How can you equalize TV sound?

[Toothpick]

Seems like every TV show and movie now has uneven sound.

When characters are having normal conversation it’s fine. Then they have a serious scene where they whisper and i can’t hear what they are saying at all.

Then they have an action scene and it’s to damn loud. Then back to a regular scene. Then another serious one which requires volume adjustment. then back to action and more volume adjustment.

This is so freaking annoying. Do I just need hearing aids? I don’t recall this being a problem in the past. Should I just watch everything with headphones in?

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Do I just need hearing aids?

I doubt it. I thought the same, but then I discovered that my 12-year old watches stuff with closed captioning on, for this very reason. And her hearing is very good. There is some really, really poor mixing being done these days.

 

[Frito Ray]

Look in your tv sound settings for something like “clear voice mode”. There might be a similar setting on your dvr or dvd player.

 

[luvmysuper]

TV brand and Model?
We can look it up to see if they have "Volume Normalizing".
Some sets do.

 

[Toothpick]

Samsung 7 series 65”
I don’t see anything in the settings to normalize the sound. I‘m using a soundbar anyway.

 

[luvmysuper]

Samsung 7 series 65”
I don’t see anything in the settings to normalize the sound. I‘m using a soundbar anyway.

Doesn't appear to be anything in the manual on it.

 

[Toothpick]

Doesn't appear to be anything in the manual on it.

Thanks anyway! Probably just need to get a better TV!
New TV thread coming soon

 

[luvmysuper]

Thanks anyway! Probably just need to get a better TV!
New TV thread coming soon

A lot of good info here:

Let's talk TVs

My 10-15 year-old 60" Samsung LCD TV is acting up. I'm pretty sure it's the backlight LEDs, since I get sound and can see the picture when I shine a flashlight on the screen. The failure is intermittent and if I turn the set on and off a few times, or just let it sit with sound only for a bit...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[NorthernSoul]

Can you connect your TV to a home audio system? I've been doing that for years and years (though I don't watch much TV, I do like some movies and documentaries, etc.).

 

[never-stop-learning]

Seems like every TV show and movie now has uneven sound.

When characters are having normal conversation it’s fine. Then they have a serious scene where they whisper and i can’t hear what they are saying at all.

Then they have an action scene and it’s to damn loud. Then back to a regular scene. Then another serious one which requires volume adjustment. then back to action and more volume adjustment.

This is so freaking annoying. Do I just need hearing aids? I don’t recall this being a problem in the past. Should I just watch everything with headphones in?

Sources? Cable, satellite, streaming, over the air?

 

[Toothpick]

Can you connect your TV to a home audio system? I've been doing that for years and years (though I don't watch much TV, I do like some movies and documentaries, etc.).

It’s connected to a soundbar, with some tweeters.

Sources? Cable, satellite, streaming, over the air?

Apple TV, HDMI arc, streaming everything, CAT5 hookup.

 

[never-stop-learning]

It’s connected to a soundbar, with some tweeters.




Apple TV, HDMI arc, streaming everything, CAT5 hookup.

Different levels between different sources, different levels within the same source (different channels?), or different levels on the same source and channel?

Sorry for the follow-up questions.

 

[Toothpick]

Different levels between different sources, different levels within the same source (different channels?), or different levels on the same source and channel?

Sorry for the follow-up questions.

Not sure I know what ya mean. Different levels when I’m watching HBO True Detective. Same on Apple TV Masters of Air. The streaming cable (Spectrum) seems to be the least screwed up. Oh, I remember cussing out The Bear on HULU too. So really no matter what I watch it’s like the volume gets turned down during normal scenes and then way up with action. Explosions, gun shots, music (like let’s say a night club scene) will be “damn this is loud!”. Then just two people have a conversation in a quiet room it’s like “what the hell! I can’t hear this bleepy bleep thing”. Which makes me turn it up, and makes me cuss out the TV for blowing my ear drums during the explosions, gun shots, etc.

 

[Toothpick]

Ohhh a good example was Slow Horses on Apple TV. A spy drama/comedy. So lots of secret quiet conversation. Then the next scene is a shoot out and yelling. So here I am “what the hell are they saying??” *volume up up up up*. Then it’s BANG BANG BOOM GET TO THE CHOPPPAAAA and I’m like *volume down down down*

 

[Whisky]

Try this. One of our TVs did the same thing and this helped a lot. Didn’t completely fix it, but at least I could hear the dialog
https://www.samsung.com/latin_en/support/tv-audio-video/how-to-troubleshoot-the-samsung-qled-tv-that-turns-the-volume-up-and-down-automatically/#:~:text=If%20the%20TV's%20volume%20suddenly,feature%20if%20you%20want%20to.

 

[Whisky]

I should have mentioned out TV doesn’t have the physical switch I did the in menu fix.

 

[spacemonkey42]

You may want to consider connecting it to a home theater receiver. Then you can change the sound mode to boost the midrange audio track. I stopped doing full surround sound, but I have left, center, and right speakers, plus a subwoofer. That will help.

But then there are some shows that do exactly what you say, they have wildly changing sound levels. It is pretty annoying.

 

[musicman1951]

I experience the same problem, many movies are worse. I have the TV sound going through my stereo and the bass subwoofer is right behind my chair. When the bombs go off it feels like they're trying to bounce me out of the chair.

There are compressors for recording that squish the sound and limiters that seem like they should work, but I've never heard about anyone using them on a TV signal. I don't know if that's even possible.

For some action movies I resort to keeping the remote next to my hand and manually adjusting, but it is a pain.

 

[DrStrange]

I doubt it. I thought the same, but then I discovered that my 12-year old watches stuff with closed captioning on, for this very reason. And her hearing is very good. There is some really, really poor mixing being done these days.

I turn the sound down to the point where
I can understand about half of what is being said
and I use subtitles.

I discovered that that point is lower when my eyes are open.
I think I have some sub conscious lip reading going on with quiet voices.

 

[luvmysuper]

There is some really, really poor mixing being done these days.

It's being done by the same people who spell and grammar check news articles.