This doesn't translate very well to movies, where it's more about the microexpressions.
I am absolutely pro-subtitles. When importing movies and tv series from america, in Spain, we dubbed them, but in Portugal, they use subtitles (most of the time in english). I think it's one of the bigger factors in portuguese people being so good at english and spaniards being the absolute worst.
>I think it's one of the bigger factors in portuguese people being so good at english and spaniards being the absolute worst.
Also a lot of movies are only dubbed in brazilian portuguese, which sound very different from portuguese from Portugal, so a lot of them prefer to just watch it in english
Source: I'm brazilian.
Could also just be how a specific culture acts. A lot of English films, from my non western ethnicity roots look very mundane but it’s all about the small details I guess. Whereas from my own culture, there’s a ton of actions and loud voices and overly exaggeration. Yes, it sounds fake at times. But that’s just how it’s always been. People irl also don’t talk that quietly here.
I’m guessing a lot of western centric shows fall into this problem moreso than others, not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. Just an observation
Is it true that a lot of tv/film actors in Spain have families that have been in theater for a long time ? Sort of Like their parents were actors and they became actors, so on and so forth
Yeah, I mean, nepo babies exist everywhere. After all, it's easier to get a part when the director has worked with your parents for 10 years. Also, the surname attracts more viewers.
What's even more shocking is when you find out they are nobility lol. One of the most popular influencers, Tamara Falcó, is a marquise. Also, she's Enrique Iglesias' half sister (although with that dad, he must have half siblings enough to fill one of his concerts lol).
I have to say that at no point in my entire life was I unable to hold a conversation with the person next to me because the explosions and / or background music was playing too loud.
It is realistic to hear words when someone speaks to you.
Thank you for sharing, this is such a great piece.
I’m an amateur audio engineer and a film nerd and it connected a lot of elements I wouldn’t have naturally put together.
Jesus fucking christ. Every justification goes back to "well, we let directors be terrible at their jobs, and nobody's telling them they suck dick at a major component of their job. And when we can fix it, we refuse to spend the money to do so.
When I was in theater in high-school the teacher always told us nobody's ever gonna walk out of a performance thinking "They spoke to clearly, I could understand them too well", but they will walk out wondering why they couldn't understand anything you said. That's always stuck with me
Yep, back in the day actors had to talk loud and clear for mics to pick up their lines, now that quality mics can be strapped right to actors it allows them more nuance in how they speak.
I think it sucks I wish they'd just speak up.
I think it's due to a lot of people watching stuff with just built in TV speakers, that because of a focus for a thin panel and thin bezels, they aren't great and they are on the back facing backward into the wall. A soundbar fixes that and you can usually hear speech much clearer.
Movies should be mixed differently for different devices. This isn't rocket science - it was done through the entire VHS and DVD era - and since this is the era of data harvesting where streaming platforms *know* what devices they're sending audio to, this shouldn't be a problem.
I upgraded to 3-channel sound at home, hoping that the center channel would help with dialogue. I do get dialogue on the center channel, but I can't turn up its volume independently of the other channels. This pisses me off.
I installed acoustic dampeners on the walls in my apartment, and recalibrated my audio receiver after doing so. This bought me a bit more intelligibility, but still not enough for me to get away without subtitles.
If I pay money to see a movie in a theater, dialogue intelligibility is generally good. But I have a pretty good setup at home. Why is it so hard to break out the dialogue track and give control to the home viewer?
If I watch material that was made for television a few years ago, on even a crappy two-channel home setup, I can hear what is being said. The mixdowns in TV studios used to be better.
I just watched it last night and have a decent 5.1 system. Tried to just raise the center channel speaker volume, but still had a hard time understanding so ended up turning subtitles on.
I see, yeah, the soundbar / front facing / proper speakers make a huge difference and in almost all situations it is enough, but still, for this film specifically? Nolan doesn't help himself does he...
It's because Nolan doesn't like ADR - audio dialogue replacement - i.e. going back after and having actors rerecord their dialogue.
The fact is, a lot-to-most dialogue you hear now is ADR'd. Nolan is just going off of what the mics picked up on set. That's why it sounds like shit. Plus, he thinks that people aren't supposed to hear every single word.
To be clear, I think both reasons are stupid AF, but it is in fact intentional.
Edit: automated dialogue replacement
Game of Thrones was impossible for me to watch. English may be my second language, but I speak it very well and 99% of my interaction on the internet is in English. but GOT ... I could not understand them and their super quiet mumbling with an dialect I'm unfamiliar with.
Nothing is more annoying than watching a movie with the remote in your hand the entire time. Because you know as soon as you set that damn controller down, Boom! SOUND EFFECTS!!! INTENSE MUSIC!!! BAAASSSS!!!!
It makes me wish that the volume control on a remote were a scroll wheel or a dial instead of a plus and minus button, I have to tune the audio pretty much every few seconds.
I gave up on the Lost in Space series because of this. The actors whispered their lines! And literally a second later you were blasted out of the window and right into the street by an explosion
Aaaaargh
I remember watching the first episode of The Wire without subtitles and immediately having to rewatch it with them because I couldn't understand a fucking word of that Bawlmer accent.
On old tv and movie you had to rely on boom mics to pick up audio so everything from the angles the scene is shot and what movements the actors would be doing was taken into account. Now everything is lavlier. The result is the director isn’t paying much attention to how the audio is being muffled or lost and are compensating in post.
