"Can't hear what they are saying..."

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peteroldracer
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"Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby peteroldracer » Sat Dec 28, 2019 4:21 pm

As we age more and more of what is on tv is incomprehensible - muttered dialogue, speech so fast that the speaker seems intent on getting off to somewhere more important and accents as thick as Gaelic broth.
I know some of this is due to so many on tv are not actors who have learnt how to project to the back of the stalls from the stage - or indeed that they have never learnt that the job of an actor is to tell the story to an audience, but must admit that a lot of it is due to ageing hearing.
I have looked at hearing aids but the price makes the ears bleed. I have no wish to sit watching tv wearing headphones - even clever ones that switch to your phone if a call comes in. This leaves me with soundbars or bluetooth speakers but am bemused at the range (and the range of prices!) and am unsure how effective they would be - some programmes are fine, particularly the American series - but others, particularly the uk soaps, have less than half the speech understandable.
I am very happy with my LG Nano tv, have the sound set to "Clear Voice" but it is not, and although tvmucho has solved most of my connection and facility woes it sadly does not yet allow the closed caption subtitling that makes such a difference with some Amazon Prime videos.
Has anyone here suffered the same problem - or more to the point have they solved it?!
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El Cid
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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby El Cid » Sat Dec 28, 2019 5:27 pm

I think everyone suffers from the same problem in that modern Slimline TVs have lousy speakers inevitably limited by their ability to incorporate them into the superslim design and at the same time as the listener's hearing ability is suffering from the inevitable degrading due to age.

There are various solutions, from the simplest being to attach a set of PC speakers with a separate woofer for well under €100. Sound bars are just a more expensive, but a more sophisticated solution.

Ideally what you need is a speaker system that can concentrate on the speech frequencies using a central speaker. This is difficult to achieve without a more complicated system. That will usually involve an Audio/visual receiver/amplifier which can handle multiple video inputs, such as your Firestick or other streaming devices or your satellite system if you have one. That handles the various video sources, but also handles the sound by bypassing the rubbish sound from the TV speakers in a multi speaker system. It's great for watching movies that incorporate all the surround channels, but it also has the benefit of a central speaker that can be set up to accentuate the speech channel.

So, the answer lies somewhere between a €50 PC speaker system and a €1000 surround sound system. Ultimately, it depends on your personal hearing abilities. I have a friend who has tried almost everything but now relies on downloading content that has subtitles. Hopefully you haven't reached this point yet!

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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby elusive » Sat Dec 28, 2019 5:46 pm

The sound on many programes are terrible.along with background music when people are speaking gets alot of complaints. Notice how loud and clear the adverts are when they come on!

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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby Lyric » Sat Dec 28, 2019 5:59 pm

I found a Sony bar that got lousy reviews for emphasising speech too much, that's the one for us thought I, I eventually found one and it was perfect, just three years and it failed, They don't make it anymore. It's replacement is from Samsung and is useless it is obsessed with bass.
A bar or system with graphic equaliser would seem the way to go to me. Not seen one though.

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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby katy » Fri Jan 03, 2020 10:36 pm

elusive wrote:The sound on many programes are terrible.along with background music when people are speaking gets alot of complaints. Notice how loud and clear the adverts are when they come on!
Yes good point, even sport gets louder.
Lots of people complain about sound on BBC dramas. Sometimes it is possible that the sound is loud but difficult to pick out the words.

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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby Beachcomber » Fri Jan 03, 2020 10:44 pm

The problem appears to be that programme makers no longer employ proper sound engineers.

Instead of using properly adjusted and professionally operated boom microphones some spotty studio assistant with a degree in media studies pins a cocealed lapel microphone under the actor's outer clothing and hopes for the best resulting in grossly distorted and muffled sound.

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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby olive » Sat Jan 04, 2020 11:34 am

This is one of my bugbears. Partly down to degrade in my hearing with age and partly due to poor programme production. The latter seems to be open season for adding effects, many of which are deafening. You know they are added as you have things like foxes barking or loons calling.

An easy quick fix improvement is to select “ Clear voice” for your TV. Sadly this doesn’t address background noise or special effects.

I have been prevaricating for some while over the purchase of a sound bar. There are some that specifically help with dialogue according to internet reviews. They are not cheap and how do you practically test your prospective purchase? A further complication is that the manufacturers discontinue products very quickly. As someone said earlier in the thread you might just buy a sound bar ( with or without extra speakers) that just male the bass richer.

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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby El Cid » Sat Jan 04, 2020 11:52 am

olive wrote:
They are not cheap and how do you practically test your prospective purchase?
Simple - buy it from Amazon and if you don't like it, send it back and try another one.

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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby markwilding » Sat Jan 04, 2020 12:03 pm

The Amazon Echo version 3, not the Dot, can be bought for 70 Euros and has decent sound with the added benefits of being a internet radio and music player. For the conspiracists among us who think that Amazon is listening to every word we are saying and will use it against us at some future date, it is possible to silence the microphone, making it a very affordable bluetooth speaker.

I actually use a surround system bought quite a few years ago now and don't suffer any of the problems mentioned except for the fact that I have to have the volume quite high which annoys both my wife and son. I do notice, however, that after having my ears cleaned, I can turn the volume down a notch or two

From time to time we like to watch a film in bed and I use an old Bluetooth speaker, which works fine.

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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby Wicksey » Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:14 pm

I know I am getting older and deafer (I have tinnitus which badly affects my comprehension of speech) so I am glad that so many other people have trouble hearing the TV, it's not just me. I cannot understand why the 'background' music is even there, let alone loud enough to drown out the speech. Trying to set different sound settings on our LG hasn't helped, even custom setting it using the graphic equaliser. Otherwise the sound quality on this TV is pretty good compared to the previous one when we did have to buy separate speakers for it.

I inherited my MIL's cordless headphones although I only use them on certain programmes where the speech quality is particularly bad. Give's my OH a peaceful time too :) Otherwise I have to watch programmes on catch-up where the subtitles are available.

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peteroldracer
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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby peteroldracer » Sat Jan 04, 2020 2:21 pm

Olive has echoed my complaint exactly. In the days when I was into hifi I could go to an audio fair in Harrogate where rooms were set up by lots of manufacturers to demonstrate their amps, turntables and speakers in a realistic home setting, and I could listen to my choices of music genres - heavy rock, classical, choral whatever - to hear what worked best for me to create a shortlist. A local dealer then let me take three sets of speakers home to try them and the Mourdant Short moniters I chose in 1972 are still in use by my brother some 48 years later!
If only similar facilities were available here - it would be great to record a few bits of the programmes we find most difficult and view them using different solutions, but the dealers are not interested in putting themselves out for a mere 500 Euros or whatever, just in shifting boxes, or at best letting you listen to unsuitable programmes in their aircraft hangar-sized stores. There is no way I could know if their solution means we could understand Gary Windass on Emmerdale or Aaron Dingle, and other folk on screen who seem to speak a language unknown to us - "Lowmutter" or "Gabble-ese". I think we will have to wait and see if TvMucho find a way of adding subtitles to their programmes.
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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby Paulinmalaga » Sat Jan 04, 2020 2:59 pm

Thats one problem that you won't be able to solve as he's in Corra not Emmerdale :lol:
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Beachcomber
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Re: "Can't hear what they are saying..."

Postby Beachcomber » Sat Jan 04, 2020 7:17 pm

I'm glad I'm not somebody who knows the difference.


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