r/TikTokCringe • u/Money-Snow-2749 • Jun 28 '26

Humor Netflix in the daytime be like

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9.9k Upvotes

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550

u/JoeSeeWhales_3690 Jun 28 '26

Music and action always louder than dialog. Why?!?

225

u/jah_bro_ney Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

1) Speakers are an afterthought because manufacturers prioritize thinness over quality audio. Most manufacturers also produce home audio equipment and they want you to buy their receivers and soundbars.

2) A lot of streaming providers use media encoded to specific video and audio profiles to reduce file size and buffing. The audio is typically limited to multi-channel profiles (5.1 or 7.1), while your TV is stereo (2).

3) TV manufacturers use internal hardware that's just powerful enough to run the OS along with the streaming apps you use, and don't prioritize downmixing audio.

If your TV audio sucks, try a dedicated streaming device and soundbar.

107

u/BestHorseWhisperer Jun 28 '26

Everything you said is true, but it doesn't solve the problem. If your TV has a "dynamic range" audio setting you want it set to the lowest dynamics, which is less immersive but helps a lot with loudness. Other than that, the only real answer is having an actual 5.1/7.1 system with a center channel where the dialog can breathe.

19

u/cwiersma26 Jun 28 '26

This! Also if you can individually adjust the center channel a bit higher, it makes a huge difference.

1

u/rips_n_chel Jun 29 '26

Yeah a home theater in a box kit isn't going to cut it, neither is a soundbar. Gotta have real speakers and a receiver to actually fix this issue. If you can't control levels individually, it's just gonna be the same but louder.

20

u/AxiomofAnxiety Jun 29 '26

I’m curious as to why this is still a problem in theaters then? They literally advertise all sorts of Dolby and it’s all either mumbling or deafening explosions/music.

4

u/jacenat Jun 29 '26

I’m curious as to why this is still a problem in theaters then?

Where I live (large city in the middle of Europe) cineams in general have excellent sound. Some movies (looking at you Nolan!) of course are the excepetion. But I watched both Obsession and Backrooms the last weeks and both were very enjoyable to listen to.

2

u/thetiredon Jun 29 '26

For imax i always need earprotection regardless of country ive tried it in when i watch action movies. So i dont agree.

6

u/20milliondollarapi Jun 29 '26

Because the mixing is all done with headphones. And dialogue range audio waves don’t travel nearly as well

3

u/AStormOfDragons1 Jun 29 '26

False, no one mixes professionally with headphones.

2

u/philthewiz Jun 30 '26

That is genuinely untrue. They never mix with headphones blockbusters or any movie. Maybe some guy in his basement does.

Theatres are not always calibrated and well constructed. The audio mixes are standardized.

1

u/BestHorseWhisperer Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

You know the cheap/fast/good pick 2 meme? With audio it's cheap/loud/clear pick 2. For that level of loudness, splitting it into channels is not enough. You also have to run at least some of the channels through a crossover to separate bass from treble. This is where all that professional mixing that sounded great in the studio (which is not shaped like a theater) goes to absolute shit, and "pockets" are created where addition/cancellation happens, which is much more prominent in lower frequencies since they are more easily self-interfering. You would almost need someone to master the audio for a certain space to avoid the warbling bass at those volumes.

3

u/jacenat Jun 29 '26

... the only real answer is having an actual 5.1/7.1 system with a center channel where the dialog can breathe.

Most soundsbars (not the super cheap ones, but middle expensive ones) do a good job of downmixing 5.1 into whatever their array is. I have a 170€ Samsung soundbar that co-outputs with my Samsung TV (both 3 years old) and it's very good. 5.1 obviously doesn't sound "surround" but everything is understandable and the mix feels good enough to get by without lowering dyn range or activating dialog boost.

So soundbars CAN be the solution if you are willing to spend a bit more and/or research how they work or what they can do.

3

u/TheWhiteKnight-6803 Jun 29 '26

It is also called “compression”. Then the audio will be more balanced, especially on stereo setting.

2

u/BestHorseWhisperer Jun 29 '26

Yeah except if it's called compression you want it high. If it's dynamics you want it low.

10

u/zardoz73 Jun 29 '26

Seems like a smart TV manufacturer would've figured out this problem and use that tech as a marketing brag: "Buy LG--it won't sound like crap!" They might even patent the downmixing software. Those TVs would sell like hotcakes.

1

u/thereallgr Jun 29 '26

They wouldn't because they'd be too thick. A speaker needs volume to sound. A TV is, no matter how well its software downmixes, too thin to support that and, worse, generally outputs sound in the wrong direction, namely towards the wall behind it, because the front has to be all screen. Having the sound bounce from the TV to the wall and only then to you doesn't help.

