On both my DVD and VCR I have a sound problem, both when through my stereo TV or amp and speakers.
BIG, LOUD background sound when no one is talking(especially action scenes which are loud anyways) and [sub]quiet, soft[/sub] sound whenever someone speaks. So throughout a movie I am constantly turning my sound up and down. It is impossible to find a “sweet spot” where I can hear people talk and then not blow my eardrums out when they stop…
[nitpick on] And to top it off, when I do have to adjust the sound, my volume indicator stays on for 5 full seconds, which sucks in its own right, but we watch lots of subtitled movies, and you miss what was said…[nitpick off]
I’m just guessing here and only have about 50% faith in my answer so don’t crucify me if this doesn’t work or is completely wrong.
By any chance are you telling your system to use Dolby 5.1 instead of Dolby 2 Channel sound? I don’t see this being an issue for the VCR which is also a problem hence my skepticism as to my overall answer. Nevertheless this can be an issue with a DVD. Your player may be attempting to output a 5.1 signal which assumes you actually have 6 speakers to handle the sound. If you don’t some sound may be getting ‘lost’ as it attempts to play through non-existant speakers.
More info on your home audio/video setup might help here as well to further track down your problem.
I agree with Whack-a-Mole, you definitely need to make sure your equipment is correctly adjusted for whatever your setup is.
From the sounds of it, you are running your DVD & VCR directly to your TV, with that being the only source of audio. If that is correct, you may be looking at a serious hurdle, especially on the DVD front.
DVDs (like CDs before them) are able to make use of an astounding amount of what audiophiles call “dynamic range,” which is to say, they can go from very loud to very quiet and still be intelligible. Manufacturers like to use as much of this available dynamic range as they can. Home viewers who route their audio through a receiver for surround sound often have an option available to them to compress that dynamic range (usually called a “night mode,” under the assumption that you would want to be able to watch the movie at night without waking everybody up when the starship explodes :)).
In all seriousness, consider also getting your hearing checked. It’s never bad to spend money making sure you’re healthy.
Well, first thing to check. Are you running a surround system or at least one with a center speaker? If so, adjust the center speaker up. That will pretty much only bring up dialog.
Next, if you don’t have a center speaker, but your system thinks you do, most of the dialog will be sent to a non existant speaker.
If the problem is that the parts that are supposed to be loud are just a little louder than you like, it may be that the system is doing what it is supposed to do. An explosion should be much louder than dialog, it just makes it hard for other people to sleep in the house when you are watching an action movie. If it is loud enough for you to hear the dialog, the action stuff is going to wake up everyone. In this case there is still something that can be done. First, if you system has an artificial control called something like “dynamic range expander”, turn it off. That is making things worse. Also, most DVD players support dynamic range compression. If the control says dynamic range set it to minimum, if it says compression, set it to maximum. This control may only be available if you are using digital audio out to a receiver that is decoding dolby digital.
In the end, the most common cause of this is a receiver set to dolby pro logic decoding and having no center speaker.
If you have a pro-logic or Dolby Digital system, Scotth is probably correct. However, if you don’t, there might be another answer:
It sounds like your speakers could be out of phase. If you have only a two channel system with external speakers, the dialogue (which is typically the same signal in both channels and would be sent to a center channel if you had one) could be cancelling itself out. Check to make sure you have both speakers wired the same way from your amp/receiver - that is, red/plus on the amp to red/plus on the speakers, and black/minus on the amp to black/minus on the speaker. If, after that, you still have the problem, turn the balance to one side and see if it still occurs - if it still does, it’s not a phasing issue.
While I will try out your suggestions, I am skeptical. I first noticed it with my VCR. And this is both direct to the TV, and/or when the sound is also through my amp. I have an S-cart system here, so my audio out plugs can go to my stereo while the s-cart goes to the TV with both video and audio. And it is not my hearing, I mean, when that background noise comes on, it is LOUD at levels where it is really hard to listen to conversation. My wife notices it too. Often the difference between the voice and the background is 10 levels difference on my TV volume indicator.
Maybe I just need to get the 5.1 system so I can control the center up higher than the rest…
Are the voices unnaturally low in volume or is it just that things that are supposed to be much louder in the soundtrack bother you?
I can give an example. I have a full fledged audiophile quality theater system. Total power is on the order of 2400 watts plus a 1500 or so more for the sub. When I watch U-571, with the volume set to where the dialog is a pretty natural volume, the system will literally make your butt cheeks shake when a depth charge goes off in the movie. And that is exactly what is supposed to happen. I should not have to turn the volume up to where the dialog is annoying loud to have the exposions sound like explosions.
I can limit that to some degree for late nite watching by turn my sub off, and setting dynamic range to “minimum” on both my DVD player and my surround decoder. But, the bottom line is that in the soundtrack, big sound effects are orders of magnitude louder than dialog. Even with the above precautions, U-571, The Matrix, and Fight Club are pretty much a no-go when anyone in the house is trying to sleep. Notting Hill on the other hand is no problem.