Re:Movie dialogue has gotten more difficult to understand
by pault on Thursday December 02, 2021 @03:29PM
(#29422055)
You can get a compressor/limiter for pretty cheap, but only if you have wires somewhere between the DAC and your speakers.
Re:Movie dialogue has gotten more difficult to understand
by thirdsun on Friday December 03, 2021 @05:18AM
(#29428447)
Most AV receivers feature an option to reduce dynamic range. It may be labelled as nighttime mode, as in trying not to distrub others.
Re:Movie dialogue has gotten more difficult to understand
by bzzzt on Friday December 03, 2021 @05:12AM
(#29428406)
If you're serious about watching movies you probably have some kind of (surround) receiver already, most of which have settings to tone down the dynamic range a bit (on my Denon it's called 'dynamic volume', acts the same as a compressor)
Re:Movie dialogue has gotten more difficult to understand
by AlbertCory on Thursday December 02, 2021 @03:15PM
(#29421841)
Good point. I do have OLED, and yet the scene in Invasion (on Apple TV) where they're up in the attic of a house and the aliens are downstairs, was completely unintelligible for me. It was all in darkness and there was just not enough contrast to make out anything.
Re:Movie dialogue has gotten more difficult to understand
by laurent92 on Thursday December 02, 2021 @02:24PM
(#29421142)
> And yes, darkness on-screen is another problem. Not everyone has plasma or OLED displays
The goal is to sell. They probably get paid by TV manufacturers (like a product placement).
> Game of Thrones in particular
That confirms, they definitely get paid ;)
> ... when we got a look at that spec, they require it to be based on the overall [volume] of the film, not on the dialogue level of the film. Consequently, that's a big action movie with shooting and cars and big music, and the result of that is that you have a much more squashed up, un-impactful mix ...
Yes, I want it somewhat squashed up! Please do that! I understand the artistry and desire for dynamic range, but when the character is whispering some critical plot detail, you can zoom in for a feeling of intimacy/privacy and have the actor stage whisper so everyone knows what was said. It shouldn't actually be a whisper that people a few feet away can't hear. When you follow it up with an explosion, sure, make it a little louder, but not real-life loud! That would you blow out your speakers and wake the baby.
And yes, darkness on-screen is another problem. Not everyone has plasma or OLED displays (though the latter are becoming more available), nor watches in pitch black. And when downconverted from 10 bits to 8 bits, streamed through compression algorithms, and displayed on average TN displays...no, you can't see what's going on. Tom Scott did an excellent video on this subject a while ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9j89L8eQQk. Game of Thrones in particular was unwatchable for me because of this.