# DVD playback on BluRay player oddity

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-playback-on-bluray-player-oddity/635165>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 19, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-playback-on-bluray-player-oddity/635165 "2012-09-19T13:41:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-playback-on-bluray-player-oddity/635165/41 "2012-09-19T22:01:15Z")

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> [@voltaire](#):
>
> The part I hate about that is with some movies you have to really crank the volume to pick up the faint sounds and whispers, but then something blows up and the guns start blazing and your neighbors start reaching for the phone to call the police.

Most players (and if not in the player, in your receiver or TV) have a dynamic range setting to narrow the difference between the loudest and softest sounds. The narrowest range is sometimes called the “Nighttime” setting, the idea being that you are watching a movie at night and want to hear all the dialogue but don’t want the [del]sex scenes[/del] explosions to wake up your family.

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**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dvd-playback-on-bluray-player-oddity/635165/42 "2012-09-20T03:38:09Z")

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> [@voltaire](#):
>
> Interesting factoid, thanks. I’ve always noticed that, but was never annoyed or curious enough to find out why.
> 
> The part I hate about that is with some movies you have to really crank the volume to pick up the faint sounds and whispers, but then something blows up and the guns start blazing and your neighbors start reaching for the phone to call the police.

I loathe that too (apartment dweller).

Also hate mumbling actors and bad sound mixing that makes dialogue hard to make out at normal volume. We’ve resorted to using subtitles/closed captioning, and both of us have normal hearing.

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