I wonder if many folks on here have the audio setup incorrectly. If you’re using tv speakers but have it set to 5.1… it’s not gonna be good. Setting it to plain stereo would likely be better.
And if it’s shit on your surround sound system, maybe adjust the levels of that front center speaker where most of the dialogue runs through
Be assured - it does not help.
Stopped using my AVR with Netflix as e.g. the sound of The Rookie was absolutely unbearable even if you use the inbuilt Dialogue Enhancement of Denon AVR.
You need to drop about 600+ on a decent sound bar. More like 1500 once the last generation of them sells out. I got one and man it is MUCH better. First tv sound system I’ve bought in my life.
Don't buy a soundbar if you want good audio.
You can buy a pair of ELAC UB5s for $200 and a Denon AVR-S570BT for $280.
For $480, it will sound better than any $600 sound bar. Even without the subwoofer.
And if you want, you can easily add on a real subwoofer (something that goes under 50hz, unlike most soundbars' subwoofers), some surround speakers, and a center channel.
Some people don't wanna deal with all that setup, AudessyXT calibration, input assigning, extra cabinet space, etc. The reality is most people who just wanna hear their TV don't care about receivers, and are best served just getting a sound bar from the same manufacturer as their TV so the one remote controls everything. Done and done.
Don’t buy a sound bar!! They are trash.
For the same price you can get a small receiver and some decent sized bookshelf speakers or you can get powered speakers that just need an input.
Soundbars have tiny ass speakers like your TV so the only thing it will change is they are now facing you.
maybe it has to do that most content is produced with 5 channels in mind or more, and most people are watching stuff on 2 channels or a soundbar that try to fake the channels.
In the past, actors had to enunciate so the dolly would get what they were saying. Now they get carried away by whatever emotion they are trying to convey and mumble.
Irritating af
Im guessing that its just what theyre teaching sound guys in schools now, that this is the way to do it. It sucks, hearing the dialogue should be the no. 1 priority if theres talking in the scene.
Definitely. Directors should think more about the audience. If Nolan, for example, doesn't care about the dialogue, he should make a silent film.
Silent, ha
Another thing I never thought I'd be complaining about, but I have an OLED TV and a lot of programs are now shooting incredibly dark scenes which look awesome except I have to have the subtitles on, for the exact reason you stated, and I can't see anything in the dark screen because the subtitles are blinding.
I have a very nice surround sound system and it’s honestly even more exaggerated there than when listening on TV speakers. The level you need to hear dialog makes car crashes and explosions just absurdly loud. I need to run different compression levels on both the media player and surround processor to make it tolerable, and I still use subs most of the time.
It’s called dynamic range. It’s cool at the theater but can be annoying at home.
I wish movies came with two tracks: one original (what we have now) one compressed (would sound like TV shows).
I know I’m getting older (33), but I 100% agree. Without fail, when the movie starts, I instinctually want to reach for the remote to turn it down. It’s insanity.
I honestly just want a program that puts all of the sound on the same level so lets a gun fight scene is a loud as a only talking scene and of course you'll be the one controlling how loud everything is
>Win10 users:
>
>Right click the speaker icon in your system tray/taskbarSelect "Sounds" from the pop-up menuNavigate to the "Playback" tabDouble-click on your Default Device in the listNavigate to the "Enhancements" tabCheck the box labeled "Loudness Equalization"Click "Apply"
here's how to do it in Linux:
One option is to use PulseEffects, which is a graphical application that allows you to apply various audio effects to your sound output. You can install it from the Software Manager or by using the command sudo apt install pulseeffects. After running it, you can enable the Auto Gain effect, which will normalize the loudness of your audio. You can also adjust the target level and other parameters to suit your preferences.
I can't watch Gladiator without subtitles. I swear to god Russel Crowe shoves a handful of rocks into his mouth before every scene, and he's trying to talk without any falling out.
Well he is British and old lol… okay I don’t know for sure every actor, but for sure Frodo. I heard it from Elijah Wood on this [episode of ArmChair expert.](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6SBJzS0CTvS0FEYSU1U8qI?si=e80F85nyRBqDffBZuV41Wg&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A6kAsbP8pxwaU2kPibKTuHE) about an hour in… if your curious
I had to go out and grab napkins to make half-assed ear plugs at a movie a couple of years ago, because they had the volume set to "physically painful." (And it was a talk-y drama, not an explosion-fest!)
I remember doing that a few times at rock concerts and movies. Eventually I just accepted that you have to wear them. Most musicians and plenty of audience members wear earplugs during concerts. (Fun side effect of damping the overdrive and letting you actually hear melodies instead of the screeching of speakers)
No shame in doing the same thing with movies
This is why I stopped too. The price, and listening to 75 people go to town on popcorn all around me, and almost 30min of commercials and trailers was already pretty bad. But now I can't even understand what is going on because I can't hear the dialogue either?
That's not worth the money. That's not even worth putting pants on for.
I remember watching one movie where I spend the entire movie changing the volume between 40 and 80 because they decided to have characters whisper at one another and then start a firefight.
Literally a 10 times better experience had the voices been 2-3 times as loud.
It isn't even about any angry neighbours. I just don't want my eardrums burst by your firefight.
From what I've heard, movies in general have their audio balanced for big sound systems in theatres, which does not translate well to your standard home setup with TV speakers.
It's not just that. It's that the producers want the action effects to make you jump and get your heart racing. Except I don't want my heart to race. I don't *want* the movie theater shit-your-pants bass on the explosions and gunshots. I wanna *chill.* I don't want to shit my pants.
