This is why most video games are superior. You can turn the SFX down to 6/10 Turn the music down to 9/10 And leave the voices at 10/10
Except when you launch a new game the first time and THE MENU MUSIC IS REALLY LIUD SO YOU YELL TO YOUR FRIENDS HOLYFUCKBOISHANGONICANTHEARYOU
I remember people clowning on old launchers for games back in the day, but I do still really appreciate being able to set resolution, graphics settings, audio, etc before getting hit with a 320p, no antialiased, volume 1000% BWAAAAHHH for potentially a few minutes before I can ever get to an options menu. And even then sometimes the options menu won’t let you adjust graphics and resolution unless you’re on the title screen, and it usually requires a restart of the game.
Being able to adjust all of that before the game started in the first place or at least letting the game go straight to the title screen without intro cinematics or booting straight into the game on first launch is really nice.
Check that the audio format of whatever you’re watching matches the output of your listening device. If you watch a movie using 5.1, but your TV is stereo, then yes all of the loud shit is going to be very loud and crowd out the dialog. This might not be the silver bullet for everyone, but it costs you nothing to check your settings.
Some movies are actually just mixed super poorly, though.
What would be the solution if the movie is using 5.1 and my TV only has stereo? What would be the correct setting?
Stereo
Use stereo for the movie. Some apps, like Netflix (iirc) has a setting for that.
Good luck finding a BluRay that doesn’t just have a 7.1 mix, but also Stereo.
Yeah, I think all of my totally legitimate blu-ray movie rips only have 5.1 or 7.1, I’ve never seen stereo outside of TV series.
I think one of the Pixar or Dreamworks BDs I’d rented recently had a 2.0 mix and I was amazed. My 90’s HiFi speakers are amazing for stereo and it’s a shame that I cannot make good use of them for watching movies.
I love how everyone think your audio settings can do anything about this.
Unless you control the mixing, you get what you get. When Christopher Nolan wants mumbling followed by jet engines, you will suffer accordingly. I still have no idea what Tenent was about between the fucky time shifting and the godawful sound mixing, but I stopped caring half way through.
Tenet was about this:
R O T A S
O P E R A
T E N E T
A R E P O
S A T O RThat is one of the very few movies with English audio that I had to enable English subtitles in.
I have no clue why they wanted nobody to hear the characters in that movie. Why did they even bother giving them voice lines?
Why don’t you just watch the film in 14-channel Dolby Atmos like the director intended? /s
No no no, we can still hear the actors whisper. Increase backbround rumble. Also there’s too much light. You can almost see the actor’s face. Make it darker!
I know it’s not an ideal solution, but subtitles really do make this a non issue.
Also good for heavy accents or just complex, lore heavy dialog
Audio engineers during the black and white talkies had so much more skill than modern ones.
Back when the audio guy was the pianist playing ragtime next to the projection screen.
That’s why subtitles are great
For the love of god go to your sound settings, and turn “dynamic range” to low.
Almost every TV has this option.
I did, it’s still awful
Have you tried plugging it in and then plugging it in again? My cat is a literal fat ass and will eat anything.
This is why I love having a 5.1 setup now. I just crank the center channel up and all is solved.
have you tried surround sound?
Voices should be audible in stereo, the most common setup. They are free to add 5.1 and 7.1 as well, but 2.0 and 2.1 need to work.
Isn’t there a thing where the player itself knows when the audio will go very high and thus reduce the amplitude? Maybe something called Stable Sound.
Or best is if we can seperate background noise, dialogues and other sounds and the engine work with that, idk.
VLC has a Volume Normalization setting which everyone should turn on. Helps dramatically with the plethora of badly mixed movies.
When the meme is gender neutral. 🥹
