this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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I was gripping about this last night. Actors practically whispering. Had to move to headphones. Many times i wonder why the industry can't seem to properly mic the scene or pick a decent cohesive/compatible decimal range.
There is a lot that goes in to sound engineering in order to make a movie going experience really good. Basically the sound is engineered to sound really good on the 100ish channels that movie theaters have, but when going to a home they have to crunch all that down to work with a 2.1 or 5.1 etc and there is inevitably loss due to overlapping frequencies and even immersive aspects. How can a voice seem to be as loud as an explosion for example.
On top of those difficulties you have directors like Christopher Nolan who has said that he doesn’t care about home audio and that his movies are made to be seen in a theater.
But why do they do it in TV series as well? It’s not like I’m watching better call Saul in cinema.
The people that made it probably wanted to make the audio sound best for the one person that has a great sound system, there's a good YouTube video about it https://youtu.be/VYJtb2YXae8
Exactly! My comment above was in reference to Breaking Bad (not something in theaters). I'm watching this thru probably for the fifth time but the really quiet skyler and walt whispering dialogue (crank to 32 to hear) takes time so i missed part of it. Volume averages at 10 in my living room. Then have to be johnny on the spot and hope that 32 gets back to 10 before the whispering is over. And good help you if you're watching subtitles because the volume indicator appears right over them.
A simple sound compression of the entire signal would solve the issue. VLC player has this feature and it's working perfectly.
Yeah, unfortunately while it’s very simple to set up compressor levels in a DAW or even in feature-rich players like VLC, I haven’t come across any easy way to blanket apply one to your computer’s output without weirdly looping it through something like Ableton.
It seems like it should be so simple to have in Windows sound settings, but it’s never been an option. Sometimes there’s a toggle for “normalization”, but that gives you no control at all. You at least should be able to set compression ratio, lower threshold (in dB), and upper threshold (in dB).
I was wondering if there's a software compressor for the master channel of a computer. Like many, I usually stream movies nowadays, so VLC is of no use unfortunately. Any ideas? I'm on windows, if that matters.
Windows actually has this function in the sound settings. I tried it once, but it was way too harsh. It basically removed the entire dynamics, which is pretty bad in its own way. I tried the feature quite some time ago, so maybe it's better now, I don't know.
Thanks, I'll give it a try
unfortunately it sounds like this in the cinema too. Dialogue is barely understandable and 80% of the scenes are so dark, it looks like shot with an iPhone under moon light.
Just compare with any movie from the 80’s or early 90’s.
I personally reached a point where don’t even bother to pirate those movies anymore.
Who watches movies anymore? Costs a fortune, theater is dirty, people are annoying, food is overpriced, show times are inconvenient, ...
At home you can just choose another movie to watch, pick another video.
But watching a movie in a big theatre is awesome
I don't care now that I've bought a big TV and an ATMOS/surround system but I understand it's not financially possible for everyone...
I‘m in the same boat. I went to the cinema a few times in the last weeks and I actually prefer my home setup. Sound and image wise. Everything is perfectly tuned in and I can lay down on my comfy sofa and just enjoy.
Unless your TV is 40 feet, it isn't beating the theater experience.
Once you're at a correct distance for the screen, 65" or 40' doesn't matter, in a theater I'm just farther away and still end up losing some of the image and have to deal with the other watchers.
As I said, once you've got proper equipment at home you just don't care for the theater experience. I'll never say it's the same thing, I still enjoy it much more.
Nope, completely different experience. Sitting a few feet from a 60" TV does not have the same sense of scale as a 40' screen, unless you're sitting at the very back of the theater. A 40' screen feels huge.
I have a very nice home setup, but the theater is bigger and better.
See, better is totally subjective. To me it isn't better, my setup, tuned how I like it, without other people around, without having to turn my head left and right to see the whole screen, without having to show up in advance to make sure I'm sitting in a spot that's appropriate for the screen... That's much better. To me.
I haven't been to a theater in years and never plan to go back.
Clearly, cause now a days they have designated seating and actively displayed sales, so you can always sit exactly where you want, and go to show times with fewer people so you don't have as many around. I've gotten the perfect seats in nearly empty theaters every time I've seen a movie for the last few years, and it's always been an awesome experience.
You know there's nothing new about these things, right?
🙄
And having to choose when I go based on how busy it is is still an inconvenience because I don't get to watch the movie when it's convenient for me.
I've never had it be inconvenient, just wait 2 or 3 weeks after release and most movie showings are pretty empty. It's not like you can legally watch the movie at home at that point anyway.
That last argument is worthless since not everyone cares to watch movies as they come out so it's the viewing experience itself that needs to be compared, not the fact that both experiences can't necessarily be enjoyed at the same moment in time.
I was stating it as not a disadvantage of waiting 2 weeks for an empty showing. The viewing experience in a theater with an empty showing kicks the crap out of any home viewing experience.
Let's agree to disagree then.
I sure hopes cinemas will die out sooner rather than later.
They can. You're listening to the incorrect audio stream on your device. Your device has to request the stereo stream from Netflix or whatever, otherwise it'll just send you a surround stream and then your TV will downmix it badly... resulting in quiet dialogue.
/work in the industry, we have to hit specific loudness averages and ranges for both dialogue and overall mix. -24 LUFS, if you're curious.