cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/nonpolitical_comics/p/1657114/mr-lovenstein-volume
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108 Comments
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 103 pts · 238d
Blame the sound designer. You can emulate whispering without altering the volume.
Very few media players have autobalancers.
otacon239@lemmy.world · 52 pts · 238d
Part of it could either be that they’re not spending the time for a home release audio mix, don’t want to for purity’s sake or I’ve seen issues with trying to condense surround soundscapes down to stereo.
It all comes down to dynamic range and they should be using all of it for theatrical release and then remastering for home release.
TV shows do not get a pass. Cinephile audio engineers that think the vast majority of their listeners will have home theater setups are just plain delusional.
turdas@suppo.fi · 34 pts · 238d
The way they do dynamic range in movie theaters sucks too. I have to wear earplugs because it's so loud.
pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 238d
Yes!
I may get a shit sound experience at home, but at least I have an opportunity for an even worse sound experience at my local theater, first.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 0 pts · 237d
Turns out when they went digital and got the popcorn kid to press play instead of a skilled projectionist, sound calibration also went away. Now they deliberately turn it up beyond the sound mixer’s specs.
turdas@suppo.fi · 4 pts · 237d
Around here they do calibrate the theaters but the spec says they can still be insanely loud, as long as they're not loud all the time. The peaks are well over 100 dB.
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 6 pts · 238d
while I agree with:
I disagree:
From my recollection, mixing audio for different scenarios is just a function you can let the speakers decide how it will mix. Not adding this basic accessibility function in the 21c is just callousness.
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 238d
Depend, people with proper high dynamic range surround sound systems shouldn't be penalised when watching content
otacon239@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 238d
Maybe include it as an option?
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 0 pts · 237d
By my estimates that would add up to 4ish GB to the file size per 90 minutes of content
RheumatoidArthritis@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 237d
Modern CPUs can downmix and compress audio without a sweat, it doesn't need to be done by the studio.
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 237d
Agree
otacon239@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 237d
Looking into it, there’s a range of standards for Blu-Ray in terms of video quality. I doubt there are a ton of discs that can’t afford a few of those 25-50GB. Just spitballing ways to make it approachable rather than say only one way is correct. There’s all sorts of fancy stuff going on with DTS. Maybe they could work compression into part of the standard and just include alternate mixes.
SapientLasagna@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 237d
The high dynamic range 7.1 audio is already on the disc. What we're wanting is a decent stereo mixdown. Could be 128kb mp3 for all I care. Not like I'll be able to discern a higher bitrate on my tv speakers. That should require 86MB per 90 minutes.
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 237d
Low dynamic range doesn't need to be low quality though
MotoAsh@piefed.social · 1 pts · 231d
Even high quality audio isn't 4GB for a movie. Not FLAC or even 48khz WAV.
azertyfun@sh.itjust.works · 37 pts · 238d
No, blame the streaming companies. Dynamic range is a known standard. All they need is:
Upsides:
Downsides:
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · 10 pts · 237d
Ooooh! I didn't know streaming services were messing with customers this badly! Yikes!
Glad I don't use them!🏴☠️
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org · 6 pts · 237d
I should really set up EasyEffects on my SteamDeck - that's the device I use to watch movies on my TV
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 237d
This was going on way before Netflix was even mailing DVDs!
I remember my first experience with it was blade 1 or 2 on my dad's tv stereo setup.
brbposting@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 237d
Has anyone tried the enhanced dialogue feature on a 2021 Apple TV?
https://www.techhive.com/article/2408117/i-upgraded-to-the-new-apple-tv-4k-just-to-make-dialogue-clearer.html
jimmy90@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 237d
if you're using linux slap a couple of boosting compressors on the sound using easyeffects to turn up the quiet parts
works remarkably well
Fmstrat@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 236d
Only of it was made for TV. This is often a problem with theatrical releases because the audio is not retuned for home viewing.
Eternal192@anarchist.nexus · 53 pts · 238d
One of the main reasons i watch everything with subtitles, people used to be amused when i would watch an english movie with english subtitles, then they got apartments with poor sound proofed walls and floors, they weren't so amused anymore.
Smeagol666@crazypeople.online · 11 pts · 237d
My gf and I have been doing this for more than 20 years.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 237d
See also: crunchy snacks
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 237d
Idc if the walls are literally paper like in feudal Japan! I'm not giving up my cracklin' strips!
