4 ms·

It is a well known issue: https://zvox.com/blogs/news/why-can-t-i-hear-dialogue-on-tv-anymore?srsltid=AfmBOooo70Xs3hL0Wfrwy8usfD9Mkh-g9VNwHAGJDBaPIxYoWk93r_Ca h

by greatgib 10mo ago

It is a well known issue: https://zvox.com/blogs/news/why-can-t-i-hear-dialogue-on-tv-anymore?srsltid=AfmBOooo70Xs3hL0Wfrwy8usfD9Mkh-g9VNwHAGJDBaPIxYoWk93r_Ca https://zvox.com/blogs/news/why-can-t-i-hear-dialogue-on-tv-... I don't find the source anymore but I think that I saw that it was even a kind of small conspiracy on tv streaming so that you set your speakers louder and then the advertisement time arrive you will hear them louder than your movie. Officially it is just that they switch to a better encoding for ads (like mpeg2 to MPEG-4 for DVB) but unofficially for the money as always...

nutjob2 10mo ago
I think the issue is dynamic range rather than a minor conspiracy. Film makers want to preserve dynamic range so they can render sounds both subtle and with a lot of punch, preserving detail, whereas ads just want to be heard as much as possible. Ads will compress sound so it sounds uniform, colorless and as clear and loud as possible for a given volume.
- ajmurmann 10mo ago
  Even leading ads out the dynamic range is really an issue for anyone not living alone in a house with no other homes very close.
ribosometronome 10mo ago
I feel like the Occam's Razor explanation would be that way TVs are advertised makes it really easy to understand picture quality and far less so to understand audio. In stores, they'll be next to a bunch of others playing the same thing such that really only visual differences will stand out. The specs that will stand out online will be things like the resolution, brightness, color accuracy, etc.
- aidenn0 10mo ago
  I have a dedicated multi-channel speaker system and still have the problem
PunchyHamster 10mo ago
> I don't find the source anymore but I think that I saw that it was even a kind of small conspiracy on tv streaming so that you set your speakers louder and then the advertisement time arrive you will hear them louder than your movie. It's not just that. It's obsession with "cinematic" mixing where dialogues are not only quieter that they could, to make any explosion and other effects be much louder than them, but also not enough above background effects. This all work in cinema where you have good quality speakers playing much louder than how most people have at home. But at home you just end up with muddled dialogue that's too quiet.

nutjob2 10mo ago

I think the issue is dynamic range rather than a minor conspiracy. Film makers want to preserve dynamic range so they can render sounds both subtle and with a lot of punch, preserving detail, whereas ads just want to be heard as much as possible. Ads will compress sound so it sounds uniform, colorless and as clear and loud as possible for a given volume.

ajmurmann 10mo ago
Even leading ads out the dynamic range is really an issue for anyone not living alone in a house with no other homes very close.

ribosometronome 10mo ago

I feel like the Occam's Razor explanation would be that way TVs are advertised makes it really easy to understand picture quality and far less so to understand audio. In stores, they'll be next to a bunch of others playing the same thing such that really only visual differences will stand out. The specs that will stand out online will be things like the resolution, brightness, color accuracy, etc.

aidenn0 10mo ago
I have a dedicated multi-channel speaker system and still have the problem

PunchyHamster 10mo ago

> I don't find the source anymore but I think that I saw that it was even a kind of small conspiracy on tv streaming so that you set your speakers louder and then the advertisement time arrive you will hear them louder than your movie. It's not just that. It's obsession with "cinematic" mixing where dialogues are not only quieter that they could, to make any explosion and other effects be much louder than them, but also not enough above background effects. This all work in cinema where you have good quality speakers playing much louder than how most people have at home. But at home you just end up with muddled dialogue that's too quiet.