"The Sound and the Fury" by J. L. Westover

And the sound engineer people (not sure if that's their official title) are* suuuuper condescending about it. "Well it's your fault for not having a professional setup mixed the same as a theater."

Edit: *Fixed a typo.

Thanks for the replies people, I'm learning a lot! I think another commenter referenced the same article I'm half-remembering (as you do) where some professional audio people commented on this issue. They said movies are designed for the theater and nothing else with no intention/interest in fixing it. IIRC (and I probably don't) this is likely due to directors or studios not wanting to pay for a home version or having a specific vision they would rather not compromise. Even though the effect of not compromising is..well, the posted comic.

Former sound engineer here. Yes, that's the correct title, but no, that's not our doing (not mine at least). I want as many people as possible to reasonably be able to enjoy my output, regardless whether they have a 40000$ home cinema, or if they're on a cheap TV.
I know that some directors (Christopher Nolan) tend to want to produce "best" quality at the expense of those who don't care. See Tenet as an example.
- Hey at least with Nolan movies, it really doesn't matter what they're saying
- If you can have sound separated into different channels based on what their purpose is, I don’t see why they can’t just have a software solution that allows you to raise the volume of dialogue separately from everything else.
  Like in video games, you can control volume for dialogue, music, sound effects, etc all individually.
- God I freaking love Tenet. I haven't watched it in a few months I'll watch it tonight.
Sound engineers are the nicest of people in the audio world ime. Always ready to explain to my dumb ass complex math that makes sound work, and I love them for it.
The people you're thinking about go by "audiophiles" most commonly and are the coffee people of the tech world: nothing is ever good enough and they'll sneer at you for not knowing that.
- What do you mean, your cables aren't braided from fine gold?
99% of the time, the cause is trying to output a 5.1 signal into a Stereo setup (Like your TV speakers). A 5.1 signal is 5 speakers and 1 subwoofer. The speakers are front left and right, rear left and right and - the important bit - the centre channel. The centre channel tends to be where all of the dialogue comes from, while everything else comes from the other speakers. But what happens if you don't have 5 speakers? What if you only have 2? You can't ignore that audio so you've got to mush it together somehow and now you've got dialogue and explosions coming out of the same speakers with mixed results.
It's not about not having a professional setup mixed the same as a theatre, it's usually about a setting somewhere that's incorrect. If you're only using your TV's speakers, there's a good chance something somewhere is trying to give it a surround sound signal and it's trying to downmix that to stereo. Usually you can fix it by adjusting a setting somewhere, either the TV itself or whatever app/box is sending the TV the signal as most sources do actually come with a stereo mix.
However, a better way of solving it is getting yourself a soundbar. It doesn't have to be an expensive one at all, even the cheaper soundbars will sound better than your TV ever will and they'll at least have a 3.1 signal that'll separate out the sound effects/music from the dialogue because usually that dialogue goes through the centre channel which you now have. You can also usually adjust the volume of that channel independently.
Note that nobody would suggest that a cheap soundbar is anything close to a "professional setup". Most audio folk would turn their nose up at the idea of using a soundbar over a full surround system but you know what, they're pretty "good enough" for most folk and if you care about media consumption, it's a nice improvement.
I have that setup
The theater is also too imbalanced and too loud
Screw how they do it in the theatre. Watching Dune gave me a migraine for the rest of the day thanks to the sound.
- Dune gave me an erection for the rest of the day because of the sound.
Yea it's better for media to have a high "dynamic range" (as in the comic). But for most consumers it's bad. My solution is to use a "compressor", a audio filter that practically averages loudness. https://www.thewindowsclub.com/compressor-tool-in-vlc
Funny enough shitty laptop speakers are better for watching these kinds of movies.
See also: loudness wars
- If you're not on a computer, most TVs come with a "nighttime" mode which is essentially a compressor and works in the daytime just as well.
i was once present to recording of some cheap radio advertisement, and the last step in the mixing process was that the guy burned the cd and plugged it in into 20 usd cd player to hear what it will sound like to the intended audience.
so not every professional has necessarily be an obnoxious asshole.
Most of the time sound engineers also make a stereo mix, with significantly less dynamic range.
Blame your TV/computer/whatever-screen for going technically a multichannel surround system could be plugged into me at any moment, I will tell the streaming-service/Blu-ray/DVD/media-file to feed me that sound track! Switching to the stereo track makes a big difference, but yeah, for some reason the surround track becomes the default option.
Re-recording mixer would be more accurate. Engineer is more a music thing I think. Regardless, designer Mark Mangini knows this is an issue for example due to theater mixes being a priority over a basic stereo mix. This is an issue in action films (I can't imagine a drama would have this huge an issue, less dynamics) and as long as the mixers have to prioritize the Atmos theater mixes n shit and the studio doesn't want to pay for a great home stereo mix, the dynamics issue will continue
I recall reading something on Reddit or medium about an audio engineer who demanded to talk with the manager because the sound was "wrong". Apparently the theater had a different speaker setup than she had designed the movie for.
I can't find the link now though. Is there a name for that? Like baader-meinhoff but in reverse?
- Meinhoff-Baader.

