I can't hear dialogue in new movies

KevinCavan

Some ridiculously strong accents put into t.v. shows and movies nowadays, that can barely be decoded.

ED E

Sad Professor wrote: »

DVDs and Blu-rays include 2.0 stereo tracks for a reason, guys. You can't judge a 5.1 surround sound mix unless you have a proper sound system. Modern film mixes are not designed for crappy 2 speaker televisions or cheap laptops. Many old movies would have mono soundtracks which are obviously going to sound better on a two speaker television than a film designed for full surround sound. Similarly, most tv shows are designed with television speakers in mind. Even big budget show like GOT tend to bury everything under the dialogue, which wouldn't work for a theatrical movie.

Yeah, modern films are more likely to shoot on real locations and use production sound than to shoot on sound stages and ADR everything else, but that's a good thing. As is the fact that more directors prefer a more natural sounding mix. Dialogue is unrealistically loud in old movies and in television. Like people talking to each other in loud settings in which both they and the audience should be straining to hear them.

Fincher was deliberately responding to this with this scene in The Social Network:

As was Nolan with the cornfield chase sequence in Interstellar.

Talking bull tbh. A 7/5->2 mixdown or limited stereo speakers may struggle upon trying to reproduce a wide range at one time such as music and FX together. That's not the complaint here.

The complaint is: talking talking ...silence...talking....Kafcukinboom...talking. They're temporally discrete. This is purely a mastering decision and has nothing to do with the equipment at the playback end unless using kit to specifically+/- channels which isn't present in the low end of the market.


IMO, and this bit is speculation, it's the current trend in the TMZ and little thought is being given to end user experience as the feedback loop is limited.

fryup

OP are you talking about cinema or TV or both

cause with a TV there are setting you can adjust for sound, i always choose voice as that brings vocals to the forefront

Tony EH

Watching 'Gravity' tonight and that film is as guilty as sin for this "can't hear dialogue" crap.

fryup

i reckon a lot has to do with audio settings on modern tellys not set right to suit the individual user...so check you're setting folks

Sugarlumps

fryup wrote: »

i reckon a lot has to do with audio settings on modern tellys not set right to suit the individual user...so check you're setting folks

Tv is 10 years old, so no.

Tony EH

fryup wrote: »

i reckon a lot has to do with audio settings on modern tellys not set right to suit the individual user...so check you're setting folks

My settings are fine and work well on other movies. It's just the odd one here and there, where I have to constantly monitor volume by remote.

Gwynplaine

Interstellar. McConaghy whispering for the whole movie. A brilliant film, but this takes from it.

MisterAnarchy

I watched Ready Player One last night and the sound mix on that was superb through the 5.1 sound system and also on the tv.
Alot of films are being poorly mixed .

fryup

Sugarlumps wrote: »

Tv is 10 years old, so no.

well get a new telly then

Sugarlumps

fryup wrote: »

well get a new telly then

biggebruv

Sorry if you guys are not talking about this but if your setup is 5.1 have you tried uping the DB on just the centre speaker that's for dialogue in the AV receiver settings? I did this with mine and it's much better I have my L+R music speakers about 5db below the center speaker

DareGod

I watch everything with subtitles on these days. I find everything a struggle to hear.

steamsey

biggebruv wrote: »

Sorry if you guys are not talking about this but if your setup is 5.1 have you tried uping the DB on just the centre speaker that's for dialogue in the AV receiver settings? I did this with mine and it's much better I have my L+R music speakers about 5db below the center speaker

This a thousand times (assuming you have a 5.1 system)