I know this has been an infuriating topic for a while now, but gosh it’s getting on my nerves. I’m trying to watch Secret Level, finally, and I can’t see half of what’s happening because so many scenes across many of the shorts are pretty much pitch black.
Why?? Why not, y’know, just give us a little bit of fucking contrast? Instead, I have to choose whether to have a light on or to not see the scenes.
I can tolerate that, the one I can’t stand is Netflix shows where the ~dialogue is a mumbled quiet~ and random bits of foley try to blow my speakers out.
It makes it especially noticeable just how dodgy a lot of foley/sound editing work is, eg when someone throwing a punch and missing still goes WHOOSH at the same volume they use for gunshots. There’s YA shows now where even the camera panning gets a sound effect ffs
Dialogue is not really important, what you really need to hear is the exaggerated wet sucking noises of characters kissing each other.
(/s)
This cause could be downmixing from something like 5.1 or 7.1 to stereo. Because dialogue is mostly on the center channel while music and SFX are much more spread out in the soundstage, you might have a sound appear on speakers center, front left and back left while dialogue only happens on center.
This would mean that depending on the mix, you might have a sound that’s 2-3 times louder than the dialogue when mixed to stereo since all those sounds have to get played on fewer speakers.
This is why a 5.1 compatible soundbar will be more balanced than stereo speakers, even if it doesn’t have full surround sound. They have a physical speaker for each of the channels so at least the mix sounds better.
Not saying this is always the issue but its certainly one of the possible causes.
This myth gets brought up so often despite numerous evidence to the contrary. The sound sucks for people with good equipment as well. The sound sucks in theaters.
They just seem to have a hard-on for mumbling. Because of realism or something.
I’d love to see the evidence, it depends on your player and how you’re downmixing. There are some that do it better than others but this is definitely a thing.
The evidence is that even on good equipment the dialogue is hard to hear.
Okay, I guess two can play the “trust me bro” game. I have stereo speakers on which this is an issue and a 5.1 compatible soundbar on which it is not. Same file, same player.
Gonna hop in then with my own anecdotal evidence.
I have a 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos setup in my living room(11 speakers, two subs). Outside of my subwoofers the center channel is the most expensive single speaker in the setup. I absolutely do not have this issue. Dialog is always crystal clear. I own nearly 4000 physical copies of movies/shows on disc. So I’ve watched a lot of different media.
Is that needed to correct this issue…absolutely not. I have a $150-200(can’t remember) 5.1 soundbar from Best Buy in my bedroom and it’s perfectly adequate as well. My sister was complaining about this exact volume issue and bought the same sound bar, problem solved. I will mention this setup doesn’t work as well but is acceptable for Nolan movies and his notoriously messed up mixes. My Atmos setup is great. He mixes for theaters not ~10w stereo TV speakers. Some people still hate his mixes…even in theaters. 🤷♂️
Do I know the issue people are talking about…absolutely. I’ve experienced it myself. The hardware you have and the way it’s configured matters tremendously. Sometimes just turning on ‘Reduce loud sounds’, night mode, or audio compression can help. These are all the same thing with different names(and others). Their implementations and effectiveness can differ by device though. It compresses the dynamic range of the audio mix. Basically the loudest sound(explosions) and the quietest sound(whispers) don’t have such a huge volume difference. Which can help with the ‘blowing out my ear drums’ experience.