Subtitles: On

Supposedly most Gen Z now use subtitles and I don’t blame them. With the way movie sound is mixed it’s really hard to hear the dialog. Not everyone has a Dolby-certified sound system in their living room.
Even with a basic surround system that has a separate center channel (and fiddling with the settings for 5.1, Atmos, stereo) we still often have to use subtitles. It’s major failure on the part of movie studio audio engineers.
- Funny thing is, that it is only in the original language audio track, if you watch in German (what I not recommend, since I can’t stand the synchros) the speakers are way louder compared to the background noice/action scenes.
  Luckily Plex has a feature to fix that on original language tracks as well and reduces loud sound automatically.
- I'm Gen X and have been using subtitles ever since I had kids. My kids have only ever seen the TV with subtitles on. Just recently I noticed that they watch Youtube with subtitles on. So, not sure if it's nature or nurture :)
- The nice thing about a dedicated center channel is you can focus your volume battles there for some movies.
- The best are the Amazon originals with no 2.1 mix where the dialog is center channel only. My daughter loves cartoons with zero dialog.
Turning on the subtitles while children are watching television can double the chances of a child becoming good at reading†. It’s so brilliantly simple and can help children’s literacy so much that we want to shout it from the rooftops!
https://turnonthesubtitles.org/
†Based on an academic study of 2,350 children, 34% became good readers with schooling alone. But when exposed to 30 minutes a week of subtitled film songs, that proportion more than doubled to 70%. There are lots of studies about the benefits of subtitles. This is just one! Check out our research page to find out more.
- Why does the child becoming good at reading come with a check(†)?
- Wow, that's amazing! Are schools adding 30 minutes of subtitled entertainment to their curriculum? If not, why the hell not?
I'm Dutch. I put subtitles on everything, even if the show is in my native language.
Or for those who fucking hate subtitles like me, volume equalization if you're on a PC helps fix the actual sound.
At least you can tell people you like to read. Unfortunately, in my experience, there isn't always an option for stereo. I prefer stereo over surround sound. Never understood why this would be so hard to provide. So I read my favorite shows, too.
If I wanted to read I wouldn't be watching TV.
- I hate this stupid sentiment, as if video never has letters on it. If a sentence at a time is so hard for you to read, maybe that's a you problem.
  (If you have a genuine disability, I'm sorry, but otherwise, stop being lazy)

Home releases and streaming need a reduced dynamic range mix as a selectable audio channel. TV compressors almost never cut it.

I recently watched a show on a streaming service with several audio options for boosted dialogue. This should be standard for all releases.
What's worse is TVs that lie and say they have 5.1 surround and force the streaming to use it. Shout out to Netflix and Prime for letting you manually select Stereo though.

If anyone uses Kodi, there's an audio setting to downmix the center channel that helps with this. This comic is hilarious btw.

Why though? You want the center channel up and the mains and surrounds down. Most of the dialogue comes through the center.
- Down-mix does not mean reduce volume, it means output for a smaller number of channels than originally intended. The idea is to create your own mix that prioritizes the centre channel more than the standard mix does.

Audio Mixers: "Everyone has Dolby Atmos these days. You'd have to be some kind of broke-ass to only use your TV speakers or soundbar!"

I really need audio mixers to understand most people are broke as fuck.

A lot of content is (unfortunately) mastered for a very quiet room.
This means they expect a low noise floor (say, 35dB). Which means for 45dB of dynamic range, you have a max volume of 80dB.

If your listening room isn't perfect (no deadening, cars passing in the street, someone vacuuming), your noise floor could be 45dB to start with.
And if you go for the same range, suddenly you're up in the 90s. Or, as this comic shows, you crank the volume in the low sections to hear things over the noise floor, but you don't want it that loud at peak.

There are probably already 50 comments about dynamic normalisation in the comments. And it's the right answer for generic environments.
That, and boosting the centre channel (either with a real channel, or virtually). As the centre channel tends to have a higher percentage of use for dialogue.

It's gotten to the point that I only feel safe watching movies with headphones (on my phone/computer). I can always keep a finger on the volume button, and at least with headphones I won't upset my roommates with the volume lol

5.1 with no center speaker

Subtitles gang represent.

"His favorite movie? is books!"

