It's not my imagination, and it's not because I'm getting old

[MissMillie]

sound editors for both TV and movies do a miserable job, IMHO

Watching a movie... two people talking and I can't hear them, so I turn it up. Then they're done talking and onto the next scene, with some piano music in between. The piano music is about to wake up my guy in the next room.

Probably because the piano is at a higher pitch than the people talking, but can't the sound folks allow for that?

Seriously... can't we watch anything without having to muck w/ the volume every 2 minutes?

[jmbar2]

1. THIS!

I kept thinking maybe I could adjust the sound on my TV to equalize. It has a feature to do that, but it doesn't help.

I haven't gone of a movie theater in years because the explosive sounds were so deafening. I'm sorry that they have now brought the same thing into my living room. I purposely avoid movies that have loud noise now, but it's near impossible. They all do.

[Walleye]

2. Men yelling, women screaming, sirens shrieking, telephones endlessly ringing

Someone pounding on the door and yelling to open up. Pet peeves, to me these are gimmicks designed to cover up a lack of good writing.

[LakeArenal]

33. So many action movies have so little dialogue anyway.

Loud Chase scenes and quite suspense.

[hibbing]

64. Reminds me of Dylan lyrics

Dogs a-barking, cats a-screaming
Women a-yelling, men a-flying, fists a-flying, paper flying
Cops a-coming, me running
Maybe we just better call off the picnic

Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
Peace

[Walleye]

70. That is a very funny song

[ailsagirl]

79. 👍👍👍

[Pobeka]

3. YES. And live music (SNL, Colbert), vocal mikes are too low!

Almost every time, vocals need to be louder, they are lost in the mix. Words are important, and I really want to hear them!

[DanieRains]

40. I Hate Having To Rewind 3 Times

To figure out what an actor said, or if it is important.

[babylonsister]

4. CONCUR!

I wear hearing aids and they don't help either.

A movie like West Side Story gave my volume control a workout-very frustrating.

[Diamond_Dog]

5. I agree with all of you.

I end up turning down the sound because of the loud noises and put the closed captioning on to understand what the people are saying.

[Fla Dem]

7. That's more my issue, understanding / hearing what is being said. CC is my friend.

Don't need it for everything I watch, but glad it's there when I need it.

[LakeArenal]

34. Do you have trouble understanding dialogue spoken by the English.

Mumble mumble…cheerio

[Fla Dem]

35. Sometimes if they're fast talkers, or there's other ambient noise.

Generally I'm ok, just certain circumstances. I watch a lot of Brit Box shows and other British shows. Some are fine, but if they have a heavy accent, then the cc is on.

[LakeArenal]

37. Have you seen the show about English buying castles in France.

In Costa Rica I’m never sure if I see the same shows.

Anyway that show is my new favorite reality show.

[zanana1]

61. I love CC when there are British accents.

[plimsoll]

21. I leave the cc on for everything.

It’s been like this for years. It’s not exactly worse, but there are more action scenes with deliberate broad spectrum sound. The higher quality sound technologies have been used as an effect, not to improve quality.

[BlueMTexpat]

51. Me too!

[geardaddy]

63. Me too.

CC is a necessity in our house.

[Haggard Celine]

26. I have.the CC on pretty much all the time.

I've always had trouble understanding people, especially with certain accents. I have a hard time understanding song lyrics, too. It isn't that I can't hear what they're saying, I just can't understand what's being said

[Shrike47]

30. True for me, too. I turn up the dialog, turn down the action, constantly.

[targetpractice]

47. Song lyrics....

I've always had this problem. I attributed it to my ADD, but I never could pick up song lyrics, and I felt left behind when I was younger because I never got into popular music.

[Random Boomer]

39. I keep CC on all the time

Too often now, actors seems to mumble their lines or rush them, and it's just too difficult to keep up. CC is a very handy aid for poor acting skills.

And I can tell it's poor acting because dialogue in both film and TV from the 1940s and 50s is impeccable, with even side comments clearly delivered, without losing nuance or tone.

[ChazInAz]

56. Exactly.

I'm a stage actor, and was trained to use "The Mid-Atlantic Voice" that sounds vaguely British, vaguely American, yet no specific region. Vincent Price and Cary Grant are examples: the former was from St. Louis, the latter was a Cockney. I was also trained to vocally fill an auditorium without resorting to microphones.
I blame "The Method", the pestiferous Marlon Brando and his imitators for this lack of training.
Recently, I went to see the newest Batman movie. Virtually none of the dialogue was comprehensible, line delivery in mumbling whispers (A la Brando.) and a busy sound track.

