• Rawrosaurus@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    17 minutes ago

    I remember one movie I tried watching that was exceptionally bad in this department. I want to say it was Interstellar from 2014? I gave up not long into it because it was just torture to watch.

  • bss03@infosec.pubEnglish
    7·
    4 hours ago

    Large dynamic range is a good thing, in audio and video. There are a number of ways to reduce dynamic range, if you really need to. Expanding dynamic range after capture is possible, too, but more fraught.

    Shannon information theory gives us ways to perfectly reconstruct the lower range version from an expanded range version, but it also guarantees that reconstructing the higher range version from a reduced range version cannot be perfectly accurate across all inputs. (Assuming a fixed output range capability.)

    • Soggy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      I’m also here to support dynamic range. I don’t want the volume “normalized”, I want loud louds and quiet quiets.

      • fishy@lemmy.todayEnglish
        2·
        1 hour ago

        A lot of people live in apartments or have kids. While I enjoy being able to listen to loud explosions and quiet whispers, it can make movie watching experiences miserable.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
    19·
    8 hours ago

    TBF this always ends up with a lot of misplaced blame on the consumer

    TV manufacturers decided/figured out long ago that Joe public cares more about a screen being thin, at time of purchase, than it having any semblance of audio quality. And they assume anyone who cares about audio will buy a set of speakers or (increasingly) a sound bar anyway, so they just need the bare minimum included.

    This has gotten to the absurd point now where the speakers included in your average TV aren’t much better than a particularly loud phone speaker.

    It’s basically impossible to get something that sounds even audible on those speakers, without doing what adverts do and compressing the shit out of the signal, which has the bonus of sounding loud and bad for everyone, there’s no bringing the detail back that was squashed out. Movie studios aren’t going to mix a movie that sounds bad on a system designed remotely properly (e.g. a cinema or reviewer’s TV), so we’re in the current situation.

    The unfortunate situation today is you basically need some kind of separate speaker(s) with a TV because the manufacturers all have cheaped out across the board and don’t include anything good enough any more. The consumer shouldn’t be expected to know this and have to pay extra, the TV should come with speakers capable of producing audio properly.

    • BorgDrone@feddit.nl
      3·
      4 hours ago

      I don’t even understand why they bother to include speakers in high-end TVs at all. Who’s going to buy an >80” TV and then only have stereo sound. For movies sound is at least as important for the experience as the picture quality. No built in speaker system is ever going be good enough, it’s simple physics.

  • krisevol@lemmus.orgEnglish
    5·
    7 hours ago

    User error. Either use proper audio equipment like speakers, or under the tv settings turn audio dynamic range to low.

  • BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world
    2·
    7 hours ago

    Modern filmmaking. I had this issue with Minority Report many years ago alredy. Now I mostly use headphones - so this isn’t as pronounced, but it’s still an issue

    • Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      3·
      7 hours ago

      It isn’t mixed for home theatre setups is the thing.

      But you can easily enable Loudness Equalization in Windows to increase low volume sounds and decrease high volume sounds.

    • deft@lemmy.wtf
      4·
      11 hours ago

      I always wondered this is it like a TV hardware thing or sound mixing or what

      • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
        5·
        8 hours ago

        Most movies are mixed for a theater surround sound system. Remixing them for tv speakers is usually not worth the effort. Dialogue usually sits on the center channel while effects and music are spread across left, right and surround channels. A tv with stereo speakers can‘t do much except mix all of that together and that makes it hard to hear the quieter parts.

        If you watch a lot of movies, I recommend a soundbar or even better a 5.1 system. It’s expensive but it mostly solves those mixing problems.

        • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          4 hours ago

          What you are describing is what is supposed to happen. What actually happens is that big film studios ignore the center channel altogether. Instead choosing to mix the voice in 3D because cinema and IMAX and Dolby, etc. which honestly sounds extraordinary in those sound system. It is mostly because they are desperate to propose something that actually brings a competitive edge to theaters against home TVs and streaming. Instead of, you know, making good films. But that’s beside the point.

          What ends up happening is that your system’s codecs and down mixers do what they are told they are supposed to do. Mix all channels together into stereo, with a tiny boost to the center channel on both sides. Easy, that should bring forward the dialogue, whoops! there’s no dialogue in the center channel, it is all mushed all over the place over the other 4 channels and drowned out by the audio FX.

