this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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Comic Strips

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cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/nonpolitical_comics/p/1657114/mr-lovenstein-volume


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[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 100 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Blame the sound designer. You can emulate whispering without altering the volume.

Very few media players have autobalancers.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 52 points 4 months ago (13 children)

Part of it could either be that they’re not spending the time for a home release audio mix, don’t want to for purity’s sake or I’ve seen issues with trying to condense surround soundscapes down to stereo.

It all comes down to dynamic range and they should be using all of it for theatrical release and then remastering for home release.

TV shows do not get a pass. Cinephile audio engineers that think the vast majority of their listeners will have home theater setups are just plain delusional.

[–] turdas@suppo.fi 34 points 4 months ago (3 children)

The way they do dynamic range in movie theaters sucks too. I have to wear earplugs because it's so loud.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 months ago

Yes!

I may get a shit sound experience at home, but at least I have an opportunity for an even worse sound experience at my local theater, first.

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[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 6 points 4 months ago

while I agree with:

Cinephile audio engineers that think the vast majority of their listeners will have home theater setups are just plain delusional.

I disagree:

they’re not spending the time for a home release audio mix

From my recollection, mixing audio for different scenarios is just a function you can let the speakers decide how it will mix. Not adding this basic accessibility function in the 21c is just callousness.

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[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 34 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

No, blame the streaming companies. Dynamic range is a known standard. All they need is:

  • a "louder dialogue" toggle switch to amplify the center channel in the downmixing settings (Kodi, many TVs, and all dedicated receivers can already do this FYI for this exact reason)
  • a "night mode" toggle switch that turns on an audio compressor (my 20 year-old receiver has that feature -- it's hardly rocket science; I believe YouTube calls it "stabilized audio").

Upsides:

  • preserves high dynamic range mix for audiophiles
  • works with already released movies (!!!!)
  • improves the life of people with tinny speakers, strict loudness requirements, or hearing impairments

Downsides:

  • Can't feel superior to audio engineers who are doing their jobs, I guess?
  • Streaming companies need to reinvest a few thousand dollars out of the billions they are making to add those two buttons
[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 10 points 4 months ago

Ooooh! I didn't know streaming services were messing with customers this badly! Yikes!

Glad I don't use them!πŸ΄β€β˜ οΈ

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 5 points 4 months ago

I should really set up EasyEffects on my SteamDeck - that's the device I use to watch movies on my TV

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 4 points 4 months ago

This was going on way before Netflix was even mailing DVDs!

I remember my first experience with it was blade 1 or 2 on my dad's tv stereo setup.

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[–] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 50 points 4 months ago (2 children)

One of the main reasons i watch everything with subtitles, people used to be amused when i would watch an english movie with english subtitles, then they got apartments with poor sound proofed walls and floors, they weren't so amused anymore.

[–] Smeagol666@crazypeople.online 11 points 4 months ago

My gf and I have been doing this for more than 20 years.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)
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[–] diegantobass@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I suspect it is all a trick to teach people how to use a compressor

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 32 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Older movies tended to have audio mixes where the dialogue was clear even when loud things were happening, people shouldn't need to use a compressor.

[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They also didn’t have much dynamic range, it’s much easier to compress the range than expand it

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I have not had a great experience with compression.

A couple TVs would have the audio delayed slightly, enough that the last syllable spoken was after they closed their mouths. Most of them also did a terrible job playing from TV speakers if the audio was in the center channel and I could not set it to stereo.

Also I find the leveling or night settings make it harder to hear because while the speaking volume is raised that doesn't make it clearer. So if there is background music the same volume it is just muddled at a higher volume.

Compression is better than nothing but in no way comparable to a mix that is actually intentionally made to reduce the dynamic range. Having one mix and letting the compressor software fudge the balance is lazy and has mediocre results.

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[–] fennesz12@feddit.dk 20 points 4 months ago (5 children)

This wasn't a thing a couple of decades ago. To this day I can still watch movies from the eighties just fine, but need subtitles for anything made within the last 10 years.

[–] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'm sorry but, the 80s were more than a couple of decades ago. 1986 was 40 years ago.

Also 20 years ago this was still an issue. Plasma screen TVs were becoming accessible to consumers and surround sound was taking off in the home video space. TV was mixed for surround cinematic but not everyone had a surround setup yet. They had to write laws that said the tv commercials couldn't be louder than the main content of the channel (though these laws were largely unenforced).

[–] nickiwest@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Please stop reminding me how old I am.

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[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Nolan has entered the chat

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[–] Strider@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

FYI this is one of the main differences between the Hollywood and German soundtracks.

Here it's mixed far better to listen in stereo while in surround cinematic you need to turn the front speaker up, if you have that system. And it doesn't translate well to stereo.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 11 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Hollywood mixes are just awful, have been for decades now. You can go to the theater and have quiet voices and blown-out eardrums from a race scene.

I have a middle-to-upper-end 5.1 setup and have to fiddle with it like hell to keep the voices audible without ruining the action scenes.

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[–] SoloCritical@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

And this is why I, a genius, watch my content with subtitles. So I can keep the volume at a perpetually low level whilst still understanding what is being said even when it isn’t in a language I speak.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I had such a situation years ago. I was listening to Mike Oldfields "Tubular Bells II" on headphones. For the first time. There is a sequence where the music stops, and a child is telling something. I turned up the volume to hear it, and got the last words "and nothing was ever heard of him again, except for the sound of tu-bu-lar bells", and then came BANG the promised bell...

[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Might want to put your link in fedi format: !nonpolitical_comics@piefed.social

The way it is now people have to search their instance in their app to subscribe.

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[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 4 points 3 months ago

Subtitles can save you a lot of headaches.

Our TV has a shit sound distribution so it is literally like in the meme and our solution became to always have subtitles on even now that we live in a place with soundproof walls and no longer have to mind neighbors.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Good ol dolby

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