Dear Netflix

Myranda

Please please please do something that Film producers and TV broadcasters have often been too lazy to do...

Sort the *£$£?@# sound levels out in films! Trying to watch a terrible film with Ray Liota as a doctor of forensics (which is very believable ...) and the dialogue is so quiet I had to put on big can headphones to hear some of it, and then the music and sound effects during the action scenes is so loud I may have just permanently damaged my brain/hearing 

0.000001db for dialogue with 400000000db action sounds (possible exageration somewhere in that) is not on. 

Were this the only film ever to do this then I'd be less grumpy, but it happens an awful lot. Dialogue so quiet that without massive volume boosts or headphones you can't hear it all, then action/music bits that are so loud they damage your speakers/hearing ... arg.

ddlooping

Sorry for stating the obvious but it sounds (no pun intended) like the center channel is getting lost somehow.
What sound system are you using, if any?

Myranda

Realtek 998 I think...

Does it on the Xbox+telly combination too...

Or on just-a-telly plugged into an aerial ...

As long as it's a film/show of a certain age - generally american, generally made-for-TV stuff, or just oooold films.

Anything more recent, or "proper" Hollywood films and it's absolutely fine... so I know it's not the sound system or my ears... 

octatonic

Use a compressor.

Myranda

You know, I'd never thought of plugging headphones into a compressor thne that into my laptop... who knows, unless it blows my headphones up it might just work

clare_bear

I agree with Myranda, that is so bloody irritating. Mind you, I often think modern blockbusters are the worst culprits.

octatonic

Myranda said:

You know, I'd never thought of plugging headphones into a compressor thne that into my laptop... who knows, unless it blows my headphones up it might just work

Just don't blast the makeup gain and you should be fine.

Myranda

clare_bear said:

I agree with Myranda, that is so bloody irritating. Mind you, I often think modern blockbusters are the worst culprits.

Now that you mention it, there have been a few modern ones with the same ultra-quiet bits...

"Horror" movies in the style of Paranormal Activity - ie music goes, quiet quiet quiet LOUD NOISES!!!! as a way of denoting scary... It actually stops me jumping now - because when the music/dialogue gets really quiet you know there's going to be a loud noises... whatever happened to decent writing making things scary? And when did movie critics get conned into thinking that loud noises are scary?

Handsome_Chris

clare_bear said:

I agree with Myranda, that is so bloody irritating. Mind you, I often think modern blockbusters are the worst culprits.

Claire, I have to disagree with you , I say that adverts are the fkn worst for it! Im watching a TV shows and films are blighted by noisy adverts, more noticeable when my good lay is trying to get her head down and I'm watching a prog at a reasonable volume - then next thing y'know some twat is blaring out at 20 x Barry Scott, some cock-arse crap about by one get one free, for windows. FML

Myranda

Oh I've forgotten TV adverts as I've not watched telly for a while... yes, they're the devils own bumhole too

ddlooping

Myranda said:

Realtek 998 I think...

Does it on the Xbox+telly combination too...

Or on just-a-telly plugged into an aerial ...

As long as it's a film/show of a certain age - generally american, generally made-for-TV stuff, or just oooold films.

Anything more recent, or "proper" Hollywood films and it's absolutely fine... so I know it's not the sound system or my ears... 

Do you have a stereo (tv speakers?) or a 5.1 setup (with center and surround speakers)?
If the former, it might be that your Xbox and Realtek 998 output is set to 5.1, whereas it should be stereo.
If the latter I have no suggestion I'm afraid. 

Myranda

PC and Xbox are both set to stereo... with stereo speakers or headphones.

It really really really is just crap audio mastering or someone in the production office who thinks that super quiet and super loud should follow each other... Watch the film "Unforgettable with Ray Liota for a perfect example - once you get to scenes where he's whispering its really infuriating as moments later there will be shouting/screaming/gunshots all at full blast...

It's only some films... some other films do "dark" scenes badly... every now and then it's so dark that the compression that Netflix uses can't distinguish between movement and the blackness background so you end up with a dark blobby mess

clare_bear

Myranda;7019" said:

Oh I've forgotten TV adverts as I've not watched telly for a while... yes, they're the devils own bumhole too

Ha ha, yeah me too, I'd forgotten what adverts are! But, yes, adverts are stupidly loud.

holnrew

The Dark Knight, probably the worst.

Grumpyrocker

Movies have a wide dynamic range. That's a good thing, just as it is in music.

However a choice is good too. I love the dynamic range of Bluray audio, but obviously there are times you want to watch a noisy film at a quiet time. Our surround amp has Night Mode which compresses the signal. Works on all inputs including the Roku box we use for Netflix. Our Bluray player has a similar option.

Myranda

So all Netflix needs it to add a "Night Mode"? Email time...

Grumpyrocker

That might be too much processing for a browser. But there's no reason you can't find something to do it on the device you're watching it on.

DiscoStu

I watch a lot of Netflix on my Xbox and don't have any sound issues.

I loves it!

Breaking Bad on Monday...

boogieman

My ears are screwed up with tinnitus, I use subtitles when they do the quiet whispery bits. If I just turn up the volume to hear the quiet bits and then a loud bit comes on it scares the crap out of our dog. :-<