[Beatlelvr]

6. This happens alot on the British mysteries I watch

I turn it up for the dialog because it's, you know, Brits talking and I have a hard time understanding it. Then something else happens and now the volume is too loud!

[packman]

38. I love Brit shows - BUT, closed captions are a blessing to understanding them

[Diamond_Dog]

53. You daft beggar!

Lol

I’m exactly the same and I like to watch the British shows too

[Magoo48]

8. Yup.

[snowybirdie]

9. Same with us

Background music overwhelms dialog. We got Bluetooth headphones to help.

[gfwzig]

10. OK, how about shows with "tinkle tinkle music" playing constantly and shows that cannot keep the

camera still,,, constantly zooming, moving it around and especially bad ..circling the subject around and around...

[Diamond_Dog]

54. Oh uugghh, that makes me nauseous!

[multigraincracker]

11. I'm at the age that

I can blame everything on “getting old”.

[The King of Prussia]

12. The worst for this in my experience is the BBC

we have to put subtitles on for every BBC drama to overcome the mumbling.

[Sneederbunk]

13. And lighting is a whole another subject.

[Xavier Breath]

28. I understand that lighting influcences mood

but the filming in darkness is getting out of hand. As is displaying texting conversations from a distance. At times I literally have to pause the tv and walk over close to the screen to see whatever exchange/pivotal plot point I may be missing.

[sarge43]

29. Have room on that bench?

Why are so many fight scenes filmed inside the devil's riding boot? Looking at you GoT and Dune.

[japple]

14. My pet peeve is the continuous musical "soundtrack." I also hate hearing music in every single

store, restaurant, bar, public place, too. I don't enjoy going to the movies these days because of the aural assault.

[Jerry2144]

15. I used to think the same thing but

Found that putting a sound bar with no subwoofer on the TV instead of using the built in speakers helped. And this sound bar has a TV mode that reduces booming and enhances voices works much better than movie mode. See if your TV has a similar mode in the settings.

It’s a cheap TCL brand sound bar of that helps you

[MissMillie]

25. I appreciate the suggestion

But why should anyone need "help?"

Just a ploy to sell more equipment?

Level tone and pitch throughout would do the same thing. And I have no reason to believe that with today's technology, sound editors have this within their ability.

[Jerry2144]

55. I agree. But I can't fix the movie and TV industry

While I can possibly assist you

Eyesite and hearing troubles. Part of the many joys of putting miles on your biological odometer. My favorite childhood memory is waking up in the morning and not being sore or stiff

[robbob]

16. Try headphones

All these new movies are designed for large theatre sound systems, with their Dolby surround sound processing. There is no way you’ll even get close to the way it’s supposed to sound without investing in a huge home theatre system. If I’m watching a big Hollywood production I use wireless headphones and turn the tv volume all the way down. It gets you right into the movie, and even when the actors whisper you can still hear every word they say. If it starts getting too loud there’s a volume control right on the headset.

Only problem: it’s a one person setup. So I’m watching by myself when I use it.

[leftieNanner]

17. Some NPR Radio News/Editorial Programs

Have music playing (for dramatic effect?) behind the speaker. I can't hear what they are saying because of the stupid music. And I can't figure out what they are saying by watching their lips.

Sucks to get old....

[Bev54]

18. I find that especially with Netflix so I use close captioning so I

am not constantly fiddling around with the sound.

[MiHale]

20. My wife and have the same problem...

Plus some of the foreign and the sci-fi shows the accents are hard to get when the background noise is too much.
We turned on CC (closed caption) and never looked back. In truth even when hearing wasn’t so bad we should’ve turned them on. You can get those asides that the characters do, the words are printed out the editors I guess you call them type out everything.

Gets a little getting used to but worth it for us. The streaming boxes have good graphics that don’t get in the way. My cable provider is Spectrum their CC is terrible but we mostly stream.

[Old Crank]

22. I am hard of hearing

and I have a similar complaint. It used to be only the commercials came in loud. Now it seems to be impossible to set a reasonable sound level for anything.
I just listened to a series of songs on Youtube, all different videos, and had to change the volume for each one.
And don't get me started with the tunes that have to be played on all the short videos, and they start with the volume at full instead of where you set the last one..
It is very discouraging to be getting older and hard of hearing but the audio experience just gets worse.

Oh! And get off my lawn!.

[Ligyron]

23. And if it's commercial TV, forget it.

If you manage to get the sound right, then one of those comes on and blasts you out of the room.