The best solution I've found for this is to play content at about 10% TV volume and have Kodi apply a ~16dB preamp to the audio. Works perfectly, everything just sounds the right volume, no distortion or clipping, no suddenly getting quiet before action scenes.

Or your TV/sound system adjusts the volume automatically but spoils when dramatic things are about to happen by suddenly getting quiet.

It helps but doesn't fix it, not even on my Roku Soundbars.

An equalizer helps a bit. Turn up the mids. Or at least turn down the bass, for whisper-whisper-EXPLOSION movies.

Turn down the bass? Are you joking?
There is never enough bass, especially from tiny TV speakers.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM

I'm ok with it, I've got a room in my own house with a surround sound system. I recognize not everyone has this. A mix with a compressed dynamic range should always be an option.

It more about if you have thin walls and nearby neighbours or family members who don't appreciate the noise
- Yeah, I get irrationally uncomfortable if anyone can hear what I'm listening to

Subtitles are great for this, but also investing in actual speakers instead of a soundbar or the tv's speakers.

If the movie has multiple sound channels beyond left/right, then dialogue is usually one of those channels and can come from a specific speaker, making it less muddied than when mixed with other sounds.

If the movie doesn't have multiple channels, the speakers might still help a little just by being better quality.

There are a ton of reasons why audio mixes for movies are fraught with quality issues during home viewing, and "people have crappy equipment" is the weakest and lest-compelling of them.
https://www.slashfilm.com/673162/heres-why-movie-dialogue-has-gotten-more-difficult-to-understand-and-three-ways-to-fix-it/
- This is a great article, but given your context, I chuckled when I stumbled across this line: "There is yet another important variable in this sprawling equation, and it might be the most important one of all: the home theater experience."
- An interesting read. Yeah, it's complicated.
  I think sound has been a bit under-appreciated compared to visual effects/quality in recent years.
What's wrong with sound bars? I don't want my whole living room redesigned with speakers everywhere, I just want stereo and each frequency to sound decent.
- No amount of software will make speakers in front of you sound like they're behind you. Plus there's not really much distance between the speakers in the sound bar, so even the main speakers are very center focused. Lastly, they're small speakers. You can create a lot of sound with small speakers, but it will never fill a room like large speakers, they just can't push enough air. I can hear my big floor standing speakers at reasonable volume throughout the house. I'd have to turn smaller speakers up to painful levels to hear them in the other room.
but also investing in actual speakers instead of a soundbar or the tv’s speakers.
NO God Dammit, just NO. It's completely unreasonable to expect a full multi speaker 5.1 or better surround system on every fucking TV so people can comfortably hear the dialogue! There's absolutely no reason that a quality soundbar can't provide a decent audio experience. NONE.
- You're really passionate about this, so change your audio setting to stereo and you'll notice an improvement. A 5.1 system isn't required, but it dramatically improves your viewing experience. You can get an affordable used system in a lot of places. I suggest checking the thrift store. In some areas the thrift stores are just a garbage dump, but if you check the nice areas periodically then you can build a great 5.1 system over time for just a couple hundred dollars or less. I've seen Polk audio subs for $10, Klipsch floor standing speakers for $20, Yamaha home theater amps for $10, and a bunch of other great deals. Half my system is from the thrift store, but it was all from there until not too long ago.
The quality of your speakers has a big effect on the audio, sure, but it should not have an effect on speech intelligibility. I could put my phone on speaker and lean it against the TV screen and be perfectly able to hear better mixed videos.

Oh no loud sounds are loud now dynamic range nooo

The issue is when dynamic range exceeds the buffer you have in your viewing environment.
So you can easily mix a movie with 45dB dynamic range, and you have been able to distribute that to the masses for 30+ years. And so you can also accurately and easily portray a stage whisper at 50dB and then have an action sequence peaking at a modest 95dB in a relatively soundproofed cinema with 30 speakers and a couple of thousand watts behind it.
But for me to hear that movie on my TV in my 65dB environment means the next action sequence is now 110dB, well past the capability of my TV speakers to accurately reproduce, and also well past the level where I would consider it to be fucking loud.
If you're mixing audio for a home release you need to compress your dynamic range to 30dB or so to suit. The number of viewers that have a sound system and a viewing environment that can comfortably allow 45dB of range is very, very, small, and if those people want to complain about the lack of dynamic range, they can get themselves an expander and go nuts.
- GOOD post
- Good room acoustics can make dialogue discernible at lower speaker volumes.
I feel like this is one of those “practicality beats purity” situations.
Dynamic range is basically just this but on autopilot. Dialogue will still be barely audible after an action scene, then when it goes back to action it gets obnoxiously loud again.
It's not a solution, just a stopgap.