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Watching movies or tv at night while the kiddos are asleep is such a hassle. I turn the volume up for the dialogue and then down for any action scene. We’ve just resorted to having the volume low and subtitles on all the time. Not ideal, but that is unfortunately what needs to be done.
Subtitles need to be off for comedic timing, so I generally turn it off if I’m in the mood for comedy
I feel like I don’t “watch” movies any more; more like “reading” movies. It’s ridiculous!
I’m still blown away at how clear lav mics are.
Like, you can have a full fat microphone on your desk that weighs five pounds, but a tiny little lav mic on your lapel that weighs 10g will pick up better audio. It’s insane.
All about that reverse square law I guess.
If dynamic range is so important how come audiences are complaining about the side effects of it and older movies are perfectly enjoyable without such a range? Everything else in the video is also a problem older movies faced but overcame. This is honestly such a bullshit trend and I hope it dies out soon.
ADR is expensive! Proceeds to have multiple engineers spend hours manipulating sound waves.
The core issue is they arent making sound mixes for the majority of people’s setups or really even bothering to give 2 shits about it.
The “???” from 6:50 cracked me up.
I love watching movies with sutbtitles on, but I wish more platforms gave us the option for non-cc subtitles. I want to know what the characters are saying, not info about the sounds.
I feel like there needed to be more examples of older movies with big tilts in small and big sounds. There were definitely blockbuster action flicks which needed that difference in HUGE explosion vs speaking volume whose dialogue was clear (can’t think of an amazing example right now… Face/Off maybe?)
This is a BS reason.
The reason that dialogue and video SUFFERS is because all the editors are making this content in audio controlled rooms with NO interest in the product translating to ALL viewing situations.
A perfect example is the difference between explosions and typical dialogue. The volume difference is so extreme that we keep our TVs at a low volume so they don’t piss off the neighbors.
Then…there’s all these uber-dark movies that probably look great on the fancy-ass Apple displays they are edited on and then look like NOTHING on a typical TV.
It’s time to get editors back on staff that create product for all folks.
While we’re at it, let’s get rid of C-level acting talent as well.
It’s a crime against humanity that like 90% of English subtitles come with closed captioning. I’m not deaf, I don’t need sound effects described to me. Make a separate CC option, you lazy assholes.
Ex-sound guy here.
It ain’t the technology. It ain’t the compression or the mix. It’s purposeful. Whispered dialog is considered more “dramatic”. Actors and directors love it.
While an actor may score an Oscar moment with a loud exposition, more often the tense, dramatic whisper is considered to be a more serious expression of realism/skill.
Here’s the proof: watch a comedy or a dumb rom-com. Can you understand the dialog? Hell yes. Even if the comedy or rom-com has loud sounds, the dialog is loud and clear. Why? Because comedy relies on dialog to engage the audience. If you can’t hear the joke you don’t get the joke. And no one is worried about Oscar moments in rom-coms. No need to whisper because nothing’s getting nominated for Best Picture here.
But if you are making a drama or an action film, you have to whisper all the dialog because whispering is more dramatic. That’s it. Seriously.
Just watch and listen. You’ll see it over and over.
A good example:
Dune (2021): You can’t hear a fucking thing anybody says.
Coming 2 America (2021): Even when covered in latex masks, you can hear everything Eddie Murphy says.
It ain’t the technology or the process. It’s the production. If you want your film or big streaming show to be taken seriously you have to whisper all the dialog.
It’s infuriating.
or 4. dont pay for content that is not formatted for the overwhelming majority of consumer devices.
Ok thanks but also: turn the fucking volume up on the dialogue. I know what an explosion sounds like. I don’t need my ears ringing to feel immersed but I do need to know whatever the fuck was just said.
What a bunch of bullshit. The dialogue can be heard fine if I increase my volume, but then the action parts are ridiculously loud.
Given these are on separate channels, there is no technical reason for this, its purely a deliberate mixing decision.
I really, really appreciate when I develop a random concern such as this one and begin to think I’m losing the plot, or getting old, or falling for the “good old days” and then a video like this comes along and validates everything I been experiencing. Its like a moment of clarity. Vindicated. Victorious.
Also. What the fuck? Why is everything starting to suck?
Dynamic range is fine an all for explosions…. However, that’s not what it’s preserved for 90% of the time. Usually it’s super low dialogue and then INCREDIBLE LOUD SONG…. And that’s just not f’n needed to be done.
Tenet – The movie that’s even more confusing, because you can’t hear a fuckin’ thing they’re saying.
At least audio mixing has gotten better in music. I hated the “wall of sound” that made most songs sound like static.
