Film and television...I can't hear....

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I have two TVs... A CRT to watch DVDs on, and a Flat Panel display for the Blu-rays. I haven't yet needed subtitles on the CRT, for pre-recorded material or broadcast material...

As for the flat panel display... well, I'm glad that I shelled out for a home theatre instead of just a Blu-ray player. The TV's speakers just aren't up to the job for anything with background music. That's despite it having a plethora of effects, and virtual surround modes.

They really need to start selling TVs with separate speakers as standard.

 

[SPCTRE]

I've always felt this is an issue with surround mixes for films and a corresponding stereo mix not being created at the same time.

For anyone who doesn't know, when you take 5 (let's ignore the .1) channels and fold them into 2 (without significant processing), the two left channels (front and rear) combine, and the two right channels combine, and then you have the center channel (where most dialogue is placed) much less audible.

It can be alleviated by being sure to choose the stereo mix on any disc being played, but even that's no guarantee, if it was a quick and dirty mix, or a folddown (which is the same thing that happens when a surround mix is played on a stereo system). I personally have the center channel raised above the others on my home theater.

Exactly. /thread

 

[Warped9]

Poor sound mixing could have a lot to do with it. Music and f/x can also be set to be louder for effect and thereby muffling the voices.

I'm also reminded of a scene in TOS' "A Taste Of Amageddon." While the ship is shaking from Klingon attack Kirk is yelling something and even after all these years I've never been able to understand what he's saying. But that was a very rare occurence then when everything was usually clear and intelligible.

I've long attributed this issue with the way contemporary film and television productions have chosen to mix their sound and play up music and f/x over dialogue.

 

[Random_Spock]

Do you have a new TV or a TV that's getting ancient? It's possible that either the speakers are too poor to handle the sound mix properly whether it's failing or one of the crappy speakers you find on newer HDTVs.

Probably the speakers are too poor too handle it. That's my best guess. It's from 2006, and we had it checked out and the speakers were ok originally. Hoping that they're not dying.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yep, I agree. Honestly, I think it's a symptom of mixing. Most of them were originally mixed for multi-channel surround systems, and this continues somewhat into the home video releases. So, what happens is that you have too many sounds being funneled to the same channels. Likely not a problem with a home-theatre setup, but not everyone has those. Plus the speakers you normally get as part of the TVs are rather low-powered. The reason why most TV shows aren't a problem is because they're not developed to be eargasms.

 

[Warped9]

For awhile flat panel TVs had terrible speakers, but for the past few years they've gotten better. Out television is only about three years old and the speakers are fine.

Speaking strictly for myself I often find home theatre systems make things worse. They always sound boomy and with way too much bass. Then again it might be the way most people seem to set them up. I have the same issue when seeing a film in the theatre--I really hate boomy sound and having my hearing assaulted by over-the-top sound f/x.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think BeatleJWOL and Owain Taggart are on to something.

Try changing your TV/home theater speakers and/or the amplifier/equalizer settings you've selected, if possible. If better channel separation makes the dialog audible, then the problem was likely inappropriate mixing for your set-up.

 

[Warped9]

I've tried that and it doesn't make any significant difference.

 

[Marc]

For awhile flat panel TVs had terrible speakers, but for the past few years they've gotten better. Out television is only about three years old and the speakers are fine.

Could also depend on the placement of the speakers. CRTs tended to have the speakers facing the front. In contrast the flat panels have them at rear either face down or facing backwards. As a result the sounds is going bounce off the nearest surfaces and that can impact the quality.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Yes, great point. Does simply trying headphones fix the problem?

 

[Owain Taggart]

And of course, there's always the issue that the dialogue was poorly recorded in the first place in some cases. A good example would be the True Grit remake, where Jeff Bridges really does mumble a lot throughout the movie, making it harder to understand. A better recording would try to alleviate that somewhat. I also saw Noah in the theatre, and there were some parts where it was hard to understand, again due to mumbling. There's nothing really much you can do at that point, but the mix itself would make it worse.

 

[Random_Spock]

For awhile flat panel TVs had terrible speakers, but for the past few years they've gotten better. Out television is only about three years old and the speakers are fine.