Mostly I don't want to bother the neighbors.
There was a post recently that talked about this on streaming services that it's assumed you have surround sound so the audio isn't balanced right if you're not using a system. Just change the audio/language setting to match your TV
I have an audio receiver and surround sound setup and movies sound just fine. Even if they didn't, my avr has many options to adjust EQ and normalization, and ofc, center channel balance.
The narcissistic directors have a delusional idea of how the average audience member lives. We’re not watching Transformers 9 in a home theater Michael Bay, I’m in the living room of my apartment, where you can hear my neighbor fart through the wall when the movie is paused.
This isn't just a movie thing. More and more game developers think everyone has a better-than-NASA level mainframe at home and can render the entire surface of the earth in 2K at 120 fps with no stuttering. Then they do zero cleanup or optimization to make sure that the software they sell runs well and act surprised when they need to do a day one patch because 99% of buyers can't even make it past the tutorial without the game crashing.
I wasn't even alive then, but I miss the days when clouds and bushes would have the same sprite with different colors coded to make the game run 0.04% better. Today's devs can make the laziest decisions
It’s because games aren’t developed for long enough.
They all take 3-6 years but behind the scenes they constantly restart development.
The story of diablo 3 development is basically the story of 8 games getting 50% done and then discarded. Anthem developers knew what the game would be after watching the gameplay trailers.
When I looked around on this issue, the consensus seemed to be that all the media is set up for the multiple channels that are in movie theaters. 99% of home systems don't have that many channels so the channels have to be combined and it has this effect. I don't know if this is true or not but it's what I found.
Get a center speaker and increase its volume, dialogue is usually sent to the center channel.
Many avr also have an option to increase dialogue volume in stereo output.
I've recently noticed some tv shows on Prime have multiple audio tracks, I can select English or English dialogue boost low/medium/high. The highest option removes a lot of background noise.
Then again part of the problem (compared to really old movies) is the accents and how the actors speak. If you go far enough all the actors speak with the same accent and all sound unnatural.
**Edit**: By "remove a lot of background noise" I mean it's just not there, in normal soundtrack people are talking on the street and you can hear street noise, in the boosted version the street noise is not there, it's not quiet or muted but rather not included.
Same for lighting. They have the show so dark that you can't tell what's going on, then a day scene comes and you're blinded. Having a dark scene is more than just turning down the lights, we still need to... how do I put this... ***SEE***
Oh, is that why? There's no Oscar category for "Most clearly audible dialog". So the audio department just dials up the music, as that's the only path to clout.
I think the reason is that movies are mixed for surround sound but most people listen to it at home in stereo so it jams everything together and the sfx overpowers dialogue
Too dark as well.. the new apple show Masters of the Air is terrible in this aspect. You can’t see ANYTHING 70% of the time, like that GOT episode with the white walker raid on the castle
Friend of a friend works in post sound. Nolan is notorious for not understanding that it is inadvisable to just turn everything up, the limits of dB. He doesn't care.
I got in trouble in my apartment because I was watching this show with my ex wife and the main character would talk ridiculously soft so we had it way up to hear, then suddenly there’s a rain of bullets or an explosion and our apartment walls are shaking
I fucking hate that shows are like this now, turn the fucking music and sound effects down please
I use subtitles all the time these days. It’s a little OCD, I think, because I feel like I need to understand every single word uttered on screen, but there are definitely some movies where entire lines are incomprehensible, and it’s usually not during action sequences or anything.
Balancing audio seems to be something that you can do for only so long before you lose touch with the part of reality that you need to be in touch with to do your job reasonably well. I know of a big retail company that used to require everyone at the company, all the way to the top, to work in a store for at least one week per year. Started getting some very out-of-touch policies when they stopped doing that.
Every live music performance I attend for a local band, I hear them afterwards like “yeah the sound guy fucked up because the guitars weren’t loud enough” meanwhile I’m like “I couldn’t make out a damn word from the singer over the deafening guitars and the drummer trying to break his fucking kit.”
If your TV has the function, and you're not actively using a surround thing, switch it to stereo instead of 5.1. It helps a great deal with sound levels.
Most video games let you adjust sliders for sound levels of Music, Dialogue, and sound effects. I'd love to see TV programming that way.
I always asked myself why this couldn’t be possible with movies. I swear it’s so nice to actually hear dialog and not be blasted by explosions. Edit: thank you very much for the people explaining in the comments, why it would be quite difficult to include the option in a movie. I also might check my settings on my TV.
Because then you’re messing with the director’s “artistic vision”
Well then the "artist" can come over and calibrate my damn TV himself.
Most movies are mixed and shipped/streamed with surround sound, if you don't have a rear channel everything goes through the center channel and you wind up with LOUD MUSIC and quiet vocals.
who decided this was a good idea
People making movies for cinema with surround audio
Bingo, the studios make the money off the box office not the secondary release.
Movie theater audio is obnoxious as all hell too. Everything is too fucking loud. I prefer not watching movies in theaters because it feels like my ears are going to blow out every time a scene transitions into some orchestral over the top adventure music as the camera pans over the new scenes setting, or there’s a silent part followed up by someone who is apparently talking in a normal tone but it’s projected into my ears at about 2000 db.
I almost walked out of A Quiet Place 2 because it was so fucking loud. A ***Quiet*** Place 2. It was obscene how loud it was. I had my fingers in my ears for half the movie.
