I cannot understand the TV dialogue

[RetiredAtThirty-eight]

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.

I think the problem most people have here is not the kind of problem that can be fixed by turning up the volume. It has to do with the way shows are recorded, mixed and played back by different equipment.

The large number of audio standards and the inability for TV's to detect and adjust based on the standard is what I think is causing the widespread issue.

 

[corn18]

I had the same issue. We had a 70" TV in the den with what I thought was a good Vizio soundbar + sub. I could never understand anything they were saying. The vocals were terrible. I tried all the setting available in the TV and the Vizio soundbar and it never worked like I wanted.

We moved and I bought an OLED for the den. Decided to upgrade the soundbar to a Sonos Beam. It has a way cool feature through an app on the phone that tunes the system. Not sure what black magic it does, but the voices are now clear as a bell. We can keep the volume at a reasonable level and still understand everything. It is wonderful. I added a sub and 2 rear surrounds (all Sonos) and now movie night is dreamy. And the voices still come through loud and clear.

I also bought a full Roku setup for the master bedroom TV (soundbar, sub and surrounds). It is good, but the voices are not as clear as the Sonos setup. I think the tune feature of the Sonos setup is what makes it so great.

 

[Lsbcal]

My theory is that people who make shows are sometimes young and stupid. They want to make this so realistic that they include street noises and regional accents and their (believed to be) cool music even when this makes for poor audio.

Some British regional accents are difficult and this goes for Irish and Australian accents too. The accents are also charming. Certainly actors can be trained to speak clearly but this does not appear to be a universal priority.

We avoid CC because we want to watch the movie and view facial expressions etc. Having to read CC's frustrates me.

Here is one article on the subject of mumbling actors: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093648/SPEAK-UP-Or-mumbling-actors-ruining-TV-drama.html

A potentially gripping drama spoilt by the curse of the modern actor — the inability to enunciate their lines. When did it become fashionable for actors to mumble their way through the script?’ asked one contributor to an internet forum, while another said that the programme comprised ‘a lot of muttering — and I’m not deaf’.

 

[Buckeye]

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

I know they are speaking English but I can't understand them! We always have the CC on when we are on Britbox or other British shows on PBS.

I asked hubby to get a hearing check at our Costco Hearing Aid Center because he seemed to be not hearing me (more than normally ). They do a cursory exam before a more thorough exam. He failed the cursory exam because one ear was so plugged with wax! That was an easy fix with Debrox.

 

[NeverBored]

I think those who mix the sound on many shows ( LOUD MUSIC! soft speech...) are related to the graphic designers who use white type on a yellow background to list ingredients, or directions on how to use something. I now take a phone pic of these to blow it up where I can actually see it.

Same problem, different medium....

 

[Time2]

For those using a Firestick, it will send audio to bluetooth headphones, which will at the least, help when two people of different hearing abilities are watching. Just having headphones on may help.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/use-bluetooth-headphones-with-your-amazon-fire-tv/

 

[Chuckanut]

Often the sound in TV and movies is engineered to emphasize loud noises and music. Lots of base, with good treble. The middle range is left wanting and that is where most human speech takes place. So I've been told.

 

[sengsational]

I cannot deal with CC. I find I cannot "see" the program when reading the words.

Us too. When people ask what we've been doing lately, we can now say "learning a new language" with a straight(ish) face. Have a kip for a few bob but check the boot.

 

[Chuckanut]

Us too. When people ask what we've been doing lately, we can now say "learning a new language" with a straight(ish) face. Have a kip for a few bob but check the boot.

Io practico l'ascolto italiano dei misteri del comsessario Maldonado.

 

[zinger1457]

Often the sound in TV and movies is engineered to emphasize loud noises and music. Lots of base, with good treble. The middle range is left wanting and that is where most human speech takes place. So I've been told.

Probably true and is one of the benefits IMO of using a quality center channel speaker with your AV system, one of the main purposes of the center channel speaker is to have a dedicated speaker that will emphasize the dialogue, really makes a big difference.

 

[Chuckanut]

Probably true and is one of the benefits IMO of using a quality center channel speaker with your AV system, one of the main purposes of the center channel speaker is to have a dedicated speaker that will emphasize the dialogue, really makes a big difference.

Sounds good to me.

I do not have an AV system. My speakers are the speakers the TV came with. Can anybody recommend some good center channel speakers that aren't to expensive. I am not an AV enthusiast but I would like to understand the dialogue without having to tun on CC. Some descent speaker might be a good way to blow some of the dough I am not spending on my now canceled travel plans.

 

[springnr]

A Bluetooth speaker placed next to your listening chair does not have to be as loud as a speaker blaring across the room. This also reduces sound bouncing off different walls/objects and reaching your ears at different times.

Room correction on the cheap ; >)

https://www.amazon.com/Tribit-XSound-Bluetooth-Speakers-Built/dp/B07594HZ6Y/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1EP9DFDAQN9QY&dchild=1&keywords=bluetooth+speaker+tribit&qid=1596307394&sprefix=bluetooth+speaker+tr%2Caps%2C282&sr=8-3


Bluetooth transmitter if TV does not have built in Bluetooth.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bluetoot...sprefix=bluetooth,aps,427&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_10_9

 

[zinger1457]

Can anybody recommend some good center channel speakers that aren't to expensive. I am not an AV enthusiast but I would like to understand the dialogue without having to tun on CC. Some descent speaker might be a good way to blow some of the dough I am not spending on my now canceled travel plans.