[doc03]

24. Maybe it is because you are old. I am 74, I have to have the closed captions

on whether the movie is in English or Chinese. what really pisses me off is they always show phone texts
that are too small to read.

[Greybnk48]

27. A friend of mine told me it's worse now because sound is done for sound bars.

I told her I couldn't hear the talking half the time, and she said it's because i don't have a sound bar on my kitchen tv. It's ok for regular shows, but movies are terrible.

The other problem sometimes with TV shows is that they've sped up the talking to allow for more commercials. It truly sucks. My husband and I have to put the captions on all the time and I'm reading like a maniac.

[jaxexpat]

42. Maniacal reading is a sign of...........something.

Not sure what. Might need to look it up. Better still. You look it up, your the maniacal reader.

[IronLionZion]

58. Correct, they do it on purpose

You would be able to hear the dialogue perfectly in a theater setting but they get lazy when reformatting it for TVs. Normal TVs have terrible sound that can't handle the dynamic range of highs and lows.

[BlueTexasMan]

31. problem is;

I had the same problem when I had a nice stereo system delivering the audio from my tv (back when tvs had crappy sound). I replaced the stereo with a surround sound system and then I could hear the dialog. The voices are on the center channel and the music and sound effects are on the front right/left and rear right/left. All these signals are squashed down into one stereo channel if you don't have surround sound. Since the music and sound effects are often louder than the dialog, the dialog is buried. With a surround system you can adjust the different speakers and turn the center channel up (where the voices are) or turn the others down. You don't need an expensive system to control this. They all work and don't let the tiny speakers fool you. They work just fine since they only handle the high and mid frequencies. The sub woofer handles the low frequencies. Since low frequency sound waves are very long they can fill a room easily no matter where you put the sub. This means you can hide it anywhere.

[Pobeka]

68. Thank you for that explanation.

Now I have a chance at finding possible ways to fix it.

One would think the mix defaults from surround sound to stereo would have kept this in mind, but I can see valid points either way on how to mix to stereo.

[nuxvomica]

32. I find it worse with younger speakers or Brits

I scream "stop yer mumblin'!" at the screen. Older movies or TV shows are not a problem because they modulated the sound so every level could be heard but I suspect later filmmakers decided that's too artificial sounding. They also like to film night scenes so you can't make anything out because, I guess, oh gosh, that natural lighting is so realistic. I think filmmakers are too enamored of the cinema verite style because they think it will compensate for terrible dialogue and poor plotting, just as fiction writers have glommed onto present tense as a way to make their poor craftsmanship seem more "immediate".

[jaxexpat]

36. I believe it's intentional.

When I used to go to the theater, I recall how when they started the previews, as well as the feature, the sound always seemed painfully loud. By the end of the feature it required some time of adjustment to adopt to normal indoor voice mode. Not too traumatic, but then, in the theater there weren't neighbors in the next county to worry about calling the cops about a domestic disturbance. We live in the age of *cachophonetical distraction. Were there predators stalking us, we wouldn't stand a chance.
* when I invent a word, I'll spell it like I want.

[AncientOfDays]

41. Headphones

I use headphones and closed captioning.

[tiredtoo]

43. Well, this surprises me

I thought I was the only one who had this problem. Old and no hearing in one ear. I have been trying to fix it using various adjustments in settings. A technician told me to lower the Bass tone. Have not tried this yet so I use CC in most cases.

[targetpractice]

44. Why movie dialogue has gotten more difficult to understand...

It's a real thing. See explanation below. I use subtitles all the time now...

https://www.slashfilm.com/673162/heres-why-movie-dialogue-has-gotten-more-difficult-to-understand-and-three-ways-to-fix-it/

[OilemFirchen]

59. A lot of great information in that article.

Ironically, though, the accompanying video employs a prototypical digital mashup background track. Its de rigueur and totally unnecessary. And, of course, it muddles the narration, spoken by an individual with poor oratory skills.

Way to illustrate the point, dude.

[orwell]

45. First of all...

...I used to have very good high frequency hearing. That has passed with age. That also makes dialog less intelligible.

But that being said, it is pretty clear that the way most movies are mixed nowadays has made dialog harder to hear. I am not sure what the culprit is. It may be the prevalence of Dolby Surround sound making the sound field less focused. It may be the desire to make dialog more "natural" with far more dynamic presentation between the loud and soft passages. Whatever it is the problem is real.

To prove it, watch any old movie and see how much easier it is to understand the centered main dialog. Even with the far less accurate equipment used, the dialog is clear and intelligible.

