I cannot understand the TV dialogue

[Bryan Barnfellow]

My wife and I only have a TV in our bedroom. With my hearing loss (20% both ears, Hi frequencies), I created this simple solution: I bought a small CD player amplifier and connected it to the TV, then connected two small speakers, one on each side of our bed on the night tables. Now I hear everything. This has worked for the last 20-plus years for us.

-BB

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I tend to agree with everything said above but I think there is an annoying trend towards making the background music more like foreground music at the expense of the dialog. Wait, is this the pet peeve of the day thread?

 

[Amethyst]

As others have recommended: Put on "subtitles in English." We have done this for many years. This way, we get the best of both worlds: the voices and acting come through, while the subtitles fill in any gaps.

Being sequestered in these covid times, we find ourselves watching a bit more tv than previously. I suffer from some hearing loss and tinnitus. DW has excellent hearing. When watching movies on Netflix (or any channel for that matter) we both find it difficult to hear dialogue. Often there is a background music or noise that seems to overwhelm the human voice, particularly voices with accents. We have an inexpensive flat screen Vizio smart tv, and a vizio sound bar. I have monkeyed with both and still have trouble hearing the dialogue. Turning up the volume is not always helpful.
We are looking for an inexpensive solution ($300 range) that will improve the quality of human vocals. We don't intend it to be used to play music.
Anybody out there with similar problem that have found a solution, please discuss!

 

[dolittle]

All good advice above. I too have this issue and use closed captioning often. Also, you mentioned Netflix. Netflix defaults to a 5.1 sound on many/most shows and movies which accentuates background sounds and music. Really pretty bad if you are not using a surround sound system. Change the sound setting to standard English in the same menu where you find the closed caption setting and see if that helps. It makes a big difference. Unfortunately you have to reset it with each new show/episode. A big complaint among Netflix users that you cannot preset it to standard sound.

Also, I have Comcast and for them you can go to "Setup" and tune the sound settings (for me) to "TV speakers" which seems to help with dialogue.

 

[Dawg52]

I had a soundbar hooked up to my LG OLED TV and also had issues with the dialogue. Purchased a Klipsch center channel speaker and connected it to my AV receiver with the existing speakers and the improvement in the clarity of dialogue for TV programming was impressive, and you don't have to crank up the volume to notice the benefits. The cost of the center channel speaker by itself falls within your budget but wouldn't be of much help unless you have the other AV components (receiver and speakers).

Yes a center channel speaker helps a lot. I started out with just left right speakers and all tho I could hear the dialogue ok a center channel really made a difference.

Overall my hearing is still pretty good. I do go in for a ear cleaning procedure every few years as wax buildup becomes a problem.

 

[folivier]

I use a Bose Hearphones when watching tv. It helps to bring out the voices by adjusting the volume, treble +, and bass -. Keeps my DW from saying the volume it too high.

 

[Montecfo]

Closed captioning is really useful when learning a foreign language. I have the closed captioning on in the foreign language, and find it helps train my ear as well as help me detect new vocabulary.

Excellent idea! Will have to try.

 

[Time2]

I think the graphic equalizer can help a lot by increasing the level of voice frequecies and decreasing the level of other frequencies. And it will work with speakers or headphones.

 

[Andromeda]

Before I broke down and got my hearing aids, I had a thing called TV ears. There are any number of designs. There are stethoscope designs, and headphone designs.
In fact, I have a set I do not use that I can send you

My dad and stepmother use TV ears as well because they can individualize the settings. (They both have hearing difficulties but one hears better than the other does.)

 

[finnski1]

We use CC on the British shows, to translate into English

same here

 

[W2R]

I probably watch TV no more than 5-10 hours/year. I just prefer other forms of amusement. Sometimes I watch brief youtube videos (on video games, or politics) on my laptop computer. No problems there although different creators record their videos at different volumes, sometimes.

I have a small external speaker that I bought to use with my Nintendo 3DSXL video gaming consoles, and that I suppose I could use with my laptop or TV, but it hasn't been necessary.

I haven't noticed any problems hearing the TV. I don't think I have any serious hearing loss yet. Also, living alone, I can just turn the volume up until it is loud enough for me to hear. Then I hit "mute" when it goes to those loud commercials. There's nobody else living with me who can object to my high volume settings.

 

[samm]

A good headphone attached to a good receiver will greatly help.

+ 1

This is better than simply turning up the volume, which can cause sound echo in room which makes hearing voices even harder.

 

[Car-Guy]

Another vote for closed captions... Only problem is that the closed captions often overlay something I want to see/read... (Like news headlines. stock quotes, etc.)

 

[Car-Guy]

Closed captioning is really useful when learning a foreign language. I have the closed captioning on in the foreign language, and find it helps train my ear as well as help me detect new vocabulary.