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 237d
Oh I meant it's hard to hear dialogue when eating popcorn or chips, so subtitles help out
Eternal192@anarchist.nexus · 2 pts · 237d
Oh yeah that too, good shout.
ameancow@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 237d
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 4 pts · 237d
What does your audio system look like for your TV?
87Six@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 237d
We're expected to have separate audio systems now?...
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 8 pts · 237d
If you're watching movies mixed for surround sound on the stereo speakers on your TV, you're gonna have a bad time
I would know, I do it all the time
87Six@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 237d
I'm glad I'm no avid of movies. Wasn't enough that TV's are so locked down and spying on me, now I'd have to buy extra stuff too... Screw that noise...
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 237d
Home theatre systems have been a thing for decades. Soundbars are the cheaper and simpler new alternative.
Alternatively you can just use a media player thay compresses audio. This is easier if you use a PC connected to your TV but I'm sure some TV apps allow it too.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 237d
I appreciate TVs not wasting resources on putting decent speakers in it that I'll never use because I did buy a soundbar over a decade ago that has decent sound and has outlasted the TV I bought it for. Plus TVs are so thin these days that they probably can't even drive decent bass, and the speakers they do have are rear facing, so they don't even drive the sound towards you.
Modularity isn't a bad thing IMO.
87Six@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 237d
Okay this I can completely agree with actually, good take. You changed my mind and you're right.
I kinda wish some things would be simple but eh it is what it is.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 237d
Oh yeah, I understand the sentiment entirely. With so many dark patterns dominating the world we live in because we live in a society that decided to embrace greed instead of seeing it as a primary motivator of evil, I can't blame anyone that looks at the state of things with suspicion anytime there are downsides. And while it isn't realistic to expect as good audio from a built-in system as a separate dedicated audio system, I do think it's ridiculous that the standard is so dysfunctional that you either can't understand what people are saying or explosions are way too loud. Especially in this digital world where mixing separate audio channels isn't a difficult task. Streaming services should just have a stereo and mono version of the audio that is mixed well for that format if it is actually a harder problem than I think it is.
Some of it is practicality, but I don't doubt that greed also plays into it. I mean, even on the modularity side, I don't have the option of easily finding a TV without any speakers at all, or a TV without smart features that a) aren't as good as other options I have to access those features and b) were actually thrown in to spy on data, as your previous comment mentioned.
So yeah, I don't blame you at all for being suspicious of the companies that absolutely are trying to fuck their users because their real customers are data buyers, even if I do prefer my soundbar.
Smokeless7048@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 237d
you've had to buy 'extra stuff' for decades. The TV is only half the equation.
Its buying a DSLR camera, and being upset it didn't come with the best lens. It comes with one that works, but you arn't going to have good results.
87Six@lemmy.zip · -2 pts · 237d
Buying a consumer TV is nothing like buying a DSLR camera...
Smokeless7048@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 237d
Are you unfamiliar with the concept of an analogy?
luluberlue@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 237d
Always has been. 🌍👨🚀🔫👨🚀
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 4 pts · 237d
Yes. TV speakers have gotten incredibly cheap and low quality. It's audio/visual. You've invested a fair chunk into half of the experience with a TV, but ignored the other half.
luluberlue@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 237d
Gotten? I never knew any TV set with at least respectable audio and I knew CRT TVs.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 3 pts · 236d
I think they were better at least, and mostly because there was space for them. In a CRT you had enough volume inside the TV to have even just little 2" drivers, now with ultrathins it's hard to fit any even moderately okay speaker in there.
87Six@lemmy.zip · -2 pts · 237d
I didn't, really...I can barely afford a 1080p TV. I'm not buying a sound bar, screw that, rather do something else.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 2 pts · 237d
K, like I said your personal finances are your own, but that's why you don't have good sound. Asked and answered.
87Six@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 237d
I thought it was obvious that it was a rhetorical question, man
Honytawk@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 236d
No, but the solution is different if you were to have a sound bar or are using the build-in speakers.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 237d
Yes, because there’s a limit to how thin a screen can be and still fit decent speakers, and that sailed by 20 years ago.
ameancow@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 237d
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 1 pts · 237d
So, you haven't invested in your audio. You have a TV, great, but tv speakers are basically phone speakers.