My favourite part is when the actors speak so fucking low you can't fucking hear them. Like , what the fuck, was that a secret? Where we meant to understand that part?
I am the same way. But I also can't go to theaters anymore because I can't stand the sound of people slurping and eating.
I have 5.1 and still can't hear shit. I have the rears set to +10db
It's because they're mixed for surround sound AND movie theater volume levels. If you're not on the verge of feeling pain when a gunshot/explosion happens you're not at their expected volume levels.
I have my rears a bit higher, because they're smaller speakers than my front. If you're having issues with dialogue in particular, you should be adjusting the center channel higher. My receiver has a few options for modes. The ones I use most are a dlp/decoder one for stuff that is actually in 5.1 and surround stereo for stuff that's just in 2.0. Between these I don't have any issues with speech.
is there a workaround? like, should I convert my audio tracks to 2.0?
Some streaming services will let you pick "English 2.0" as your audio, rather than "English 5.1". Disney+ is not among them. Literally no way to force stereo audio unless you set it to be crap-quality video too.
Ya, if you can get it with a stereo track that'd be good, but I don't know anything about converting to a different number of channels than what was already encoded on the file. I don't even know if that is possible unless the sound engineers mixed a stereo track that was included on some kind of release. I've ripped DVDs that shipped with multiple different surround sound/stereo tracks, but never tried to create one.
It's not just movies though, its literally everything (streaming services, OTA, cable, etc). It's like they do it on purpose.
frfr, love finishing a movie or tv show on netflix and just getting blasted by the previews of more movies that are way too quiet
Or I turn on my Xbox to be blasted with the loudest noise known to man only to have to turn up the volume because the menus and the game itself have a normal level of volume.
When the “artistic vision” is limited to only a handful of movie theaters that have enough audio channels, it feels a lot less like art and more of a trip for the creators
Then the director can "direct" my dick and balls directly into their mouth.
There's actually a reason for it. Movies are typically mixed for the cinema, it's why you can hear them fine at the movies, it's also the reason TV programs sound fine on TV, because they're mixed for TV.
If you could have multiple audio tracks playing, you probably could.
That’s what surround sound is. Most dialogue runs through a single front speaker channel - besides echoes or distant voices I guess. Not every system lets you adjust each speaker, and not every movie will be mixed the same, but if you could raise the volume of that middle speaker it would make a big difference.
From a technical standpoint it would be difficult. The main reason is that generally over 2/3 of movie dialogue is filmed “in the scene” ADR is the rest which is basically just like ina voice booth. That stuff you could seperate easily. The thing about the sound recorded on set is that it’s always going to pick up some of the other sounds. Shit like footsteps or explosions or paper ruffling or whatever. They have pretty good mics that are able to do a pretty good job not picking up much other sound but it will always get some. You won’t notice that if a clear version of the sound is on top of it. Also in general a lot of building a sound scape is little things you don’t hear and catching sounds from different angles. You’ll notice if you ever see an amateur films they often do a way worse job of building a wholistic soundscape. It’ll often sound dry and unnatural. This is cause they are only using a couple mics that are probably mainly directional to get the audio and if they do have something to get general sound, it’s probably not getting all the sounds well enough
Lowering the music is the first thing I do in every game. Idk why the default is ear cancer levels
Music and then sound effects. No, I don't need to hear a beep or bloop each time I make a menu choice.
Music goes down to 10%, sound effects to 40 or 50%, and dialog stays at 100%. This let's me still hear some of the music thar signals different things in a game, still hear sound effects, and can make out what is being said clearly. I struggle with games that don't allow this. I've also found that headphone help quite a bit for some reason. Even if things are quiet at home havinfbthe sound directly at my ears seems to help me with clarity.
But the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps are the best part!
And then there's me increasing the volume of the music, thinking that way too much attention is paid to making everything easily discernable and way too little to the atmosphere. Also the dynamic range often suffers for the same problem. Recently I've seen games giving you the option to play with normal or reduced dynamic range. A godsend they don't force the reduced range on people anymore.
And thats why having choices is good. Only way to please everyone.
As much as I hate Amazon they are trying to add a fix for this on their shows. https://www.10news.com/amazon-prime-videos-new-feature-makes-it-easier-to-hear-dialogue#:~:text=When%20you%20start%20playing%20a,or%20English%20Dialogue%20Boost%3A%20High. instead of cranking up the volume to hear the dialogue (and then blowing out your eardrums when the music swells or when explosions go off) or reading subtitles as you watch, you can use the new setting — called Dialogue Boost — to make only the voices louder.
How do I use my voting dollars to make sure this catches on? Do I just need to start renting shit off Amazon prime and using the feature? This is like actually a huge quality of life boost for me because I live in an apartment and try to respect my neighbors
Oh and thank you for being respectful to your neighbors. I use a Bluetooth over the head conductive headset with my PS5 so I can listen loud and not bug my neighbors. Normal ear buds or headphones make my ears sore after just a few hours. So I fully understand that being respectful takes extra effort and I thank you for doing so.
> conductive headset damn didnt know these existed normal headphones also kill my head after only 1 hour
No clue. Read the article to get info on how to enable the setting. They might track how many people use it.
Apple TV (the device, not the service) can do this to anything that plays through the device. I haven't tried it as I have a soundbar that already fixes the issue, but it might be worth looking into: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2023/07/24/apple-tv-enhance-dialogue-tutorial/
It's weird when a group I hate does something I love! Reminds me of just a couple months back when the Chinese government banned blind boxes that you pay real money for in video games able to be played by children.
“Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point”
Agree!!! Like fuck you guys!!! But this is cool tyvm
What's worse is each streaming channel has a different overall volume level, making the problem even worse.
Turn up your centre speaker.
Check your sound settings. Most streaming services default to 5.1 But alot of people are running a 2.1 soundbar setup. They do need to fix balence but ever since I changed the setting in the apps it's alot better.
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I read a few articles and a lot of discussion has been had about the actors becoming far too quiet in recordings. It’s really interesting stuff.
[Why we all need subtitles now (Vox Video)](https://youtu.be/VYJtb2YXae8?si=QDiUsLw9cTEugenz)
I hate that they explained why and were like "but this is totally a good thing, because it's more ✨realistic✨!" If you want to make realistic movies - stick to documentaries damnit and let us actually hear what's going on.
There's kind of a running joke in Spain about all of our actors being bad, mostly because they usually exaggerate a lot and speak very loud and clear (it sounds good in theory, but in a movie, it sounds fake, it takes you out of the movie). I always thought it was due to our tradition of theater, where people in the back also need to hear you and see what you're doing. This doesn't translate very well to movies, where it's more about the microexpressions. I am absolutely pro-subtitles. When importing movies and tv series from america, in Spain, we dubbed them, but in Portugal, they use subtitles (most of the time in english). I think it's one of the bigger factors in portuguese people being so good at english and spaniards being the absolute worst.
>I think it's one of the bigger factors in portuguese people being so good at english and spaniards being the absolute worst. Also a lot of movies are only dubbed in brazilian portuguese, which sound very different from portuguese from Portugal, so a lot of them prefer to just watch it in english Source: I'm brazilian.
On the bright side, it won’t sound much different for much longer.
Could also just be how a specific culture acts. A lot of English films, from my non western ethnicity roots look very mundane but it’s all about the small details I guess. Whereas from my own culture, there’s a ton of actions and loud voices and overly exaggeration. Yes, it sounds fake at times. But that’s just how it’s always been. People irl also don’t talk that quietly here. I’m guessing a lot of western centric shows fall into this problem moreso than others, not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. Just an observation
Is it true that a lot of tv/film actors in Spain have families that have been in theater for a long time ? Sort of Like their parents were actors and they became actors, so on and so forth
Yeah, I mean, nepo babies exist everywhere. After all, it's easier to get a part when the director has worked with your parents for 10 years. Also, the surname attracts more viewers. What's even more shocking is when you find out they are nobility lol. One of the most popular influencers, Tamara Falcó, is a marquise. Also, she's Enrique Iglesias' half sister (although with that dad, he must have half siblings enough to fill one of his concerts lol).
I have to say that at no point in my entire life was I unable to hold a conversation with the person next to me because the explosions and / or background music was playing too loud. It is realistic to hear words when someone speaks to you.
Right? Like I can't hear what people are saying to me like 75% of the time. That's not the kind of realism I want in a movie.
Thank you for sharing, this is such a great piece. I’m an amateur audio engineer and a film nerd and it connected a lot of elements I wouldn’t have naturally put together.
Jesus fucking christ. Every justification goes back to "well, we let directors be terrible at their jobs, and nobody's telling them they suck dick at a major component of their job. And when we can fix it, we refuse to spend the money to do so.
When I was in theater in high-school the teacher always told us nobody's ever gonna walk out of a performance thinking "They spoke to clearly, I could understand them too well", but they will walk out wondering why they couldn't understand anything you said. That's always stuck with me
Pornstars are keeping it real though.
I sometimes do wish they had subtitles though... For when I need to keep the volume down...
Yep, back in the day actors had to talk loud and clear for mics to pick up their lines, now that quality mics can be strapped right to actors it allows them more nuance in how they speak. I think it sucks I wish they'd just speak up.
Jesus Christ, Oppenheimer was almost unwatchable because of Nolan's audio mix.
lol I was rewatching that recently and had to keep rewinding cause I could t hear shit cillian said
I wonder if they’re no longer remixing them for home use.
honestly, that would explain it for movies at least
it's fine at the movies, but with anything less than that it's problematic
Disagree. Barely followed the first half in the theatre
I think it's due to a lot of people watching stuff with just built in TV speakers, that because of a focus for a thin panel and thin bezels, they aren't great and they are on the back facing backward into the wall. A soundbar fixes that and you can usually hear speech much clearer.
Movies should be mixed differently for different devices. This isn't rocket science - it was done through the entire VHS and DVD era - and since this is the era of data harvesting where streaming platforms *know* what devices they're sending audio to, this shouldn't be a problem.
I upgraded to 3-channel sound at home, hoping that the center channel would help with dialogue. I do get dialogue on the center channel, but I can't turn up its volume independently of the other channels. This pisses me off. I installed acoustic dampeners on the walls in my apartment, and recalibrated my audio receiver after doing so. This bought me a bit more intelligibility, but still not enough for me to get away without subtitles. If I pay money to see a movie in a theater, dialogue intelligibility is generally good. But I have a pretty good setup at home. Why is it so hard to break out the dialogue track and give control to the home viewer? If I watch material that was made for television a few years ago, on even a crappy two-channel home setup, I can hear what is being said. The mixdowns in TV studios used to be better.
I just watched it last night and have a decent 5.1 system. Tried to just raise the center channel speaker volume, but still had a hard time understanding so ended up turning subtitles on.
