Why is my TV volume loud as hell when there is action sounds and totally fine during dialogue? Any movies we try to watch as a family gets ruined by this absolute bullshit. If Reddit is to be believed, we are not only ones with this issue. How is this a fucking problem in 2025? Yes, I'm pissed. I don't want to become a sound engineer, is there a TV out there that fixes this shit and fixes it well? I tired all the setting on our old Phillips, it get better but not by much. I don't care about sound quality just the actual volume difference between sounds.
Because producers/directors all think they are the greatest ever. It's a widely talked about issue with their idiotic sound mixing. They don't care about the 99% of people that just want to watch TV and hear the dialogue. They only care about the few with high end home theater systems.
Same here. I mean, as (former) racers, we all have some sort of hearing issue, which won’t get better. But i find myself on the volume button the whole damn time during movies and series. Add british or other accents and i don’t understand jack shit. Very tempted to turn on CC all the time. (That’s how i watch movies on flights: CC on screen and music on my earbuds)
Go into the menus on the TV and/or sound system and turn off any audio/sound "Enhancements" that are on (many by default). Spatial enhancement/expansion Enhanced bass Any sort of 3D sound settings Any sort of expanded realism They all totally F*ck up the sound, and produce the symptoms you describe.
Or save yourself the trouble of not making any difference in how shitty new shows sound. Simply leave all settings the way they are when watching a current show, and change it to an old show. Even something from the 90s. Same sound settings on everything, and your show will sound perfectly fine. It's the new way of mixing sound to be as garbage as possible.
Anytime I absolutely need to hear every word of dialogue, I run the (TV) sound through some good quality over the ear headphones. My Sony MDR 7506 studio monitors work great. Dynamics are great for a movie theater, but it sucks when you have to ride the volume just to understand what they're saying...
Just streaming app but as mentioned it seems to be more dependent on the age of the movie/show than anything else.
The struggle is real!!!! I have to volume up and down the entire movie. I wish someone would design some software to fix this.
I don't disagree with the assessment of the result, but again, the issue is more the settings in the receiver than in the source material. That's more related to stereo sound vs surround sound on the original recordings. All the "enhancements" that the tv sets have don't over-act on stereo source material, but totally f*ck up native surround sound material. The manufacturers built those algorithms to make stereo sound more "lively and real" when surround became popular in the late 90's. However, if the recording is true surround sound, these "enhancements" totally screw things up by essentially doubling the spatial expansion of the sound. This makes all the effects (efx) sound (non-dialog) much louder than the dialog, which in a true surround sound is mostly only coming from the center front speaker. Doubling the efx sound is just too much of a good thing. Are there bad mixes for surround sound? Yes, most definitely. Mostly on live broadcasts where managing the sound imagery in real-time is very difficult. Shows that are recorded and post-produced usually have very good surround sound.
Marvel Studios would like to have a word with you. Keep your finger on the mute button, though. The volume level you need to hear the word will cause eardrum ruptures when the talking stops and the action starts.
This shit has been a problem for years. I just accept that I will not hear everything and keep the volume at an acceptable level with subtitles or captions on.
It’s called dynamic range and is normally a good thing. It’s not just TV shows. The best recorded music often has a large dynamic range. Classical music recordings are especially known for having huge dynamic range. One must be very careful when listening to classical music not to crank up the volume knob too high during quiet passages if you’re not intimately familiar with the dynamic range of the source material, as it can quickly become very loud as the movement progresses. There are various options to address this. Many TVs, streamers, AVRs/AVPs have options for compressing the sound (normally considered a bad thing) in order to reduce the dynamic range and the difference between very quiet and very loud sounds for precisely your situation. For instance, my Anthem AVM 70 Operating Manual says, “DOLBY AUDIO POST PROCESSING AND DYNAMIC RANGE CONTROL Refer to the Input Setup section for a description of Dolby Audio Post Processing. To change on/off status, press DYN on the remote control and then the up/down buttons. When Dolby Audio Post Processing is off, and you press the DYN button a second time, alternate dynamic range settings become available. This setting allows you to control the difference between the softest and loudest passages on soundtracks that contain dynamic scaling cues.”
I think that’s a bit far fetched. Most content creators produce for art’s sake and/or monetary gain. Some art is better or worse than others. Beauty is in the eyes (and ears) of the beholder. If anything, the nature of the entertainment business has seen a general decline in production quality as the quantity of shows and movies has proliferated to satisfy the demands of streaming network providers, most of whom would rather produce their own (lower cost) content than license it from others.
For any broadcast with action/dialogue. And especially for any sports event (or anything on TV) that is riddled with the merciless torture of incessant retail ads.
