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I watch YouTube with internal TV speakers and I understand everything, even muddled accents. I cannot understand a single TV show or movie with the same speaker

I watch YouTube with internal TV speakers and I understand everything, even muddled accents. I cannot understand a single TV show or movie with the same speakers. Something tells me it's about the source material, not the device.

sotix 10mo ago
A YouTube video is likely a single track of audio or a very minimal amount. A movie mixed for Dolby Atmos is designed for multiple speakers. Now, they will create compromised mixes for something like a stereo setup, and a good set of bookshelf speakers will be able to create a phantom center channel. However, having a dedicated center channel speaker will do a much better job. And using the TV's built in speakers will do a very poor job. Professional mixing is a different beast than most YouTube videos, and accordingly, the sound is mixed quite different.
- tuetuopay 10mo ago
  Yup, I definitely do agree those are wildly different beasts. But the end result is, the professional mixing is less enjoyable than amateur-ish youtube mixing. Which is a shame, really. Mixing is a craft that is getting ruined (imho) by the direction to perform theatrical mixes (where having building-shaking sfx is not an issue) or atmos mixes (leaving no budget/time for plain stereo mixes). The crux of the issue IMHO is the theatrical mixes. Yes I can tune the TV volume way up and hear the dialogue pretty well. In exchange, any music or sfx is guaranteed to wake the neighbors (I live in a flat, so neighbors are on the other side of the wall/floor/ceiling).
- zargon 10mo ago
  As someone with a dedicated center speaker, people doing audio mixing do not effectively use it. I even have it manually boosted. Sometimes it's 10% better than without one, but nowhere near enough to make a real difference.
redox99 10mo ago
Well of course, YouTube is someone sitting in front of the camera with no background noise and speaking calmly. In a movie the characters may be far away (so it needs to sound like that, not like a podcast), running, exhausted, with a plethora of background noises and so on.
- red75prime 10mo ago
  I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of clearly hearing a character who has something important to say.
- watwut 10mo ago
  In the real life, I can underastand exhausted people or dialog in a kitchen full of background noise. If we cant do the same in the movie, sound is just badly mixed. It is not the story setup and it is not "realistic".
  - redox99 10mo ago
    > In the real life, I can underastand exhausted people or dialog in a kitchen full of background noise. Because in real life you don't listen through an internal TV speaker, duh.
    - watwut 10mo ago
      These are hard to impossible to understand with basically any normal TV setup. That being said, people listening to TV through TV is 100% predictable. If we cant understand, the mix is not "realistic", it is "badly done".
- tuetuopay 10mo ago
  That would be true, except even in calm scenes in movies it's an issue. Unless I turn the volume high enough, in which case music and sfx become neighbor-waking loud. To be clear: I'm not talking about scenes where characters speak over an explosion. The overall mix does not allow having the same volume for all scenes of the movie, pick your poison: wake the neighbors or don't understand dialogues. Somehow youtube videos don't have this issue. Go figure /s
Avamander 10mo ago
YouTube very likely has only a 2.0 stereo mix, TV shows and movies are mostly multichannel. Something tells me it's about the source material being a poor fit for your setup.

sotix 10mo ago

A YouTube video is likely a single track of audio or a very minimal amount. A movie mixed for Dolby Atmos is designed for multiple speakers. Now, they will create compromised mixes for something like a stereo setup, and a good set of bookshelf speakers will be able to create a phantom center channel. However, having a dedicated center channel speaker will do a much better job. And using the TV's built in speakers will do a very poor job. Professional mixing is a different beast than most YouTube videos, and accordingly, the sound is mixed quite different.

tuetuopay 10mo ago
Yup, I definitely do agree those are wildly different beasts. But the end result is, the professional mixing is less enjoyable than amateur-ish youtube mixing. Which is a shame, really. Mixing is a craft that is getting ruined (imho) by the direction to perform theatrical mixes (where having building-shaking sfx is not an issue) or atmos mixes (leaving no budget/time for plain stereo mixes). The crux of the issue IMHO is the theatrical mixes. Yes I can tune the TV volume way up and hear the dialogue pretty well. In exchange, any music or sfx is guaranteed to wake the neighbors (I live in a flat, so neighbors are on the other side of the wall/floor/ceiling).
zargon 10mo ago
As someone with a dedicated center speaker, people doing audio mixing do not effectively use it. I even have it manually boosted. Sometimes it's 10% better than without one, but nowhere near enough to make a real difference.

redox99 10mo ago

Well of course, YouTube is someone sitting in front of the camera with no background noise and speaking calmly. In a movie the characters may be far away (so it needs to sound like that, not like a podcast), running, exhausted, with a plethora of background noises and so on.

red75prime 10mo ago
I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of clearly hearing a character who has something important to say.
watwut 10mo ago
In the real life, I can underastand exhausted people or dialog in a kitchen full of background noise. If we cant do the same in the movie, sound is just badly mixed. It is not the story setup and it is not "realistic".
- redox99 10mo ago
  > In the real life, I can underastand exhausted people or dialog in a kitchen full of background noise. Because in real life you don't listen through an internal TV speaker, duh.
  - watwut 10mo ago
    These are hard to impossible to understand with basically any normal TV setup. That being said, people listening to TV through TV is 100% predictable. If we cant understand, the mix is not "realistic", it is "badly done".
tuetuopay 10mo ago
That would be true, except even in calm scenes in movies it's an issue. Unless I turn the volume high enough, in which case music and sfx become neighbor-waking loud. To be clear: I'm not talking about scenes where characters speak over an explosion. The overall mix does not allow having the same volume for all scenes of the movie, pick your poison: wake the neighbors or don't understand dialogues. Somehow youtube videos don't have this issue. Go figure /s

Avamander 10mo ago

YouTube very likely has only a 2.0 stereo mix, TV shows and movies are mostly multichannel. Something tells me it's about the source material being a poor fit for your setup.