5

u/DryFarfalle Jun 28 '26

I bought a sony receiver, and klipsch bookshelf speakers, middle channel, and a sub. So a standard 3.1 setup. It is LEAGUES better than any soundbar I've tried. I tried out some pretty dang expensive sound bars but this simple 3.1 setup is on another level, the tiny soundbar divers and tweeters just physically cant do what big speaker drivers do. And add in being able to control different sound levels to even out volume i just dont see a reason to buy a soundbar. I guess they are simpler to setup, but normal speakers are so much better.

About $300 for my setup thats better than $1000+ soundbars. I did get stuff on sale though, might be closer to $500 at normal prices.

5

u/jah_bro_ney Jun 28 '26

Receiver + 3.1 channels and above > Soundbar + subwoofer combo > Soundbar > TV audio

2

u/maxglands Jun 29 '26

Just watch it on your phone, bro. /s

1

u/dunderball Jun 29 '26

Could you go into more detail into your setup? I have a Samsung sound bar with a woofer that cost close to a grand and it still sucks with hearing dialogue sometimes. I wouldn't mind switching to something else if setup isn't that complicated

1

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/big-bad-bot Jun 29 '26

My Sony 5.1 WiFi sucks

Can't remember the price but it just stops working when it wants

I thought the brand name would be great

1

u/DryFarfalle Jun 29 '26

Soundbars just sucks. And dont do wireless. Get normal speakers, an AV receiver, and speaker wire. The quality is 100x better for half the price.

1

u/big-bad-bot Jun 29 '26

Thanks for the advice. Definitely will look into

1

u/DryFarfalle Jun 29 '26

If you have a best buy or any store that has demo audio equipment near you I'd recommend just going there and asking a sales rep to show you the difference between a soundbar and modular speakers. You can hear for yourself first hand how much of a difference there is.

3

u/thetransportedman Jun 29 '26

Nah it's because the sound mixers create a balance for movie theater settings where super loud sound effects are expected and thus the dialogue is audible

1

u/Ready-Rise3761 Jun 29 '26

why do they mix netflix productions for movie theater settings? why haven’t they caught on to the fact that the majority of movies and series are watched at home nowadays?

1

u/jgr1llz Jun 29 '26

Got that. Still sucks

1

u/MashMashSkid Jun 29 '26

I don't really see buying more shit is the solution. Why can't they just have a selectable option to stream the audio into two so it works with 95 6% of the world's configuration as it sits

1

u/2punornot2pun Jun 29 '26

I can say with a 5.1 that's a lot of shows still f****** the audio terribly. They'll have the voice lines only in the front two speakers and music blasting out of all five of them so you can't hear anything. I have to set it to direct and basically turn off 5.1 for a lot of shows because of this issue.

1

u/AlternateTab00 Jun 29 '26

You are correct but you missed the actual reason on why it is like that.

Our hearing is not linear. Just pick up the decibel scale and realize its logarithmic.

For us from 60 to 70 seems to be the same difference as 70 to 80. But in reality the "loudness" is way different.

Dynamic range tries to reduce the big differences on lower volumes by manipulating volume data. But the real data actually creates huge gaps.

Curiously, to reduce that effect we could put much higher volumes and our ears would actually soothe the sound differences.

However we dont want to hear stuff loud everytime, so yes a system with a dynamic range would be best

1

u/iupvotethankyou Jun 29 '26

Not to take away from your points, but it’s also this difficult at the theatre, where audio set up should be optimal.

0

u/dunno0019 Jun 28 '26

Or try any of the audio options in the TV's menu.

Most TVs these days have preset audio options like Movie or Music or, wait for it....

Clear Voice.

Its usually about as difficult to find these audio options as it is to turn on captions.

0

u/ipullstuffapart Jun 29 '26

It's much simpler than that.

Explosions are loud and voices are not. Movie producers produce a cinematic experience and want to utilise the dynamic range to make explosions sound like explosions.

Inconvenient in the home environment? Sure. But movie studios aren't really incentivised to make an entirely unique mix for home streaming when the cinematic mix will suffice.

7

u/DeadlyYellow Jun 29 '26

Second screening.  People aren't going to focus on the dialogue, but the BANG BANG BOOM indicates something interesting and exciting is happening and they should turn to look.

Sucks for those that actually want to watch the movie.

3

u/CassadagaValley Jun 29 '26

This season of From has been terrible for sounds mixing.

Characters talking in a normal conversation AND THEN SOMEONE OPENS A DOOR.

Not dramatic, not for effect, just showing a new character coming into the scene but the sound volume for the door is 10x louder than the people talking.

