Hi, Everybody. I am new to Straightdope, but my problem is an old one.
I am using a Coby DVD player and the sound problem affects only one DVD, but it’s a movie I very much like.
The background music gets so loud around the suspenseful scenes that I have to turn down the volume repeatedly. And then don’t understand the voices.
The sound controls of the Coby dvd player all are set to 2 (2.0).
On the back of this dvd it says DOLBY Surround stereo, and the dvd is a 20Century Fox movie copyrighted in 1984.
I paid for this then new dvd and don’t know how to correct the sound.
Your help is much appreciated.
Unfortunately the sound mix burned into the DVD is what it is - this article talks about the problem, about the only solution it suggests is playback on equipment with the Dolby Volume feature.
There’s another often used technique of turning up the volume on the middle speaker, which usually has the dialog. (Other speakers will have it, too, but the middle speaker is the only one guaranteed.) Also, Dolby has nowhere near a monopoly on dynamic compression. Other names for said feature are Night time mode, quiet mode, sound balance mode, etc.
Personally, I just give up and enable subtitles.