Speaking strictly for myself I often find home theatre systems make things worse. They always sound boomy and with way too much bass. Then again it might be the way most people seem to set them up. I have the same issue when seeing a film in the theatre--I really hate boomy sound and having my hearing assaulted by over-the-top sound f/x.

Now I'm curious... would 2006 tv's be considered to have bad ones? If so, it sucks . It's a good tv other wise.

 

[Warped9]

For awhile flat panel TVs had terrible speakers, but for the past few years they've gotten better. Out television is only about three years old and the speakers are fine.

Speaking strictly for myself I often find home theatre systems make things worse. They always sound boomy and with way too much bass. Then again it might be the way most people seem to set them up. I have the same issue when seeing a film in the theatre--I really hate boomy sound and having my hearing assaulted by over-the-top sound f/x.

Now I'm curious... would 2006 tv's be considered to have bad ones? If so, it sucks . It's a good tv other wise.

I think the changes started to happen around 2009/10 or so.

 

[Melakon]

I really noticed the problem when getting used dvds of TOS with the cgi effects. They had also redone the theme. The music's fine, but can barely hear the "Space, the final frontier" speech. No problems within the episodes themselves. I thought there was something wrong with the pressing, until Beatle's explanation above. Unfortunately, the only sound options on most of my dvds seem to be Dolby 5.1 or Dolby Surround, and the tv, built in 1992, just has right and left speakers.

 

[1001001]

Yes, I have the same problem. The mid channel, where voices usually are, is weak without a good system or newer TV.

So what we get is massive volume on action sequences, music, etc. then we can't hear the dialogue for crap.

We've been tempted to get one of those sound bars. Anyone try one of those?

And yes, we have on occasion gone as far as to watch with the captions on, just because we can't hear the dialogue.

I'm glad I'm not the only person going deaf in his old age...

 

[Warped9]

We have a soundbar on our 40in. flat panel downstairs which is older than our 50in. upstairs. The 50in. plays fine, but the 40in. needed help because of the speakers.

The soundbar is okay, but it doesn't really change much for the better as far as not hearing snatches of dialogue. It does, however, improve the sound quality over the 40in's small speakers.

 

[Random_Spock]

For awhile flat panel TVs had terrible speakers, but for the past few years they've gotten better. Out television is only about three years old and the speakers are fine.

Speaking strictly for myself I often find home theatre systems make things worse. They always sound boomy and with way too much bass. Then again it might be the way most people seem to set them up. I have the same issue when seeing a film in the theatre--I really hate boomy sound and having my hearing assaulted by over-the-top sound f/x.

Now I'm curious... would 2006 tv's be considered to have bad ones? If so, it sucks . It's a good tv other wise.

I think the changes started to happen around 2009/10 or so.

Ah, so any past then are bad, I take it?

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Yes, I have the same problem. The mid channel, where voices usually are, is weak without a good system or newer TV.

So what we get is massive volume on action sequences, music, etc. then we can't hear the dialogue for crap.

We've been tempted to get one of those sound bars. Anyone try one of those?

This problem even exists with full surround systems, so a soundbar will only improve the audio quality of what you've already got.

Ever since I've had a surround system of my own, I've had the center channel set several dB higher than the other speakers, just to try to balance the dialogue.

 

[Warped9]

Now I'm curious... would 2006 tv's be considered to have bad ones? If so, it sucks . It's a good tv other wise.

I think the changes started to happen around 2009/10 or so.

Ah, so any past then are bad, I take it?

Our 40 in. Samsung is from about 2008 and has weak built-in speakers. Our 50 in. Samsung is from about 2011-2012 and has decent built-in speakers.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I think the changes started to happen around 2009/10 or so.

Ah, so any past then are bad, I take it?

Our 40 in. Samsung is from about 2008 and has weak built-in speakers. Our 50 in. Samsung is from about 2011-2012 and has decent built-in speakers.

I have a Samsung, yours wouldn't happen to have a sound mode button would it? Mine lets you choose different sound mixes including one that's specifically for speech.