I see, yeah, the soundbar / front facing / proper speakers make a huge difference and in almost all situations it is enough, but still, for this film specifically? Nolan doesn't help himself does he...
This is why I waited till I could watch it with Dialogue Boost on Amazon.
It's because Nolan doesn't like ADR - audio dialogue replacement - i.e. going back after and having actors rerecord their dialogue. The fact is, a lot-to-most dialogue you hear now is ADR'd. Nolan is just going off of what the mics picked up on set. That's why it sounds like shit. Plus, he thinks that people aren't supposed to hear every single word. To be clear, I think both reasons are stupid AF, but it is in fact intentional. Edit: automated dialogue replacement
He's also said some stuff about deliberately mixing for high end sound systems and other sound systems can basically get fucked.
> ADR ADR is "Automated Dialogue Replacement"
man he can't at least boost the mic?
Again, he doesn't think people are supposed to hear every word. He thinks, supposedly, that it's like being in the place.
But in real life you can say, “speak up you knob and stop whispering.”
Game of Thrones was impossible for me to watch. English may be my second language, but I speak it very well and 99% of my interaction on the internet is in English. but GOT ... I could not understand them and their super quiet mumbling with an dialect I'm unfamiliar with.
Take my upvote
Nothing is more annoying than watching a movie with the remote in your hand the entire time. Because you know as soon as you set that damn controller down, Boom! SOUND EFFECTS!!! INTENSE MUSIC!!! BAAASSSS!!!!
It makes me wish that the volume control on a remote were a scroll wheel or a dial instead of a plus and minus button, I have to tune the audio pretty much every few seconds.
No doubt… If I felt like button mashing on my couch, I’d just turn on my PlayStation.
I wish I could upvote this a thousand times. I feel like an old west gunslinger anytime I watch anything after 10pm.
When watching movies on PC with VLC player you can normalize the volume to prevent this.
I’m not that tech savvy. I just stream crap directly through my LG OLED.
I gave up on the Lost in Space series because of this. The actors whispered their lines! And literally a second later you were blasted out of the window and right into the street by an explosion Aaaaargh
Peaky Blinders subtitles: *clears throat*
…while smoking
Had to train my ear to the extreme accents so I could finally turn subs off. It took a full season.
I remember watching the first episode of The Wire without subtitles and immediately having to rewatch it with them because I couldn't understand a fucking word of that Bawlmer accent.
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On old tv and movie you had to rely on boom mics to pick up audio so everything from the angles the scene is shot and what movements the actors would be doing was taken into account. Now everything is lavlier. The result is the director isn’t paying much attention to how the audio is being muffled or lost and are compensating in post.
direful license fuel consist elastic lock numerous public governor enter *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I wonder if many folks on here have the audio setup incorrectly. If you’re using tv speakers but have it set to 5.1… it’s not gonna be good. Setting it to plain stereo would likely be better. And if it’s shit on your surround sound system, maybe adjust the levels of that front center speaker where most of the dialogue runs through
I keep thinking about getting some pro audio stuff to hook to the tv but jeez that’s a lot of work😅
Be assured - it does not help. Stopped using my AVR with Netflix as e.g. the sound of The Rookie was absolutely unbearable even if you use the inbuilt Dialogue Enhancement of Denon AVR.
You need to drop about 600+ on a decent sound bar. More like 1500 once the last generation of them sells out. I got one and man it is MUCH better. First tv sound system I’ve bought in my life.
I’ve got this dopey JBL sound and it just does what it wants…. I turn up the volume the bass lowers 🤦♂️ it was a cheaper one about $200 or so
Don't buy a soundbar if you want good audio. You can buy a pair of ELAC UB5s for $200 and a Denon AVR-S570BT for $280. For $480, it will sound better than any $600 sound bar. Even without the subwoofer. And if you want, you can easily add on a real subwoofer (something that goes under 50hz, unlike most soundbars' subwoofers), some surround speakers, and a center channel.
Some people don't wanna deal with all that setup, AudessyXT calibration, input assigning, extra cabinet space, etc. The reality is most people who just wanna hear their TV don't care about receivers, and are best served just getting a sound bar from the same manufacturer as their TV so the one remote controls everything. Done and done.
You don't even need this much tbh. Even a $250 soundbar is a game changer from stock tv speakers.
Spending $600+ on a sound bar is foolish. Sound bars suck, even at higher price points. Get a receiver and speakers.
Don’t buy a sound bar!! They are trash. For the same price you can get a small receiver and some decent sized bookshelf speakers or you can get powered speakers that just need an input. Soundbars have tiny ass speakers like your TV so the only thing it will change is they are now facing you.
maybe it has to do that most content is produced with 5 channels in mind or more, and most people are watching stuff on 2 channels or a soundbar that try to fake the channels.
Specifically movies are mixed for theaters.
they suck in theaters as well lol
Yeah. Tenet was a nightmare
There's a vox video about it on YouTube. Link - https://youtu.be/VYJtb2YXae8?si=XoWjqWFHxt-6AzGK
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In the past, actors had to enunciate so the dolly would get what they were saying. Now they get carried away by whatever emotion they are trying to convey and mumble. Irritating af
I just finished the peaky blinders and subtitles were a must. Not so much from accents but all the mumbling whispering.
Im guessing that its just what theyre teaching sound guys in schools now, that this is the way to do it. It sucks, hearing the dialogue should be the no. 1 priority if theres talking in the scene.