I've learned more Spanish that way than from all other teaching methods that I've used,,,, combined! Also I seem to be able to pickup the "native" pronunciation a lot better... I hope the variance in Spanish that I've learned ins't as bad as it is in English between, let's say Texans and someone from New England.

 

[target2019]

A lot may depend on the Vizio soundbar model and its remote. TI would probably help to know that.

And of course I'm all for buying additional devices too.

 

[Brat]

My husband uses hearing aids, I have normal hearing. What bothers us are the changes in volume during TV broadcasts. Sometimes too soft, other times really loud.. even discounting the 'clipping' that happens during commercials as this happens during the middle of a broad cast.

Am I nuts?

 

[tmm99]

It's truly annoying that some of the shows raise the volume of music and other "noises" much higher than dialogues. I sometimes need to even adjust the volume so I don't get annoyed.


I use CC like many people here. It's a must for British/Australian shows. I can't watch those shows without it. Some of those shows on Amazon Prime have no CC, which is a shame.

I also wear a wireless headphone at times (when I don't want to disturb DH) and it does help me to hear better.

 

[mistermike40]

As already mentioned in this thread, many TVs now have an EQ with presets... choose the one the enhances speech or spoken programming. If it just has a graphic EQ, try boosting the frequencies between 1K and 4K. This should make the speech easier to hear/understand without increasing the overall program volume.

By age 50 most of us suffer some degree of higher frequency hearing loss (that only gets worse as we get older). EQ'ing the TV (and computer speakers) works wonders for me!

 

[cbo111]

I did raise the treble and lower the base on my sound bar and that seemed to help. Thanks for all the tips everyone!

 

[FIYes]

This is a peeve of mine. We have two TV sets. One is a three year old flat screen flat screen with the problem of loud background noise and hard to hear dialogue. I have spent quite a bit of time adjusting the sound settings on the three year old tv and have improved the sound somewhat. Our twenty year old tv that has to use a converter box for the digital over the air signal (we don’t have cable) has great sound. Many times I have had the experience of watching the old tv downstairs and move upstairs to finish the same show and can barely understand the dialogue! This is why we don’t replace the old tv. It still works and in some ways works better than the new one. My only recommendation is keep working with the sound settings.

 

[mickeyd]

I use CC as well as VA provided HA when viewing TV. Not much on TV to view, but it's there 24-7.

 

[Retch The Grate]

Yeah, we have to put the closed captions on sometimes too, it definitely helps with the experience when the dynamic range is too large. There can easily be compression issues with the audio on streamed services it seems. Levels on YouTube videos are wildly inconsistent, which makes sense since there is no central group making sure they are all well balanced against each other.

I just end up adjusting the overall volume frequently and missing stuff when the dynamic range is bad. I totally am willing to bounce a show back a few seconds to hear a line of dialogue again if I had a hard time parsing it.

 

[OldShooter]

... We are looking for an inexpensive solution ($300 range) that will improve the quality of human vocals. We don't intend it to be used to play music.
Anybody out there with similar problem that have found a solution, please discuss!

Aviation headsets are optimized for speech. David Clark Company is one of the primo manufacturers. (https://www.davidclarkcompany.com/) I suggest that you call their tech support and discuss your requirements. Lots of used DCs on eBay.

You'll need some kind of connection to the TV and, ideally, a headset that doesn't have a boom mic, though a mic can be pushed out of the way.

 

[audreyh1]

I've learned more Spanish that way than from all other teaching methods that I've used,,,, combined! Also I seem to be able to pickup the "native" pronunciation a lot better... I hope the variance in Spanish that I've learned ins't as bad as it is in English between, let's say Texans and someone from New England.

It takes a while. I don’t think Spanish is as variable as English, and certainly not around the world as English is. Mainly because the vowel pronunciation is consistent across countries, Castilian thankfully having only one pronunciation for each vowel and that being short too.

But initially I had to get used to different regions of Mexico, Columbia, Cuban/Venezuelan, Chile or Peru, and of course Spain. I don’t have much experience with Argentina, but I think Mexicans find their accent hard to understand and therefore don’t watch their TV programming. La Reina del Sur is a great series to get exposure to a wide variety of Spanish accents from all over the world.

Now I barely notice accent differences, certainly not Spain versus Latin America.

 

[braumeister]

It takes a while. I don’t think Spanish is as variable as English, and certainly not around the world as English is. Mainly because the vowel pronunciation is consistent across countries

With Portuguese, I can tell you that the regional differences in pronunciation throughout Brazil are huge. And they are all very different from what is spoken in Portugal, different from the Azores, and very different from Angola or Mozambique. The same language, but as soon as someone opens their mouth you know exactly where they are from. So not that different from English.

Even though I was fluent enough to do simultaneous translation at government meetings in Brazil, I sometimes struggled to understand a native of one of the extreme southern or northern states.