I’m ADHD and my brain can’t filter the text of subtitles into the background, so if they are on they are HYPER-DISTRACTING and I can’t relax and get into the movie/show at all. I can either read all of the little white words superimposed on the picture over and over until they disappear or I can watch and listen to the movie/show. My brain can’t easily do both.
So I watch a lot more old stuff these days.
These people are stupid, if I need the contrast in dynamic range to get what the explosion is but I don’t hear the character speak and either need to rewind or turn on subtitles that is lost anyway
His conclusion to stop complaining and not worry about hearing every word is so stupid. Imagine a book but half the text is smudged and in tiny font. That’s like saying just take a chill pill and don’t worry about reading every word of the book. Ridiculous premise. I’m here to understand what is happening. If I can’t hear the dialogue then I can understand what is happening.
Interesting video. I’m in the camp that always uses subtitles. What I don’t like about it though is I end up reading the subtitles all the time. It’s like I can’t ignore it. And while that experience is fine in a foreign movie because the alternative is worse, it does draw your attention away from what’s actually happening on screen. You can’t read the actors performances as well, you might miss small details or just not be able to enjoy the cinematography as much.
I have APD as well as significant hearing loss in both ears, so I either need to have subtitles on or have whatever I’m watching be mixed in a way that prioritizes dialogue. Unfortunately, most big films these days have the actors whispering their dialogue while looking away from the camera while the loudest fucking explosions happen, so it’s text on the screen for me.
I’ve basically given up on seeing films in the theater anymore. The speakers are so fucking loud but all they’re being used for is pumping out constant bass even when there’s no reason for it. I recently saw Avatar 2 because a friend invited me along and it wasn’t even past the opening credits before I had to make the call of whether seeing a 3 hour movie was worth damaging what hearing I do have left. I get wanting there to be spectacle, but it feels like movies don’t actually know what makes a good auditory experience anymore and have just defaulted to being as loud as possible and hoping nobody watching knows the difference either.
Do people actually use the speakers built into their flat panels?
When did getting the volume become such an issue? Back in my youth, 80/90s I don’t recall ever having this issue really.
What is the tl;dr of this lol
My video game default:
Voice: 100
SFX: 70
Music: 30
Dialog is inaudible, because movies are made for people that prefer explosions to dialog.
I find my self ‘rewinding’, playing a scene hoping to discern the dialogue, most often not, rewinding again, playing it with subtitles,keep watching, subtitles start to annoy me because words are too big and distracting, ten minutes later repeat over again. Of all the services with apps only Amazon allows to lower the font size. This is an option all of them should have, even down to tiny fonts.
It got me to paying attention to dialogue in movies in TV and I’m pretty certain ADR is used more often than some film makers might admit. Aquaman for example, not only do I have a suspicion at least half of Heards dialogue was ADR, but dubbed by another voice actress as well. Pretty much any scene where she needs to be regal, I’m betting was dubbed or at least heavily cleaned up by AI.
I just wish more of these streaming services would also offer English *subtitles* as opposed to just Closed Captioning. I’m not deaf, I just can’t understand the dialogue. I don’t need to read “dramatic music begins🎵” and “tires screeching”.
what they need to do is stop giving us dolby atmos mixes on our small screens and mix the movie AGAIN for small screens specifically
I’ve always said ADR is Additional Dialogue Recording. Am I wrong?
I hate subtitles. They 100% distract me during a movie.
I have subtitles on for everything because English is my wife’s second language, so they help her to understand what’s happening.
I like the subtitles on rewind feature some streamers have, and wish it was just easier to turn on and off with some.
90% of the time bad audio is a result of the tvs audio settings and can be easily fixed if you tweak the settings a bit. I can’t stand when people just use subtitles instead of fixing their damn speakers
MFW I watched this video… with Youtube subtitles on.
I’m actually a little bit blown away by the prevalence of this as I’m just discovering in this thread now. I didn’t know that it was a widespread and accepted issue. Here I’ve thought the last few years that my hearing is going and I’m just getting older. This comes as a gigantic relief knowing it’s not just me.
I’ve often thought about getting back into a 5.1 system just so I can have a centre channel again, as my current music focused 2 channel stereo setup doesn’t help the situation at all.
This technology change seems similar to how movies and tv shows keep getting absurdly dark where unless you have a perfect viewing set up you basically just see a black screen and nothing else. It’s like the modern recorded dialogue version of that.
I’m just gonna say it: Fuck Dynamic Range
Give me Reasonable Range because I’m cranking the volume for the dialog and lowering it for the action anyways, so if the editor isn’t flattening that curve, I am.
Also, I get that film makers do the mixing for Dolby Atmos, so what the fuck is the excuse for TV shows? I have to keep my hand on the volume buttons and adjust constantly for too many shows. No one is seeing those in a theater.