Does a high end sound system actually solve the problem? Or does having a high end sound system just mean you no longer give a shit about annoying other people. Like the people who rev their engine so all their neighbours know how much they spend on their car.
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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other than the compressor the other comment mentioned, having a proper AV with multiple channels can also help with a lot of media, at least stuff that was mastered properly. Usually the center speaker carries mostly the dialogue and not much else, so I boost it like 7-8dB, this works pretty well for most things on Netflix and co, but Stereo (no center channel to boost) and shitty mastering (too much noise in center channel) still have the same issues
There is a hardware device, called a compressor that would solve the problem. Basically it reduces the loudest parts of audio on a gradual curve, which allows you turn up the overall volume.
Affordable ones range $100-$250, which should get the job done. Personally, I wouldn't go either direction out of that range, more expensive ones will be overkill and cheap ones could sound bad or lack the controls to set it up right)
If you can get analog audio out of the TV in to a speaker/sound bar, it's easy to setup.
So with a cheaper sound bar and a compressor, you could accomplish this for about $250-$400 depending on how much money you can to throw at the problem,
(Edit, some else pointed out if you use a PC for all your content, you can have software compressor on the PC instead of extra hardware)
I run a software compressor on my sff PC that I use as a media player. No expensive sound system required.
They do?
It's called "mute" and it toggles between 0 and whatever you had it set to last. 😌
I've had a few tv/stereos in the past that had a half mute as well. Press mute the first time and it cuts the volume in half, second press mutes completely, then third press restores full volume.
The old kenwood car cd players had an "att" button that instantly dropped the volume to background noise. It was fucking awesome and I used it all the time. I want that button on everything that makes noise.
I came in here to comment this! Back in the day it was perfect for when I was bumping my subs hard and had to turn into a neighborhood, or if a cop pulled up to a light you were bumping at.
It was a lifesaver for sure!
Here is my preferred solution that will never happen:
Divide all media audio into separate tracks for dialogue, music, sfx, etc., and let the users control the volume of each separately. To avoid having an easily ripped pure music track, perhaps premix the other tracks in at 10% or so (in a logarithmic scale) and make that the minimum volume of any track other than music.
My problem with that is how far can you go? Will artist integrity shatter? Will people mod Thomas the train on movies? Will we get those god awfull billion page settings?
I guess I'm not understanding your concerns. People with artistic skill can already do anything they want to any audio they want. (Note: that was Way before all this AI junk existed) And I don't really see how this affects that much.
As for settings, I'm thinking three/four sliders. Much less than a graphic equalizer. It's just volume control.
I wouldn't give full control, maybe 3 faders that allow for a 10% reduction in dialogue, music and SFX. Will if affect artist integrity, absolutely, but so does listening on our consumer speakers and watching the content on our consumer grade displays that aren't perfectly color balanced in a pitch black room.
This would be possible to DIY if 'smart' TVs weren't DRM'd pieces of shit.
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I've had that thought for decades, like they do (or used to) do a button to switch between the last channel. So you'd go to each channel and flip at a commercial. Then forget to switch back so you saw two half episodes but that's not really an issue with a volume setting.
I have Easy Effects with Advanced Auto Gain from https://github.com/JackHack96/EasyEffects-Presets running on my laptop. It's been great in that regard.
Would work for commercials, too
Am I the only psycho that just uses the TV as a monitor and my phone as the remote to the PC? After that, you can pretty much macro or script whatever you want.
Every time I see a thread like this I feel the same way.
Sure I have to admit there are downsides to it but oh my goodness the number of benefits from running something like Kodi is huge. If you are willing to take a hit to dynamic range of your audio you can fix all but the most extreme cases of audio level problems. I'm sure there are a bunch of other ways to handle it as well.
Control from a phone app once you have Kodi open works great.
Windows or Linux at your preference.
Only ever used old free hardware too so the complaints about the cost of a PC never made sense to me either.
Are we talking about downmixing? If that is the case, Jellyfin has built in downmixing. Kodi might have something too.
Nope although it has that as an option as well. There are two options I use. The first is to boost the center channel on surround mixes since the voice is almost always on that channel.
Then more specifically in Kodi there is both a main volume option and a separate volume boot option that if you look into the documentation says that it is able to increase volume differently by moving up the middle of the audio while reducing the dynamic range. In other words reducing the difference between the lowest and highest sounds so it can increase it without clipping.