          This is the reason some egregiously poorly dialogue mixed movies like Tenet and The Dark Knight Rises actually also sounded bad in mid to lower tier theaters. Those theaters were calibrated for exactly the way it was supposed to sound, with a strong center channel for dialogue and what is directly in front of the camera. But the audio isn’t there, it is dispersed to a side in the other two speakers (this is done automatically now in mixing software, which doesn’t help). The movie came with the flaw, and even if you have a good 5.1 channel audio at home, you can check for yourself, the dialogue is also hard to hear on those movies. Because it was shit from the beginning unless you hear it in an IMAX theater or have access to one of those 3D field Dolby Atmos 64 speaker systems that Nolan mixes on.

        • CarrotsHaveEars@lemmy.ml
          9·
          8 hours ago

          Will you please stop this rumour already? Most of the video I watch in my living room have 2ch audio. If anything it is still the guy who mixed the audio who’s at fault.

          And I have a Yamaha 5.1 AV receiver as well. Watching new movies with original surround sound sucks all the same.

      • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
        2·
        8 hours ago

        From what I heard it can be due to the audio mix used. Most content is set to a 5.1 mix or higher, and the majority of people still just use their 2.0 tv speakers. Sometimes you can pick the audio on some services and some may have a 2.0 option but i think its rare these days.

      • morto@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        4 hours ago

        I will make a silent movie that isn’t actually silent. It’s just that the characters prefer not to talk

      • EnsignWashout@startrek.website
        1·
        5 hours ago

        We are kind of on our way.

        Half the time when I look up how to repair my dishwasher, the best video guide turns out to also be an intentional ASMR video to maximize attention.

        (Okay, not really half, but that it happens at all is hilarious.)

      • Mr.Chewy@lemmy.world
        1·
        8 hours ago

        As an autistic with a hypersensitivity to sound, I support this cause, as a someone surrounded by people love to interrupt unless they hear a sound coming from whom they’re interrupting, I need to have SOME noise in the background and if it’s not fitting the TV, it breaks the immersion :(

    • sik0fewl@piefed.caEnglish
      10·
      14 hours ago

      Thanks. I was wondering why this always seems to be the case. Sounds like I need to either stop watching Christopher Nolan movies or upgrade my audio system.

      • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
        11·
        8 hours ago

        I chose upgrading my system. Full home theatre. I still get the mumble dialogue effect. It’s just how things are now

        • Carrot@lemmy.today
          2·
          4 hours ago

          Mumble dialog is intentional, directors want movie and show dialog to sound natural, which often involves under-enunciation. I have a great home theater setup and while it fixes the vast majority of issues, I still don’t watch anything without subtitles

    • Bonje@lemmy.world
      9·
      19 hours ago

      You can usually skip all of it by telling people to get an actual sound system and not using built in TV speakers

      • marzhall@lemmy.world
        3·
        8 hours ago

        Fuck that, use vlc and turn on volume normalization in the audio settings, or turn the volume down to barely audible and use subtitles if you’re doing some weird “paid service” to play your video files.

      • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
        50·
        19 hours ago

        Not really, it’s still a problem. Better/more speakers don’t magically fix mumble dialogue mixed way below the action volume.

        • Zarobi@aussie.zoneEnglish
          6·
          15 hours ago

          Most of the time, voice is on a specific channel, and you can just turn up that channel, or turn down the others. It’s like turning down the base in an equaliser, you can hear the other stuff better. So it does actually fix it…

          That’s why on Blu Ray cases, you see for example, “Dolby Digital 5.1”; it means there’s 5.1 different audio tracks you can play with. That’s the way it was mixed and intended to be listened to. Just ignore the .1 for now, it’s not super important. You can buy a single 5.1 sound bar for pretty cheap that does the job. You don’t really need 5 whole separate speakers.

          Most TVs have speakers in the back, so you’re actually listening to an echo of the sound, which muffles it a lot. If you only have a 1 speaker system, your TV also smooshes them all together as best as it can, which is sometimes badly.

          I simplified a lot but hopefully this strikes a balance of not too complicated of an answer, while also not upsetting the smart people who know the details.

          • mushroommunk@lemmy.today
            11·
            9 hours ago

            You’re talking to a guy who built a full 7.2.4 channel Dolby Atmos system in his basement. Full room within a room acoustic isolation. Basically as good as you can go. Full in room treatment for reflection control. About as flat in room response as you can go.

            I say again. Better speakers and system only helps a little. The center channel that audio is mixed to can be raised individually some yes but even then music or other sound effects are panned across and you’ll get your ears blown out.

            You can’t magically fix mumble dialogue in system.