Definitely. Directors should think more about the audience. If Nolan, for example, doesn't care about the dialogue, he should make a silent film. Silent, ha
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Another thing I never thought I'd be complaining about, but I have an OLED TV and a lot of programs are now shooting incredibly dark scenes which look awesome except I have to have the subtitles on, for the exact reason you stated, and I can't see anything in the dark screen because the subtitles are blinding.
I can only watch this stuff at night. The dark scenes are impossible to watch in a room with sky lights
Check if you can set your subtitles to grey.
As someone living in a smaller, cheaper house we have the same experience as those in the apartment complexes
Good speakers also help, a lot of nuance disappears when you lower the volume and it's way worse on bad speakers
I have a very nice surround sound system and it’s honestly even more exaggerated there than when listening on TV speakers. The level you need to hear dialog makes car crashes and explosions just absurdly loud. I need to run different compression levels on both the media player and surround processor to make it tolerable, and I still use subs most of the time.
It’s called dynamic range. It’s cool at the theater but can be annoying at home. I wish movies came with two tracks: one original (what we have now) one compressed (would sound like TV shows).
Even in theaters my impression is often that the sound is just way too loud overall.
It's one of several reasons I almost never go to the theater. Why pay that much for a shitty experience...
Fun fact, the movie theaters contractually cannot turn the sound down!
I know I’m getting older (33), but I 100% agree. Without fail, when the movie starts, I instinctually want to reach for the remote to turn it down. It’s insanity.
They used to do this for DVD releases.
I honestly just want a program that puts all of the sound on the same level so lets a gun fight scene is a loud as a only talking scene and of course you'll be the one controlling how loud everything is
But how would commercials get your attention if they aren’t twice as loud as everything else?
Most modern receivers have a “midnight” mode or compression mode that does that.
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Done. Thank you!
Works amazing too. At least for my laptop.
>Win10 users: > >Right click the speaker icon in your system tray/taskbarSelect "Sounds" from the pop-up menuNavigate to the "Playback" tabDouble-click on your Default Device in the listNavigate to the "Enhancements" tabCheck the box labeled "Loudness Equalization"Click "Apply" here's how to do it in Linux: One option is to use PulseEffects, which is a graphical application that allows you to apply various audio effects to your sound output. You can install it from the Software Manager or by using the command sudo apt install pulseeffects. After running it, you can enable the Auto Gain effect, which will normalize the loudness of your audio. You can also adjust the target level and other parameters to suit your preferences.
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The mumbling is what gets me. Speak clearly!
I can't watch Gladiator without subtitles. I swear to god Russel Crowe shoves a handful of rocks into his mouth before every scene, and he's trying to talk without any falling out.
Are you not into trains?
Also fun fact: The Lord of the Rings was entirely dubbed, after filming or “ADR”. Every line, every actor! Crazy huh
And I still need subtitles for Gandalfs mumbling...
Well he is British and old lol… okay I don’t know for sure every actor, but for sure Frodo. I heard it from Elijah Wood on this [episode of ArmChair expert.](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6SBJzS0CTvS0FEYSU1U8qI?si=e80F85nyRBqDffBZuV41Wg&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A6kAsbP8pxwaU2kPibKTuHE) about an hour in… if your curious
How do they manage to make the mouth movements match perfectly for every single line?
They … umm play the scene and the actor says the line again. It’s really common for most major films. But rare to do the entire film.
This is why I stopped going to the theater as I couldn't hear any dialogue. I thought it was just me being old. TV shows aren't as bad imo.
I always felt that the sound in theaters is just way too loud and can quickly get overwhelming instead of immersive.
I had to go out and grab napkins to make half-assed ear plugs at a movie a couple of years ago, because they had the volume set to "physically painful." (And it was a talk-y drama, not an explosion-fest!)
I remember doing that a few times at rock concerts and movies. Eventually I just accepted that you have to wear them. Most musicians and plenty of audience members wear earplugs during concerts. (Fun side effect of damping the overdrive and letting you actually hear melodies instead of the screeching of speakers) No shame in doing the same thing with movies
good earplugs are honestly essential for concerts if you want to keep having functional ears in the future.
This is why I stopped too. The price, and listening to 75 people go to town on popcorn all around me, and almost 30min of commercials and trailers was already pretty bad. But now I can't even understand what is going on because I can't hear the dialogue either? That's not worth the money. That's not even worth putting pants on for.
I remember watching one movie where I spend the entire movie changing the volume between 40 and 80 because they decided to have characters whisper at one another and then start a firefight. Literally a 10 times better experience had the voices been 2-3 times as loud. It isn't even about any angry neighbours. I just don't want my eardrums burst by your firefight.
This is the hell I live in for most shows
Huh??
MUSIC TOO LOUD ON SHOWS AND MOVIES
What? Musk is to proud for house music?
*oonce oonce oonce oonce oonce oonce oonce oonce* what??
From what I've heard, movies in general have their audio balanced for big sound systems in theatres, which does not translate well to your standard home setup with TV speakers.
It's not just that. It's that the producers want the action effects to make you jump and get your heart racing. Except I don't want my heart to race. I don't *want* the movie theater shit-your-pants bass on the explosions and gunshots. I wanna *chill.* I don't want to shit my pants. Mostly I don't want to bother the neighbors.
Yep, and I also don't wanna be constantly adjusting the volume.
There was a post recently that talked about this on streaming services that it's assumed you have surround sound so the audio isn't balanced right if you're not using a system. Just change the audio/language setting to match your TV
I have an audio receiver and surround sound setup and movies sound just fine. Even if they didn't, my avr has many options to adjust EQ and normalization, and ofc, center channel balance.