I can recommend Klipsch speakers, I have their model R-52C center channel speaker, paid around $200. Not much good by itself though, you'll need additional speakers and a receiver, preferably in a 5.1 or similar setup.

 

[swakyaby]

I had the exact same frustration with difficulty understanding the dialogue in my Netflix and Amazon Prime movies. So 4 years ago, I purchased a good quality wireless headphone from Sennheiser designed for TV. Now the voices are crystal clear, even when they whisper. Try googling Sennheiser headphones for TV.

I have a 5.1 speaker setup with a center speaker for voices, and while that helped somewhat, it really wasn’t enough. Closed caption is good, but I agree that hearing the dialogue is better than reading the dialogue. The headphones were the best solution for me.

 

[swakyaby]

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

Early hearing loss tends to occur at the treble range. When my TV headphones were shipped to me, they were automatically pre-set to a treble boost at one level higher. But since I didn’t have that kind of hearing deficit, I could easily set it to a flat audio setting. The dialogue is so clear now. My movie enjoyment has returned.

 

[DRC726]

We thought it was just us! I just turned 60 and DW is 57 and we both have good hearing but we were having the same problem. Closed captioning is always on when we watch movies or other shows especially with accents. Outlander was very difficult to understand and I believe that was when we first discovered the benefits of cc. My DD and SIL sometimes use our Netflix and tease us about it. I'm waiting for them to admit we're right!

 

[John Galt III]

Closed captioning is great, but live news shows are annoying because often when there is a word you can't make out, the closed captioning apparently also cannot make it out, and the word comes out as a blank, or just dots.

 

[Chuckanut]

Closed captioning is great, but live news shows are annoying because often when there is a word you can't make out, the closed captioning apparently also cannot make it out, and the word comes out as a blank, or just dots.

I watched an English crime show that was located in Northern England near the border with Scotland. When the detective went into the small villages to interview the locals, it sounded like "wir glooken us fibmnter en rogenshut sobranken". I finally broke down and turned on CC.

 

[Lsbcal]

I watched an English crime show that was located in Northern England near the border with Scotland. When the detective went into the small villages to interview the locals, it sounded like "wir glooken us fibmnter en rogenshut sobranken". I finally broke down and turned on CC.

Sounds a bit like the Vera series. There was one actor (Kenny) on Vera who had a very heavy accent. We noticed he cleaned up his act in further seasons.

 

[Katsmeow]

A few months ago we were going to watch a movie with our son (mid-20s, no hearing impairment) and he insisted on turned on closed captioning. We thought there was no reason for it and I thought it would be distracting. He routinely does it though. Anyway, we turned it on and it was such a revelation. It made the movie so much easier to watch. No more straining to hear something when someone didn't speak clearly or there was a lot of background noise. It wasn't distracting at all. Since then, I've been a believer for using it for all movies.

 

[jdmorton]

If You Are Interested in a Soundbar/Speaker Fix, Check Out ZVOX

I have two different soundbar TV audio systems from a company called ZVOX. These are all-in-one systems that connect directly to your TV, usually with one connection. Recently, they have offered systems that reduce the volume of commercials and aid in highlighting voices over of the background sound.

Here's a link to their newest product that retails for about $170 and is the smallest TV device they make: https://zvox.com/collections/accuvoice/products/av100-accuvoice-speaker.

I own what they call their soundbase systems that our 2 TVs sit on. One of them is over 11 years old and still sounds very good. It also has a built-in subwoofer. The other one is now 4 years old and has some of the sound reducing technology in it, and it does reduce the volume of commercials.

You should note that these devices do not have HDMI, if that is needed for your TV. If you are interested, on the web page I reference above has a history of the company and their products.

There are other manufacturers of soundbars that have similar sound reducing capabilities, but I do not have any direct knowledge of them.

Hope this helps in the discussion of this issue. My older system does not have these capabilities and I am seriously considering getting one of the new ZVOX systems to replace it, even though it works perfectly fine.

 

[mpeirce]

It wasn't distracting at all. Since then, I've been a believer for using it for all movies.

We leave CC on almost all the time (not on live news, it's often comically wrong).

We watch a lot of foreign films (they seem generally better that Hollywood movies the last few years, sadly) and so we are used to it. After a few seconds, I forget about it and just naturally read and watch at the some time.

Guess it's an acquired skill.

 

[iloveyoga]

We thought it was just us! I just turned 60 and DW is 57 and we both have good hearing but we were having the same problem. Closed captioning is always on when we watch movies or other shows especially with accents. Outlander was very difficult to understand and I believe that was when we first discovered the benefits of cc. My DD and SIL sometimes use our Netflix and tease us about it. I'm waiting for them to admit we're right!

Another Outlander fan! I went back and watched them all with the captions on, what a difference. I first started using cc because my DH wears hearing aids and was having a lot of trouble with TV. So we started trying the captions and found out how much we were both missing. They are not always perfect, but it does help.

 

[Buckeye]

Sounds a bit like the Vera series. There was one actor (Kenny) on Vera who had a very heavy accent. We noticed he cleaned up his act in further seasons.

We have to use CC with Vera, too.

 

[eytonxav]

I find the voice quality in many movies to be poor. I don't know whether it's sound engineering issues or actors not annunciating well. DW and I both pass hearing tests with flying colors, but often say to each other, what did they say.