OK, the title is poorly worded. Sorry. What I mean is I’m watching a movie right now. When they’re speaking, I have to turn the volume up,but as soon as there’s any sort of special effect sound I pretty much go deaf because it is so loud. For the record the movie I’m watching is beauty and the beast put out in 2017 with Emma Watson. Speaking I have to set the volume to approximately 45 out of 100 on my home theater. As soon as they start singing, it is so damn loud it’s insane. Why would they do this and how do I fix the problem?

I’m using a Roku for Disney plus and a Denon receiver AVR-E400. I’ve tried going into the settings for Audyssey and strong dynamic volume to medium but that only helps a little bit. Maximum is a possibility, but then the audio doesn’t even sound correct it’s like I don’t know how to explain it, but it sounds strange at that point.

Any ideas on how to fix this problem because the dynamic range that I’m having is insane. I’m glad I live in my own house an apartment otherwise the neighbors would be pissed off at me.

Edit: I have a 5.1 system

  • SquiffSquiff@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The core problem is that many movies have the audio mixed for a movie theatre with multiple separately controllable audio channels. You might see this marked as 5.1 ; DTS; etc. In a typical home environment, you only have stereo sound. This means that the multiple audio channels have to be mixed down to two unless there is a separate stereo audio mix channel provided - basically never except commentary tracks. The shitty way to do it is to just take the left and right front channels which are mainly meant for sound effects and not bother to mix in the center channel which covers the dialogue. It’s still hard even if you mix in some of the centre channel.

    Short version: asshole movie makers mix only for movie theatres, not stereo.

      • her01n@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It helped me to turn up the volume on center speaker directly on the speakers. Using the speakers infrared remote control. It goes -4 to 4 for all speakers and on +4 i can usually understand what are the actors saying.

  • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Simple solution: turn on closed captioning.

    You can still curse the morons that balance sound for movies/TV etc. while still getting all the dialogue in a movie.

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It’s optimized for people with 90" televisions and $5000 surround sound systems. I forget how I did it, but I turned off some surround sound setting on my Roku and it helped a lot.

    • andrewta@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 months ago

      Probably true.

      I spent over $600 on just the receiver and then some more in the 5 speakers plus the subwoofer. Yeah I’ve spent quite a bit.

      Sad that I still can’t fix this.

      • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I have a sound bar/subwoofer combo that I got for free from work lol it sounds great now though! I think it had to do with turning off 5.1 surround which I think was in the advanced sound settings

  • UrukGuy@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    If you have a 5.1 system then I’d question the centre speaker or settings. A good centre speaker and you definitely won’t have this issue.

    Back when I had just a soundbar I was experiencing the same issue. I added a centre speaker to my now 3.1 setup & haven’t looked back since

  • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Either adjust audio levels or invest in a better system that allows you to limit the range of audio with better resolution.

      • NigahigaYT@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        For watching movies, there aren’t really any. Most any receiver is going to be more than capable of handling film surround sound. Don’t get the “upgrade fever” lol.

        Your issue seems to come from mixing. Do you have any EQ? That could help a lot.