You don't need a big surround sound system, but you need something. Even the cheapest sound bars will likely solve this problem for you.
ameancow@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 237d
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 0 pts · 237d
Your personal finances are your business. I am here saying why you can't hear anything. If the audio is bad, the invest in better audio, simple as that.
ameancow@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 237d
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 4 pts · 237d
K. You asked why your sound was bad, I gave an answer. Your opinions on if it should or shouldn't be that way are not relevant, this is the way it is. If you want good sound, you have to buy it. I can't change society or manufacturers for you, I am only a guy explaining how you can get good sound.
luluberlue@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 237d
"The system" is physics. You can't have tiny speakers embeded in a flat screen sound as good as a dedicated sound system due to how sound works. Same goes for phones camera, the tiny size just cannot compete against bigger, dedicated hardware due to how light works.
So go ahead and go fight the universe if you want, I'll be here enjoying my audio on big ass speakers you can find in a thrift shop since those things existed for decades.
Pretty sure the "corporation" that made my speakers in the 70's are well fed with the non-existant money I sent them.
Honytawk@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 236d
Or you could just enable something like Loudness Equalization on whatever device you are playing the content from.
The getting old part is you not searching for a solution and just complaining.
diegantobass@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 238d
I suspect it is all a trick to teach people how to use a compressor
snooggums@piefed.world · 32 pts · 238d
Older movies tended to have audio mixes where the dialogue was clear even when loud things were happening, people shouldn't need to use a compressor.
Chronographs@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 238d
They also didn’t have much dynamic range, it’s much easier to compress the range than expand it
snooggums@piefed.world · 3 pts · 238d
I have not had a great experience with compression.
A couple TVs would have the audio delayed slightly, enough that the last syllable spoken was after they closed their mouths. Most of them also did a terrible job playing from TV speakers if the audio was in the center channel and I could not set it to stereo.
Also I find the leveling or night settings make it harder to hear because while the speaking volume is raised that doesn't make it clearer. So if there is background music the same volume it is just muddled at a higher volume.
Compression is better than nothing but in no way comparable to a mix that is actually intentionally made to reduce the dynamic range. Having one mix and letting the compressor software fudge the balance is lazy and has mediocre results.
Chronographs@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 238d
I still feel like it probably works better than trying to expand a flat mix. Center channel dialogue is a different issue imo, there should definitely be 2.0 mixes available for streaming content auto-downmixing will always be bad.
snooggums@piefed.world · 2 pts · 238d
Center channel dialogue is part of the overall issue of only having one 5.1 high dynamic range mix available to play on a wide range of devices with vastly different setups.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 237d
Yeah, I have audio compression permanently cranked up to the max in VLC.
fennesz12@feddit.dk · 20 pts · 237d
This wasn't a thing a couple of decades ago. To this day I can still watch movies from the eighties just fine, but need subtitles for anything made within the last 10 years.
Jyek@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 237d
I'm sorry but, the 80s were more than a couple of decades ago. 1986 was 40 years ago.
Also 20 years ago this was still an issue. Plasma screen TVs were becoming accessible to consumers and surround sound was taking off in the home video space. TV was mixed for surround cinematic but not everyone had a surround setup yet. They had to write laws that said the tv commercials couldn't be louder than the main content of the channel (though these laws were largely unenforced).
nickiwest@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 237d
Please stop reminding me how old I am.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 237d
Unprompted: It was acceptable in the 80s
JordanZ@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 237d
fennesz12@feddit.dk · 2 pts · 237d
Yeah, maybe a lot of movies are mixed for the theater experience. I have a JBL soundbar with detachable back speakers, and I do struggle a lot with modern movies.
ohulancutash@feddit.uk · 0 pts · 237d
Most films are still recorded in mono. That’s what mixing is for.
LwL@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 236d
Old movies feel much worse for me, voices barely audible but sfx blow my ears out. But I also have sound from headphones, maybe that just works better with the newer mixes.
neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 237d
Nolan has entered the chat
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 237d
The scene on the catamarans was deliberate, right?
Strider@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 237d
FYI this is one of the main differences between the Hollywood and German soundtracks.
Here it's mixed far better to listen in stereo while in surround cinematic you need to turn the front speaker up, if you have that system. And it doesn't translate well to stereo.
rumba@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 237d
Hollywood mixes are just awful, have been for decades now. You can go to the theater and have quiet voices and blown-out eardrums from a race scene.
I have a middle-to-upper-end 5.1 setup and have to fiddle with it like hell to keep the voices audible without ruining the action scenes.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 237d
And just forget about watching a Christopher Nolan film
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 237d
Tenet was unwatchable without subtitles.
rumba@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 237d
I haven't watched it yet. Kinda want to, I have a low bar for video enjoyment. Maybe I'll throw it on my phone and wait for a no-network time, but i'll make sure i have subs for it :)
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 236d
Watch Memento first. Its his better, non linear, film.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 237d
Scene:
Next scene, more of the same
Strider@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 237d
Yes basically what I said, but some say it's good for reasons that elude me. So I try to stay on the technical base to avoid discussion.