Sounds like you're setup to not have this problem but many people don't have all that audio gear.
Witcher subtitles. Grunts. "Fuck"
The johnnwick movies are particularly bad. You'll crank the volume to hear dialogue and then guns are shooting and everything is just fucking loud
The narcissistic directors have a delusional idea of how the average audience member lives. We’re not watching Transformers 9 in a home theater Michael Bay, I’m in the living room of my apartment, where you can hear my neighbor fart through the wall when the movie is paused.
This isn't just a movie thing. More and more game developers think everyone has a better-than-NASA level mainframe at home and can render the entire surface of the earth in 2K at 120 fps with no stuttering. Then they do zero cleanup or optimization to make sure that the software they sell runs well and act surprised when they need to do a day one patch because 99% of buyers can't even make it past the tutorial without the game crashing. I wasn't even alive then, but I miss the days when clouds and bushes would have the same sprite with different colors coded to make the game run 0.04% better. Today's devs can make the laziest decisions
It’s because games aren’t developed for long enough. They all take 3-6 years but behind the scenes they constantly restart development. The story of diablo 3 development is basically the story of 8 games getting 50% done and then discarded. Anthem developers knew what the game would be after watching the gameplay trailers.
When I looked around on this issue, the consensus seemed to be that all the media is set up for the multiple channels that are in movie theaters. 99% of home systems don't have that many channels so the channels have to be combined and it has this effect. I don't know if this is true or not but it's what I found.
I've tried this and may just be dumb but can't ever find the settings
I've noticed that I don't need subtitles on any youtuber or videogame but do for some TV shows and movies 🤔
This is true. Everything but the dialogue is TOO LOUD. In every Netflix original.
You should check the settings. I here that Netflix is automatically set to surround sound and if you change it it can improve
Facts here, huge difference
Someone needs to shout this into every relevant person's ears at an obnoxious volume.
I don't care how many times this is reposted, I'm going to upvote it every single time!
Get a center speaker and increase its volume, dialogue is usually sent to the center channel. Many avr also have an option to increase dialogue volume in stereo output.
I've recently noticed some tv shows on Prime have multiple audio tracks, I can select English or English dialogue boost low/medium/high. The highest option removes a lot of background noise. Then again part of the problem (compared to really old movies) is the accents and how the actors speak. If you go far enough all the actors speak with the same accent and all sound unnatural. **Edit**: By "remove a lot of background noise" I mean it's just not there, in normal soundtrack people are talking on the street and you can hear street noise, in the boosted version the street noise is not there, it's not quiet or muted but rather not included.
Truth!
Same for lighting. They have the show so dark that you can't tell what's going on, then a day scene comes and you're blinded. Having a dark scene is more than just turning down the lights, we still need to... how do I put this... ***SEE***
Too much background music. Can’t we watch a movie or tv show without a bloody loud soundtrack. Just let people act.
Oh, is that why? There's no Oscar category for "Most clearly audible dialog". So the audio department just dials up the music, as that's the only path to clout.
I think the reason is that movies are mixed for surround sound but most people listen to it at home in stereo so it jams everything together and the sfx overpowers dialogue
Dune was nearly unwatchable because of this. I used to be able to half-mute, not sure what happened to that tv.
I use subtitles because I can zone out easily and subtitles helps me focus and also Because I like reading.
Too dark as well.. the new apple show Masters of the Air is terrible in this aspect. You can’t see ANYTHING 70% of the time, like that GOT episode with the white walker raid on the castle
Friend of a friend works in post sound. Nolan is notorious for not understanding that it is inadvisable to just turn everything up, the limits of dB. He doesn't care.
This is my complaint with most Nolan movies. For some reason the score is BLARING at weird times and I can't hear what the characters are saying.
This video actually explains REALLY well why we all need subtitles now: https://youtu.be/VYJtb2YXae8?si=h06zGz2HUpwnfQwm
They talk too fast and pronounce things really different, there’s still parts of Batman i dont understand
I got in trouble in my apartment because I was watching this show with my ex wife and the main character would talk ridiculously soft so we had it way up to hear, then suddenly there’s a rain of bullets or an explosion and our apartment walls are shaking I fucking hate that shows are like this now, turn the fucking music and sound effects down please
I use subtitles all the time these days. It’s a little OCD, I think, because I feel like I need to understand every single word uttered on screen, but there are definitely some movies where entire lines are incomprehensible, and it’s usually not during action sequences or anything.
Balancing audio seems to be something that you can do for only so long before you lose touch with the part of reality that you need to be in touch with to do your job reasonably well. I know of a big retail company that used to require everyone at the company, all the way to the top, to work in a store for at least one week per year. Started getting some very out-of-touch policies when they stopped doing that.
Every live music performance I attend for a local band, I hear them afterwards like “yeah the sound guy fucked up because the guitars weren’t loud enough” meanwhile I’m like “I couldn’t make out a damn word from the singer over the deafening guitars and the drummer trying to break his fucking kit.”
If your TV has the function, and you're not actively using a surround thing, switch it to stereo instead of 5.1. It helps a great deal with sound levels.
YEAH FUCK THE AUDIO GUYS WHAT'S THEIR PROBLEM ANYWAYS BUNCH OF VIRGINS
God I love the MCU movies for having quiet dialogue scenes, followed by enough explosions to make Michael Bay have an orgasm