More control over volume levels?

[palmer6strings]

Now I don't know if I'm just freaking deaf or what, does anyone else have a problem hearing voice while watching movies or playing games without separate volume controls?

My girlfriend and I have been watching the Harry Potter movies and I have to keep rewinding it because they will say something but I can't hear it just because the sound effects and/or music is just overpowering. (This happens with almost any movie or show I watch.) when I mentioned it to her she actually agreed that it's like that with her too.

So I'm sitting there thinking to myself, "why in the fuck don't they just make it to where you can have separate volume controls like in games... Seriously... It wouldn't be that god damned hard for DVDs and BluRays to have this function...

[TDIRunner]

How are you listening to the sound?  Through TV speakers, or through some type of sound system?

If you are using a good quality sound system, you can adjust the volume of individual speakers.  In sounds system setups using 3 or more speakers, most voice comes from the center channel.  

[palmer6strings]

Na just tv because my 1000w home stereo sploded bout 2 months ago.

But even with my home stereo adjusted it still always seems like voice is too quiet. I don't have this problem while listening to music or when people is around me so I know I'm not all deaf lol.

[TDIRunner]

Na just tv because my 1000w home stereo sploded bout 2 months ago.

But even with my home stereo adjusted it still always seems like voice is too quiet. I don't have this problem while listening to music or when people is around me so I know I'm not all deaf lol.

You should still be able to make some adjustments to the sound.  Most TV's have multiple sounds choices (like "music," "movie," theater" or others).  Look for a button on your remote.  If that doesn't help, you might look into replacing your sound system with something that can be adjusted to you liking.

[sheep2001]

funnily enough, we watched interstellar last night, on blu-Ray, and the sound mixing on it was appalling.  We both really struggled to hear the dialogue. And that's through a decent Sony home cinema amp.  If anyone hasn't seen it yet, don't bother, apart from the terrible sound mixing, the script is awful, and story full of holes.  Biggest disappointment in a sci fi film since independance day.

But back on topic, I never had a problem hearing the dialogue with the Harry potters.

[palmer6strings]

Ya my tv doesn't. It's about an 9 year old 32" Vizio. (Which its about time to replace that too. Starting to get shadows on the screen) Lol

But ya, if I really wanted to go hardcore, I would just go to my local music shop and order everything to have like a mini movie theater in my house and have about a 70 band EQ. Buuuuuuut that's a good 3 grand right there.

I was just curious how everyone else felt because I know even while playing my games I have to turn the music down to about 50%, SFX to about 70%, and have voice all the way up to 100% just for it to sound right to me. I'm just saying that videos should be that way too.

funnily enough, we watched interstellar last night, on blu-Ray, and the sound mixing on it was appalling.  We both really struggled to hear the dialogue. And that's through a decent Sony home cinema amp.  If anyone hasn't seen it yet, don't bother, apart from the terrible sound mixing, the script is awful, and story full of holes.  Biggest disappointment in a sci fi film since independance day.

But back on topic, I never had a problem hearing the dialogue with the Harry potters.

I now know not to watch Interstellar lol.

Like the movie Parallels. It was good and so was the sound... But when the movie was over I was like WTF?! What's going on??? So many things left unanswered...

[TDIRunner]

I should mention that out of the box, I had trouble hearing voices in my movies as well.  That was corrected simply by adjusting the volume on my center channel speaker.  I have Sony equipment which comes with the auto calibration mic.  I used that first which gets the setup pretty close to what I want, and I make minor adjustments from there (with the biggest change to the center channel speaker).  You can get a decent sound systems for a good price these days.  It might not stack up to a $3k system, but it will still be better than what you have now. 

Keep in mind that TV speakers tend to be pretty crappy.  Out of the three TVs setup in my house, every single one has the TV speakers set to "off."

[Araden64]

I'm the same way, I always have subtitles on because i can't hear voices no matter what i watch, in game i usually can get away by increasing the voice audio but I still have subtitles on.

I need to fit some surround sound money in my budget lol

[FritzWhite]

I should mention that out of the box, I had trouble hearing voices in my movies as well.  That was corrected simply by adjusting the volume on my center channel speaker.  I have Sony equipment which comes with the auto calibration mic.  I used that first which gets the setup pretty close to what I want, and I make minor adjustments from there (with the biggest change to the center channel speaker).  You can get a decent sound systems for a good price these days.  It might not stack up to a $3k system, but it will still be better than what you have now. 

Keep in mind that TV speakers tend to be pretty crappy.  Out of the three TVs setup in my house, every single one has the TV speakers set to "off."

I bought a 55 inch LG a few months back. I love it to pieces, but the sound is atrocious. I'm debating on whether to get 1 sound bar, or to do a surround type set up. I'm worried a cat will chew up the wires.

[palmer6strings]

They make some pretty good wireless 5.1 surround sound systems. Less wires that way.

[TDIRunner]

I should mention that out of the box, I had trouble hearing voices in my movies as well.  That was corrected simply by adjusting the volume on my center channel speaker.  I have Sony equipment which comes with the auto calibration mic.  I used that first which gets the setup pretty close to what I want, and I make minor adjustments from there (with the biggest change to the center channel speaker).  You can get a decent sound systems for a good price these days.  It might not stack up to a $3k system, but it will still be better than what you have now. 

Keep in mind that TV speakers tend to be pretty crappy.  Out of the three TVs setup in my house, every single one has the TV speakers set to "off."

I bought a 55 inch LG a few months back. I love it to pieces, but the sound is atrocious. I'm debating on whether to get 1 sound bar, or to do a surround type set up. I'm worried a cat will chew up the wires.

At my last house, I had 7.1 surround with all of the wires running through the walls.  It's a little extra work, but it looks really nice.  Right now I don't have everything setup properly because my "good" equipment is in my basement setup.

[Arseen]

It really depend on TV speaker quality.

One in our HQ at work is really bad, but the other one and one at home have great speakers.

Cheapest solution is PC speakers with volume control if your TV has head phone jack.
Don't know if the USB connection would work.

[irvgotti452]

I remedy this by running movies on my pc via VLC. I use the mixer in there to even out the levels.

I even found the original article I looked at years back: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/06/how-to-fix-movies-that-are-really-quiet-then-really-loud/
That tutorial is a good starting point but it's not a solution for all flicks unfortunately.

[monjici]

I tend to have issues when I listen to late movies. I leave the sound low so I don't wake up the familly when something explodes in the movie. Sometimes I adjust the volume at each scene.. quite annoying.

And then, finally, I got a movie that has a "late night" sound option. It was Prometeus. It allows to keep to volume high enough to hear dialogues and cuts on bass and volume on the peaks. Why isn't that a standard on all movies?

[Thom Grayson]

Agree about there being a perpetual mismatch between the volume of the effects and the dialogue, especially in newer movies. I don't have this problem in theaters, only at home... so the solution may well be 'if you have huge, expensive speakers, there will be no problem!'

This is probably not realistic for most setups, but I've found that listening through headphones can help quite a bit.