OK, the title is poorly worded. Sorry. What I mean is I’m watching a movie right now. When they’re speaking, I have to turn the volume up,but as soon as there’s any sort of special effect sound I pretty much go deaf because it is so loud. For the record the movie I’m watching is beauty and the beast put out in 2017 with Emma Watson. Speaking I have to set the volume to approximately 45 out of 100 on my home theater. As soon as they start singing, it is so damn loud it’s insane. Why would they do this and how do I fix the problem?

I’m using a Roku for Disney plus and a Denon receiver AVR-E400. I’ve tried going into the settings for Audyssey and strong dynamic volume to medium but that only helps a little bit. Maximum is a possibility, but then the audio doesn’t even sound correct it’s like I don’t know how to explain it, but it sounds strange at that point.

Any ideas on how to fix this problem because the dynamic range that I’m having is insane. I’m glad I live in my own house an apartment otherwise the neighbors would be pissed off at me.

Edit: I have a 5.1 system

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    292·
    22 hours ago

    Thank the asshole directors for choosing to make sound so crappy any more (my opinion, I think all movies have crap mixing, with too much focus on sound effects so even when voice is brought forward it’s still hard to hear clearly).

    Part of it is the movie audio is mixed for a theater that has multiple channels and speakers, so the output is the better separated and voice can be delivered better. It would need to be remixed to sound better at home, and since all homes are very different, what would you target? (Plus they simply don’t want to pay extra for mixing which doesn’t contribute to seats in a theater). Yea, they could probably use a generic mix, but again, it costs to do so, and some home users would still (justifiably) complain.

    The other is some directors intentionally crapify the mix because they want a certain experience while watching the movie in the theater. One director recently even stated he wanted dialog to be difficult to understand in certain scenes (I forget what movie). I get the director’s intent, even if I disagree.

    The only solution for home that I know is to have a sound system that can manage the separate channels. Many systems now have a sound bar just for voice, so this is already happening to some degree, but I rarely see discrete volume controls for the channels.

    • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
      4·
      9 hours ago

      One director recently even stated he wanted dialog to be difficult to understand in certain scenes (I forget what movie).

      It was Christopher Nolan with Tenet.

      Yes, I’m still salty about it, and no, I won’t watch another of his movies in the cinema.

    • andrewta@lemmy.worldOP
      13·
      22 hours ago

      I have a 5.1 system. With a decent receiver . Even by controlling dynamic sound it’s still unbearable at times.

      In the movie I’m watching in one scene the speaking is soft so I turn up the volume, in the next scene the singing is LOUD AS HELL. I don’t get what the point is.

      But thank you for taking the time to respond.

      • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        8·
        21 hours ago

        Yea, crappy mixing. It may technically be “excellent” mixing, but only works in a theater.

        Even that isn’t true, pretty much every movie I’ve seen at the theater in recent years, the dialog is hard to hear.