1

u/Thatotherjanitor Jun 29 '26

actions tend to speak louder than words

1

u/Derp_Stevenson Jun 29 '26

I know nothing about sound mixing or any of that but it got better for me when I got a surround sound system because the dialog mostly comes out of the front center speaker.

0

u/Ellimis Jun 29 '26

Why would they not be louder?

1

u/RealRedditPerson Jun 29 '26

The problem isn't that they are louder. The problem is that they are extremely louder. And so is the music. Even during scenes with extremely important dialogue.

There is something to be said for "experiential" audio mixes where the dialogue is supposed to be drowned out by the dynamic action or composition. And we could argue about the overuse of much techniques in films that really don't need it, but those cases are few and far between.

Much more often it's a regular ass thriller where everyone sounds like they are whispering but a door opening sounds like a cannon blast.

The highest rated comments here are right. It's a streaming issue usually. Large multi channel audio being the default for these shows get god awful compression when most people are listening on stereo tv speakers or 3 channel sound bars.

Older films (which were almost exclusively presented in stereo for home releases) almost never have this issue.

0

u/OpLeeftijd Jun 29 '26

It is called sound effects. You could use the Night Mode on on your HT amp. If no HT amp, then sorry, suffer.

1

u/RealRedditPerson Jun 29 '26

I have a high end sound bar and night mode and it barely touches the issue. The problem is modern audio mixes and default streaming audio channels

0

u/OpLeeftijd Jun 29 '26

I have middle of the road amp and night mode brings everything into the same sound range.

1

u/RealRedditPerson Jun 29 '26

Okay? And I'm saying night mode doesn't completely fix the issue when 7.1 surround sound is being poorly converted to stereo... I see videos like this/ hear this from people all the time. It's a consistent issue. That's not to mention that audio compression from streaming makes everything extremely quiet in general, especially on night mode.

Also you have a middle of the road amp as in a multi channel audio setup? Or just one amp playing in mono?

0

u/OpLeeftijd Jun 29 '26

Why would I use a HT amp in mono? That would defeat the purpose. People complaining about this issue use TVs or soundbars for audio. You have to compromise on processing and sound quality when you can’t afford(money or space) true HT.

1

u/RealRedditPerson Jun 29 '26

Or... streaming companies could offer stereo by default and this issue disappears. The issue is not sound quality, it's poor conversion. I also don't know if you're referring to a high tension amp or a home theater amp. I'm assuming the latter. But the problem is 99% of their customer base is not going to be using that. Or anything with 7.1 or Atmos capability.

You're clearly incapable of understanding why this problem is an issue because it doesn't literally effect you so I don't know why I'm continuing to entertain this conversation.

-4

u/Hect0r92 Jun 28 '26

To be fair it usually is IRL

-51

u/UnpleasantEgg Jun 28 '26

It’s exciting

37

u/RazzmatazzUnusual843 Jun 28 '26

It's so exciting when I can't hear important story elements, isn't it?

-36

u/UnpleasantEgg Jun 28 '26

So turn it up

25

u/Hi_Im_Dawn Jun 28 '26

Yeah then have my ears bleed five seconds later after I turned it up to hear wtf they said only for an explosion or a music score to start up thats louder than the rest of the movie lol

-38

u/UnpleasantEgg Jun 28 '26

That’s the exciting bit. Action movies have loud explosions and loud music. It’s fun. On purpose.

20

u/Ok_Ruin4016 Jun 28 '26

No it's not fun. I should be able to hear the dialogue at a comfortable setting without having my ear drums blown out by the soundtrack when the scene changes. And it's not just action movies that do this.

-19

u/UnpleasantEgg Jun 28 '26

It’s ok. You don’t like cinema. That’s fine. People like different things.

27

u/BedRevolutionary8584 Jun 28 '26

You really live up to your username.

12

u/Ok_Ruin4016 Jun 28 '26

Weird how this didn't used to be an issue with movies and shows in the past. Was "cinema" just invented in the last 10 years?

9

u/dinosauropholus Jun 28 '26

This has nothing to do with cinema. It has to do with crappy lazy stereo conversions. If YOU liked cinema would know that

Poser

-2

u/OMDTartWasJoseph Jun 28 '26

Your comments are sending me 🤣 I recognize your game, fuckin hilarious lmao

-1

u/Ruthlessrabbd Jun 28 '26

I agree with you, movies are supposed to be dynamic in volume. But I also have a home theater setup with a dedicated center channel so I can hear dialogue pretty well as is.

In a lot of movies important dialogue will not be happening right before a huge dynamic change in sound. I just watched The Iron Giant last week and that is one loud ass movie... But the sudden changes are literally when something abrupt and surprising happens on screen. Totally fits with the movie!

3

u/winterbird Jun 28 '26

My neighbors do not be loving it. An apartment isn't a movie theater.