Here's another trick, if you can listen to a modern movie on headphones. This eliminates the room acoustics which smear things like dialog. You might find everything easier to hear because the Dolby Digital sound is now presented in a simple stereo format.

[moniss]

46. This is a great subject

and it is absolutely the production people who are at fault. In the current era the dynamic range of sound and the "mix" is abysmal. Often done by pre-sets on software programs rather than an experienced audio engineer. The production companies cut costs any way they can and paying highly skilled audio engineers is one of the cuts. The push to "surround sound" etc. hasn't resulted in quality necessarily either.

I have read articles over the last 10 years that show the equalization settings for audio production has trended to boost the lower bass and mid-bass frequencies so people get the "boom-boom" effect from these home theater systems. It also extends to music where people have been snapping up headphones etc. that heavily emphasize bass response. I have heard many TV, movie and music audio releases that were garbage as far as audio production quality as well as crappy headphones and home audio systems. Most of today's market in audio has people who turn up the bass control as their first move. So many of them listen to music that has little dynamic range and that is how they go through life not hearing (or caring) that the audio track has cymbals etc. which are all in the high frequencies. Remember what Neil Young was talking about with regard to audio quality. He was 100% correct. It's about dynamic range, equalization, quality mics, understanding mic placement and then mixing on quality equipment with knowledgeable, skilled people who don't over compress the dynamic range and don't overemphasize lower frequencies. But today it seems that for the vast majority of TV/movie production they are more concerned with getting plenty of "boom-boom" going along with proper placement of lots of explosions and gunshots. Meanwhile whispered or lower level conversation become unintelligible and it makes you wonder why the director or actor bothered at all.

[peggysue2]

48. I found most of my problems hearing dialogue on TV has been corrected . . .

by my hearing aids. Yes, I finally broke down and took the plunge after making excuses for nearly a decade. And putting up with my family's constant harangue about my hearing loss.

Closed captions capture whatever I've missed but I find I'm really not relying on them as I once did.

Oh, and btw. The world is a very noisy place. I'd forgotten that.

[Jetheels]

49. I usually have to watch movies with subtitles on,

which makes it difficult to enjoy movies with other people since they don’t usually like subtitles on.
And it’s sucks too because I spend as much time watching the movie as reading what they’re saying.
And no I don’t have hearing loss. I hear too much tbh.

[old as dirt]

71. The older I get, the more I rely on subtitles.

It makes it easier for me to hear things, if I can read along.

Stairway to Heaven Backwards (With FULL Lyrics)

[PatSeg]

50. You are not alone

I was just talking about this the other day with my son. I spend far too much time with my finger on the volume button.

[left-of-center2012]

52. A few weeks ago I tried to watch a movie on TV

It was an old western and I don't remember the name of it.
I quit watching after a little while because they had loud music playing constantly throughout.
It never stopped.
You couldn't hear the characters when they talked, or at least I couldn't.

Who in their right mind spends money to produce a movie and thinks it's a great idea to play loud music from beginning to end of the movie?

And the music wasn't that great.

[IronLionZion]

57. How to deal with movies that bounce from too quiet to too loud

https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/movies-too-quiet-too-loud/

Turn on “night mode”
You might not realize it, but there may already be a setting built into your TV, sound system, or streaming box designed to deal with this: it’s called “night mode,” and it does exactly what it sounds like.

“This compresses the dynamic range, reducing the difference between the loudest and softest parts of the soundtrack,” says Wilkinson. “Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find this setting in the device’s menu system, though some devices have a dedicated ‘night mode’ button on their remote.” Dig through the settings of your TV, speaker system (if you have one), and streaming box—this useful mode may also be called “dynamic compression” or something similar.

Use a good sound bar or set of speakers
Even with night mode on, you may find that your TV speakers are not up to the task of making dialogue intelligible at low volumes. You may not have the room to build a huge, powerful surround sound system, but even small upgrades can go a long way.

Turn up your center channel
A speaker system with a center channel will be a big step up from your TV speakers, but you can further decrease the dynamic range with in-menu volume adjustments. On many sound bars and receivers, you can increase the volume of the dialogue-focused center channel alone, without increasing the level of the other channels, Wilkinson says. This isn’t usually an option for two-channel systems, but it never hurts to look in your sound bar or receiver’s settings. Once you find the center channel volume level, crank it up a few notches and see where that gets you. (You may have to do a little experimentation to find the right balance—I always use The Matrix as a test case, as it’s a great example of a movie with high dynamic range.

I had to look into this because my air conditioner is very loud and is right in my living room. Paying a bit more for a good soundbar with these settings was a worthwhile investment. I bought a Vizio soundbar which is affordable.