Taleya@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 237d
They mix shit for 7.1 and to hell with everyone else
Chais@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 236d
Wouldn't that be a question of studio sound versus scene sound? The original sound is usually recorded with a boom mic, resulting in a wider dynamic range, whereas the German voiceover can be recorded in a studio, without interference and the speakers much closer to the mic.
The alternative would be to give each actor a lapel mic which would then have to be edited out of the video and would also be infeasible in some situations.
SoloCritical@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 237d
And this is why I, a genius, watch my content with subtitles. So I can keep the volume at a perpetually low level whilst still understanding what is being said even when it isn’t in a language I speak.
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 237d
I had such a situation years ago. I was listening to Mike Oldfields "Tubular Bells II" on headphones. For the first time. There is a sequence where the music stops, and a child is telling something. I turned up the volume to hear it, and got the last words "and nothing was ever heard of him again, except for the sound of tu-bu-lar bells", and then came BANG the promised bell...
Fmstrat@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 236d
Might want to put your link in fedi format: !nonpolitical_comics@piefed.social
The way it is now people have to search their instance in their app to subscribe.
Sine_Fine_Belli@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 236d
Ok, I’ll try to keep this in mind
Dupelet@piefed.social · 2 pts · 232d
Problem is, that doesn't work for links to actual posts, only communities.
Honytawk@feddit.nl · 4 pts · 236d
By default I enable Loudness Equalization, which makes soft sounds louder and loud sounds softer.
I don't care about the dynamic range if you can't understand what they are saying.
Nangijala@feddit.dk · 4 pts · 236d
Subtitles can save you a lot of headaches.
Our TV has a shit sound distribution so it is literally like in the meme and our solution became to always have subtitles on even now that we live in a place with soundproof walls and no longer have to mind neighbors.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 237d
Good ol dolby
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 2 pts · 237d
Pay for better audio people. TV companies make big shiny displays but out smartphone sized speakers in them. Gone are the days where you can get good audio from your TV. Even the cheapest sound bars will make a difference.
It's not your ears. It's your sound equipment.
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 237d
Nope. Not always.
I have a none cheap but not super expensive soundbar. We were watching the film Phantoms the other night and the sound was just terrible.
The women's voices were very clear but the men's voices were inaudible whispers.
Turn it up ...FUCK YOU, ACTION SCENE
Turn it down
Peter O'Toole introduced. We can hear him clearly because he was classically trained.
Go back to usual men talking and just whispers again.
Turn it up. FUCK YOU I SAID, ACTION SCENE
Oh FFS, turn it down.
It was like that all the way through.
I have all the clear voice options working. I have tinkered on the sound profile on my TV to help try to lose the bass and give a bit more clarity on the voices but sometimes it's just the shit way the audio on the film is mixed.
ulterno@programming.dev · -5 pts · 237d
DRC
Rooster326@programming.dev · 10 pts · 237d
What about the Democratic Republic of Congo?
ulterno@programming.dev · 0 pts · 237d
Democratic Republic of Congo
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · -14 pts · 237d
upvote for the comic, downvote for the political crap, so...zero sum votes?
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 237d
Which part is political?
pivot_root@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 237d
FYI, I am not the person you replied to.
The part where the comm it's from is trying to not be political is, apparently, political. Some people here seem to think that spending every waking moment inside a landscape of political doom is a necessary purity test.
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 237d
You there! Stop! You said the word 'political'! That's too political!
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · -21 pts · 238d
yermaw@sh.itjust.works · 16 pts · 238d
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · -8 pts · 238d
Friend helped reword what I intended in 2nd🧵. Hopefully it helps✌️
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io · 15 pts · 238d
From their sidebar. Doesn't sound rightwing to me.
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · -14 pts · 238d
A refresher for the illiterate:
mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 20 pts · 238d
Or maybe people every once in a while need a break? If you can swallow the doom 24/7 great for you, but most people, including the people fighting back the hardest, don't work that way. If someone perused this community and only this community sure maybe rag on them, but needing to recharge without seeing everything going on before hitting it again is 100% fine.
Go touch grass and recognize your stupid purity tests of commitment is part of the problem.
AntiBullyRanger@ani.social · -11 pts · 238d
Breaks are good!
There’s a primary reason I joined this instance over what I see is fascist praxis in
.world.Rest is extremely important too!