# If your TV had a feature that enabled you to mix your own sound, would you use it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2025, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888 "2025-10-12T00:15:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888/21 "2025-10-13T07:36:07Z")
Do you have any idea if those things, Roku and the others, work with a VPN or are they just receivers essentially for what’s being cast to them from my computer? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888/22 "2025-10-13T08:17:13Z")
Christopher Nolan is not in favour of this idea - “There may be a very loud explosion any moment now” - he was almost heard to mumble. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888/23 "2025-10-13T09:16:45Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > I’d like an option that zeroes the sound level every time the TV is powered on. I’m married to someone who listens at a fairly high volume and won’t turn it down before powering it off for the night. So I get startled by some news vapor-brain yelling at me in the early morning when I first turn it on. Exactly the same here ! (These features are all simple and possible) ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888/24 "2025-10-13T16:38:10Z")
Absolutely. We have to use subtitles almost all the time now, because quite often the dialogue is being overshadowed by the background sounds or the soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888/25 "2025-10-13T16:58:05Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Do you have any idea if those things, Roku and the others, work with a VPN Not sure about the Roku, but on Apple TV and Google TV, the VPN provider has to offer an app for that device. Or if your router supports whole-network VPN, then any device connected to it should go through the VPN, including your smart TV device. > [@Monty](#): > > or are they just receivers essentially for what’s being cast to them from my computer? This is a separate question than the VPN, but usually, yes, they can do both: 1. They usually have their own apps (like you can watch Netflix and Disney or whatever without needing a phone, computer or other device) 2. But you can usually ALSO “cast” to them, if your devices are compatible. If you have an iPhone, it’s easy to stream (“Airplay”) to an Apple TV. If you have an Android, it’s easy to “cast” to a Google TV. Going across brands may be a bit more meddlesome. Some TVs support both. In my experience, the TV built-in apps and casting functionality are crap. It’s better to buy a standalone device (Apple TV for iPhone users, Google TV for Android users). At home I use an Apple TV with an Android phone. It’s a sub-par experience in many ways, full of compromises and annoyances, but eh, it ultimately still does the job and I’m too cheap/lazy to replace it. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888/26 "2025-10-13T21:19:07Z")
One could try using audio compression to bring most of the various levels into line. I use Breakaway. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888/27 "2025-10-14T00:36:18Z")
There are several different technologies colloquially called “casting” or “mirroring”: - [Miracast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracast) is a technology where a device like a phone encodes everything being displayed on its screen in real time and sends it as a bitstream to a TV. The TV decodes the bitstream and displays the image. So the TV displays exactly what’s being displayed on the phone screen. - [AirPlay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPlay) is an Apple technology that works similarly to Miracast, but since Apple doesn’t play well with others, it is incompatible with Miracast. Some non-Apple devices like Roku also support AirPlay. - [DIAL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_and_Launch) (Discovery and Launch) is a quite different technology where a device like a phone can send a request to a TV to play some remote content, such as a YouTube or Netflix video. Once the video starts playing on the TV, the phone isn’t involved. The video stream comes directly from the YouTube or Netflix server, not from the phone like in Miracast. When you tell YouTube to “cast” a video to a TV, it’s using DIAL. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-your-tv-had-a-feature-that-enabled-you-to-mix-your-own-sound-would-you-use-it/1023888.md?page=1)