[c-rational]

60. I believe VOX makes a soundbar that deals with this, especially the low voices.

[geardaddy]

62. Totally with you on this!

It's infuriating!

and

Get off my lawn!

[TNNurse]

65. We talked about this last night.

The exact same problem.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

66. The Irony!

Back when movies became "Talkies", the actors with unappealing voices were put to pasture. Stage actors became the perfect fit for the movies with sound.

I figured the reason for whisper acting becoming the fashion was due to the director. The producer needs to hire a dialogue person to make sure the used take is audible. They may actually be unaware of the issue because the director and editors know what the dislogue is and may not realize it's not decipherable.

I was very frustrated by Timothee Chalamet in "Dune". He has a garbled style of voice IMHO. But l love his acting and feel most frustrated by his voice choice.

[cbabe]

67. Can we talk about bad radio sound, also?

Breathy voices, flat harsh voices, mumbled interviews. A few programs have good quality sound so it’s not my radio.

Poorly trained talent. Cheap broadcast equipment.

So annoying I turn off.

[mahina]

69. I enjoy PBS Masterpiece Theater on Sunday evenings which my dear one calls Mumbling in British

Otherwise, all is well but I don’t watch much. Good luck with all.

[alittlelark]

72. I was thinking it was just MY TV - a cheap one.

Glad to hear it's not just me.

[Ohio Joe]

73. It is a serious pain in the ass

[lillypaddle]

74. I am completely with you!

I have a really hard time hearing the dialog, so keep closed caption on all the time. But I'm glad to know it isn't just me and my hearing.

[intrepidity]

75. and YouTube videos. And Podcasts.

grrrr

[Skittles]

76. agreed

I am always awake all night (night shift worker) and I have to keep the remote right by me to constantly turn the volume up and down.

* I HATE wearing anything on my ears

[Talitha]

77. Whew, sure am glad to know it's not just me having this problem.

Haven't been to a movie in a few decades because of the deafening sound, and the tv hasn't been much better with its quiet voices and booming music.

I dug into the settings on my tv though, and found 'Clear Voice' to be the best at delivering the human voice. It doesn't cut the music volume down though, but that's what the remote is for.

Gotta keep the remote handy anyway - to mute JJ Walker or Joe Namath when they start yapping and flapping their arms around like an Albatross.

[TexasBushwhacker]

78. I gave up and turned on closed captions

I'm 65 and I know I have hearing loss, but come on. I should be able to adjust the volume ONCE. Don't get me started on commercials!

[hunter]

80. Mixing down a theater sound track to ordinary "FM quality" stereo is an art.

This used to be required for movies broadcast on television, recorded to VHS tape, or to early DVD standards.

Before that, back in the vacuum tube days, movie sound tracks had to be mixed down for small town theaters that had only mono or stereo sound systems. Only larger theaters had expensive multi-track sound capabilities.

Disney's Fantasia in 1940 was the first movie with multi-channel sound. The expensive equipment required to play that soundtrack was moved from theater to theater along with the film.

Now the media producers just pretend that everyone has a giant television and full blown multi-track theater sound system at home. They leave the down-mix for more common televisions to software, which is a crap way to do things.

My wife and I don't have a "smart" television. Mostly we stream inexpensive "standard quality" Netflix and we have a large collection of DVDs, most of them purchased in thrift stores, etc.. If we want the full movie experience we go out to the movies.

[highplainsdem]

81. Not your imagination, and I hate that sound problem, too. It's aggravating to have to constantly

adjust the volume.

[Sogo]

82. Smart TV? You need a sound bar.

My sound problems were cured instantly when I got an inexpensive sound bar from Walmart ($39) that took only a couple of minutes to set up.

The thing about smart TVs is that the sound comes out of the back and bounces off the wall before it gets to you. It become a very incoherent, distorted sound that way. The sound bar brings the sound to the front, which is then coming straight at you. Much more clear, crisp, and coherent sound that way....That's been my experience....

[Talitha]

83. Thanks, that sounds quite logical - does it respond to the tv's audio settings?

And does it come with directions easy enough for a non-tech person to follow?
Thanks again!

[Sogo]

84. I'm definitely not a techie, but had no problem setting it up.

It's been a while since I set mine up, and I don't really recall what, if any, settings on the TV I had to select. My unit connected to what is call an "optical" input, so it was probably relating to that, if there was anything. "Optical" input is kind of counter-intuitive for an audio device, but that's what the input jack is labeled, and every time I turn the device on, it has a voice that says, "optical in."

Sorry if that isn't terribly helpful.....