I basically change the main volume to what I want and then since both main and boost use the same numbers I reduce it by the exact same number I increase the boost level. End result is moving the bottom and middle of the audio volume closer.
In an ideal setup like a literal quiet audience in a full IMAX or with studio monitor grade headphones etc. the dynamic range is nice. Let's you hear talking normally and then get blown away by the action right at the top of the safe listening range. Or for classical orchestra music the quiet solot small instrument then a full booming with the entire band going.
But in reality I have five kids running around. Even in stuff like Pixar I still like having a fairly aggressive setting for the boost. It lets me set a default fairly aggressive one and then only occasionally need to edit it manually from the default for particular movies.
Also a self reply to add that I don't use the downmix because I got lucky and in addition to free old PC hardware which most people in the USA at least can also get free or cheap if you are creative with old business hardware. The addition is I got an AV Receiver just barely new enough to support HDMI so I do have the full range of channels on very cheap speakers.
Having used Kodi elsewhere the downmix seems to work just fine and a lot of current and still fairly cheap sound bars can interpret surround mixes directly.
We use our TV as monitor for a mini PC I setup to watch shows and movies via streaming and an external harddrive (connected to a router so you can watch what's on there from any device in the network).
We barely ever watch any TV channels.
We us a wireless keyboard with mouse pad. The TV remote is only used to turn it on, volume and to switch to a different input for the gaming console.
That's what I do, and I installed an audio compressor to level out the audio volume. Now I don't have to stress about disturbing the neighbours with TV explosions.
You're probably one of the few people that has heard the dialog from Tenet then. Christopher Nolan films are some of my favorites, but wow, was that audio messed up. I had to create an equalizer profile just for that.
I just used subtitles
I have an old tv where the mute button will set it to 1/2 volume first, then mute.
Most modern TVs have a Night audio mode that will compress audio to a smaller spectrum, basically for this exact reason.
You're not wrong in any way but I would just like to clarify in the most friendly way that the use of spectrum in audio context is frequencies and not amplitude. Compressing the frequency spectrum is not really desired unless for in very particular applications like specialized lossy audio compression, which in turn is even more confusing the terminology because now compression is about reducing the data rate in a controlled degradation. Anyway, the proper terminology would be that the audio is dynamically compressed to a smaller range.
That "most" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Roku devices (including the Roku TV models from various manufacturers) have a Night audio mode.
Samsung TVs have an Adaptive Sound mode that does similar. And Samsung soundbars have a Night mode in the SmartThings app.
Sony calls it Night Mode or Night Sound depending on the product.
Google TV also calls it Night Mode.
Hisense calls it Night Mode or Late Night.
Vizio calls it Night Mode
LG calls it Night Time.
Apple TV calls it Reduce Loud Sounds.
I'd say that covers "most".
Sound should be mono, or stereo, not 5.1 surround, and it should be mixed and compressed for such.
Why not select the 2.0 channel audio track?
My complaint about remotes is they should all come with a fob that you put on your keys and when you press the fob the controller beeps. That would be the best thing ever.
If so, it should work both ways for when it's your keys that are lost
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I just build this function for myself with home assistant. Thanks for the inspiration.
This and the channel recall function would be amazing, or a macro button that ran the last set of actions so you can switch between one thing and another.
Wait, the recall button isn't a thing anymore? Guess I never noticed because I don't have cable
Kids these days don't know about staying alert to change Cinemax to Nickelodeon when their parents walk into the room
Why do these high tech devices not have a single set volume output? instead we get 8K and "smart" bullshit.
There is absolutely a standard volume max. Unfortunately loudness isn’t that simple.
You can have something that peaks in decibels that you can barely hear and sounds that are the same decibels as talking, but sounds ear-piercingly loud.
Your TV can only set and perceive level, or “decibels” of the input signal. Sometimes they can have smarter tools like compression, but these are rare and when they are there, usually poorly implemented.
At least allow a range where you can set the min/max dB the TV can output. A single set volume would be... A little weird sounding, but something that says "No you cannot set off a bomb half an inch from the microphone in the middle of a whispering scene" would be great
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They’d probably implement it very poorly, like the AI “image enhancement” that makes things look worse
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