      • Gerudo@lemmy.zip
        19·
        17 hours ago

        I had a full atmos theater setup at my last place, Revel Concerta 2 speakers all around. Absolutely still had this problem with some movies. It helped, but not as much as you would think, even with higher grade compression.

      • otacon239@lemmy.world
        26·
        19 hours ago

        Yeah, but that unfortunately is asking someone to spend some decent money. It’s a problem that could definitely be fixed in softw- Oh no. Don’t get me started… Nice try.

      • SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org
        21·
        19 hours ago

        That’s like selling cars with little tricycle wheels. It can be solved by buying actual wheels, but why isn’t it right from the start?

      • D_C@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        13 hours ago

        My new TV and its speakers sound a lottttt better than my old TV and soundbar.

        I had two basic options. Thin and light TV with a new soundbar. Or ‘chunky’ TV with decent speakers, and the option of soundbar going forwards.
        I went the chunky route and, at the moment, I hear no need for a soundbar. It’s passed the Christopher Nolan test with ease.
        Both Interstellar and Tenet were watched with no issues at all.

        But, generally, yeah TV speakers are tinny rubbish.

      • turdas@suppo.fi
        9·
        19 hours ago

        Then you just get a movie theater situation where you have to wear earplugs. This is a consequence of terrible audio mixing where the assumption is that audiences like loud as fuck sounds that they can ~fEEL~ and the only real fix to it is to un-terrible the mix by compressing it.

        • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
          8·
          16 hours ago

          You can easily make explosions so loud people can feel it, without ruining the rest of the audio and without hurting people’s hearing. You can boom as loud as you want at ~15hz.

        • PNW clouds@infosec.pub
          5·
          17 hours ago

          I got to try haptic headphones recently. Gimmicky but made me smile when the bass kicked in and I could feel it through the haptic feedback. It seemed louder without making the rest muddy and without making me yell WHAT? after a couple songs.

          Not audiophile quality, it was immersive at least. I want to try them with a movie.

  • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nz
    37·
    18 hours ago

    I had this with ads. It made me hate whatever product they were advertising.

    This is because Reptilians don’t have human ears, and can’t tell how to balance audio correctly

    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
      22·
      15 hours ago

      The ad people explained that they do not mess with the volume! It’s that “movies have soft and hard sound pieces and ads have more hard sound pieces.” To me, that sounds like they mess with the volume and know it.

      • Electricblush@lemmy.world
        15·
        14 hours ago

        It’s compression. (As in audio processing not data storage) Loudness is a perception thing. Pure decibels don’t tell the whole story about how your mind perceive audio.

        It’s the same principle as the “loudness wars” in music.

        Audio equipment still has upper limits, but music is produced to sound louder.

        This is also why modern standards of measuring loudness is more complex.

        But in the end this is sort of just being pedantic. Yes commercials make their stuff sound really loud and will always push up against what ever limit you put on it.

        Movies and TV shows care more about quality of audio and dynamic range (that’s is sort of the issue made funny in the comic above, when your equipment is unable to create audio clarity at the full dynamic range something is made for)

        Actually quite a few TVs, soundbars, and audio receivers have a “night mode or quiet mode” that will compress or limit the dynamic range of what you are watching to avoid this scenario

        (Yes I know… I’m ruining a perfectly good funny comic :P )

        • kahoodd@reddthat.com
          2·
          11 hours ago

          I once converted all my mp3 songs to the same loudness by scaling based on RMS, it might not be %100 accurate as you said but to me it was perfect. I believe there could be a setting to squish that range by calculating RMS chunk by chunk and scaling them each, but instead they just add all kinds of stupid modes and settings

        • Zarobi@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          14 hours ago

          Usually I adjust the volume for each song when I’m driving. Some are just louder than others, but that’s kind of ok I think. I really dislike Spotify (and other platforms) automatic loudness dynamic adjustment things… they usually make things sound really bad and weird

          • Electricblush@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 hours ago

            Yea compression can really squash a mix. YouTube also did a stunt with that default on, made lots of music youtube channels sound horrible. Turned that shit of right away.

    • Cypress@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6·
      17 hours ago

      Yeah i guess it is indeed kind of silly of us to expect humanity from inhuman things…

  • psx_crab@lemmy.zipEnglish
    14·
    18 hours ago

    I swear by now there should be a media player that would have auto-balance build in. Nowadays i can’t watch movie without a subtitle, i just can’t subject myself with them merican can’t pronounce word properly and bad audio balance.