I watch YouTube with internal TV speakers and I understand everything, even muddled accents. I cannot understand a single TV show or movie with the same speakers. Something tells me it's about the source material, not the device.
Well of course, YouTube is someone sitting in front of the camera with no background noise and speaking calmly.
In a movie the characters may be far away (so it needs to sound like that, not like a podcast), running, exhausted, with a plethora of background noises and so on.
That would be true, except even in calm scenes in movies it's an issue. Unless I turn the volume high enough, in which case music and sfx become neighbor-waking loud. To be clear: I'm not talking about scenes where characters speak over an explosion. The overall mix does not allow having the same volume for all scenes of the movie, pick your poison: wake the neighbors or don't understand dialogues.
Somehow youtube videos don't have this issue. Go figure /s
A YouTube video is likely a single track of audio or a very minimal amount. A movie mixed for Dolby Atmos is designed for multiple speakers. Now, they will create compromised mixes for something like a stereo setup, and a good set of bookshelf speakers will be able to create a phantom center channel. However, having a dedicated center channel speaker will do a much better job. And using the TV's built in speakers will do a very poor job. Professional mixing is a different beast than most YouTube videos, and accordingly, the sound is mixed quite different.
As someone with a dedicated center speaker, people doing audio mixing do not effectively use it. I even have it manually boosted. Sometimes it's 10% better than without one, but nowhere near enough to make a real difference.
Yup, I definitely do agree those are wildly different beasts. But the end result is, the professional mixing is less enjoyable than amateur-ish youtube mixing. Which is a shame, really. Mixing is a craft that is getting ruined (imho) by the direction to perform theatrical mixes (where having building-shaking sfx is not an issue) or atmos mixes (leaving no budget/time for plain stereo mixes).
The crux of the issue IMHO is the theatrical mixes. Yes I can tune the TV volume way up and hear the dialogue pretty well. In exchange, any music or sfx is guaranteed to wake the neighbors (I live in a flat, so neighbors are on the other side of the wall/floor/ceiling).
YouTube very likely has only a 2.0 stereo mix, TV shows and movies are mostly multichannel. Something tells me it's about the source material being a poor fit for your setup.
Which is just another drama that should not be on consumers shoulders.
Every time I visit friends with newer TV than mine I am floored by how bad their speakers are. Even the same brand and price-range. Plus the "AI sound" settings (often on by default) are really bad.
I'd love to swap my old tv as it shows it's age, but spending a lot of money on a new one that can't play a show correctly is ridiculous.
I really don't want to install multiple new devices. I don't care about the cost, the inconvenience and hassle is a PITA. Plus then you had to fiddle with multiple volume controls instead of one to make it work for your space.
No thank you. We should make the default work well, and if people want a sound optimized experience that requires 6x the pieces of equipment let those who want to do the extra work do what they need to for the small change in audio quality.
Without that change in defaults more and more people will switch to alternatives, like TikTok and YouTube, that bother to get understandability as the default rather than as something requiring hours of work and shopping choices.
Couldn't they be miles better if we allowed screens to be thicker than a few millimeters?
I believe one could do some fun stuff with waveguides and beam steering behind the screen if we had 2 inch thick screens. Unfortunately decent audio is harder to market and showcase in a bestbuy than a "vivid" screen.
I watch YouTube with internal TV speakers and I understand everything, even muddled accents. I cannot understand a single TV show or movie with the same speakers. Something tells me it's about the source material, not the device.
Well of course, YouTube is someone sitting in front of the camera with no background noise and speaking calmly.
In a movie the characters may be far away (so it needs to sound like that, not like a podcast), running, exhausted, with a plethora of background noises and so on.
I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of clearly hearing a character who has something important to say.
In the real life, I can underastand exhausted people or dialog in a kitchen full of background noise.
If we cant do the same in the movie, sound is just badly mixed. It is not the story setup and it is not "realistic".
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That would be true, except even in calm scenes in movies it's an issue. Unless I turn the volume high enough, in which case music and sfx become neighbor-waking loud. To be clear: I'm not talking about scenes where characters speak over an explosion. The overall mix does not allow having the same volume for all scenes of the movie, pick your poison: wake the neighbors or don't understand dialogues.
Somehow youtube videos don't have this issue. Go figure /s
4 replies →
A YouTube video is likely a single track of audio or a very minimal amount. A movie mixed for Dolby Atmos is designed for multiple speakers. Now, they will create compromised mixes for something like a stereo setup, and a good set of bookshelf speakers will be able to create a phantom center channel. However, having a dedicated center channel speaker will do a much better job. And using the TV's built in speakers will do a very poor job. Professional mixing is a different beast than most YouTube videos, and accordingly, the sound is mixed quite different.
As someone with a dedicated center speaker, people doing audio mixing do not effectively use it. I even have it manually boosted. Sometimes it's 10% better than without one, but nowhere near enough to make a real difference.
Yup, I definitely do agree those are wildly different beasts. But the end result is, the professional mixing is less enjoyable than amateur-ish youtube mixing. Which is a shame, really. Mixing is a craft that is getting ruined (imho) by the direction to perform theatrical mixes (where having building-shaking sfx is not an issue) or atmos mixes (leaving no budget/time for plain stereo mixes).
The crux of the issue IMHO is the theatrical mixes. Yes I can tune the TV volume way up and hear the dialogue pretty well. In exchange, any music or sfx is guaranteed to wake the neighbors (I live in a flat, so neighbors are on the other side of the wall/floor/ceiling).
YouTube very likely has only a 2.0 stereo mix, TV shows and movies are mostly multichannel. Something tells me it's about the source material being a poor fit for your setup.
I agree. There are absolutely tons of movies and TV series with indecipherable dialogue, but Stranger Things isn't among them.
> Maybe you're using the internal speakers?
Which is just another drama that should not be on consumers shoulders.
Every time I visit friends with newer TV than mine I am floored by how bad their speakers are. Even the same brand and price-range. Plus the "AI sound" settings (often on by default) are really bad.
I'd love to swap my old tv as it shows it's age, but spending a lot of money on a new one that can't play a show correctly is ridiculous.
Just buy a decent external surround sound system, has nothing to do with the TV and will last a long long time.
I really don't want to install multiple new devices. I don't care about the cost, the inconvenience and hassle is a PITA. Plus then you had to fiddle with multiple volume controls instead of one to make it work for your space.
No thank you. We should make the default work well, and if people want a sound optimized experience that requires 6x the pieces of equipment let those who want to do the extra work do what they need to for the small change in audio quality.
Without that change in defaults more and more people will switch to alternatives, like TikTok and YouTube, that bother to get understandability as the default rather than as something requiring hours of work and shopping choices.
2 replies →
There are a couple of models with good sound. I got a Philips OLED910 a short while ago and that sound system surprised me.
I turned it off though and use an external Atmos receiver and speakers.
I am floored that people really expect integrated TV speakers to be good.
Couldn't they be miles better if we allowed screens to be thicker than a few millimeters?
I believe one could do some fun stuff with waveguides and beam steering behind the screen if we had 2 inch thick screens. Unfortunately decent audio is harder to market and showcase in a bestbuy than a "vivid" screen.
7 replies →
I don’t expect them to be “good” but I expect to be able to make out the basics.
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Most people do, I reckon.
Its why captions have become so popular.