this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023
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Movies and TV Shows
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Because the fuckers producing the shows make the music and sound effects 5x louder than it needs to be but the dialogue half as loud as it needs to be.
It's because they're mixing dialogue for the center channel speaker. Most people don't have a center channel on their TV or sound bar, but some "Dialogue Mode"s will exclusively play the center channel and drown out the sound effects. It's a trade off, but one that most manufacturers don't even give the option for.
I have 5.1 and still encounter tons of shows where I need to crank the volume for dialog and then hurriedly lower it during explosions or fight scenes. This wasn't much of an issue a few years ago on the exact same surround sound setup.
I have a 5.1 as well, and I use software normalization (Plex and through my Shield) to fix it. I know there's a way to tune it via hardware, but my setup is an ancient Yamaha receiver and I prefer the software normalization.
Mixing can be a mixed bag, as everyone uses different hardware to master their sound, but normalization or boosting center fixes it 99% of the time.
Hm. I’ve got a basic 5.1 setup via sound bar and have dialed center up to max. It sorta works, but it makes the “surround” a lot less impactful because of the disproportionate levels (eg explosions straight ahead still boom).
I always though this was a deliberate mixing decision for “immersion”
I should give this a shot too as my setup uses all the same hardware (including the Yamaha receiver). I've been hesitant to have Plex level audio since it can reduce quality, but mixes are getting so bad that it'd probably improve the quality above all else.