Films - Sound/Volume Question?

[telboy]

Movies Dialogue - Too low
Movie Action/Sountrack - Too loud

I've tried every conceivable sound option on my TV to average out dialogue and action volume without success.

Movies, downloaded/streamed or recorded through a HD Recorder pose this problem. This is also applies to movies watched on my Macbook Pro via external speakers, where the dialogue is OK at full volume but soundtracks or action effects are eardrum busting.

I can only assume that when movies are made they have multiple soundtracks, geared towards cinema viewing but not so good for home viewing unless you have 'home cinema'

I have tried connecting my HiFi Speakers to the TV via the tuner but I still have the same problem, but at least I can increase/reduce the volume via the remote whilst watching a movie.

Does anyone have an answer to this problem

terry

[quebin]

We suffer from this with all sorts of programmes.It was first noticed whilst watching CSI a few years ago when we couldnt hear certain voices clearly.I tried all the different TV options and putting the sound through the Hi Fi.It didn't make any difference!
Since then lots of things,we have watched,have loud background noise and indistinct dialogue,it might be the way these things are edited but is very annoying,but I'm glad that it is just not us that have noticed it.We were thinking our hearing was starting to fail!
It will be interesting to see if anyone can come up with a solution.

[El Cid]

You need a decent sound system with a good central speaker which should be set up to take most of the dialogue.

Most cinema sound systems will do this.

I have a 12 year old Creative sound system which was originally designed for a PC but I still use it as our main sound system. It has 5 speakers plus a woofer and when you select one of the preset options most of the important sound comes out of the powerful central speaker and the rest through the other speakers. For DVDs with 5.1 soundtracks it is fantastic but also surprisingly good with normal stereo sources such as the TV.

I haven't tried one of these new "soundbars" which are designed to sit under your TV and make up for the awful sound you now get now on flat screen TVs (no room for decent speakers in a thin TV). They look interesting but they are surprisingly expensive.

Sid

[telboy]

Thought I'd found the answer, by converting a movie to a file compatible with iTunes and viewing via this. However, although in iTunes there is an Equaliser where some of the pre-sets are 'Vocal Booster' and 'Spoken Word' these make no difference to the sound/volume output

terry

[ebbnflow]

As El Cid was saying, playback on a 5.1 or similar surround sound system is the way to go. All films, many series and even some advertisements are recorded in a surround sound format, meaning that without the proper decoding equipment and multiple 'speakers you will never achieve a correct sound balance in good old simple stereo.

There are many cheap systems that can do this, or you can go raving mad and have a high quality, cinema-mimiking system for whatever figure you care to throw at it.

The more heavily you are into movies the more important it may be to you. Everyone has different priorities.