For me it's quite simple. Picture yourself in a cinema/ theatre or whatever it's called where you are.. The difference in levels are ridiculous, Why do they do it? It's so you don't fall asleep whilst the movie is on!!!! Then again.. Some of the movies I've seen over the years I would have preferred to sleep through...

 

I felt the same, it's a trend for quiet a while now, it makes sense in cinemas but makes absolute no sense to have that mixing for a tv series.

 

I used Tenet as an extreme example because even watching it at home with headphones there are multiple spots where dialogue is purposely obscured. the scene where the alarm is going off in the art area is clearly an artistic choice but, given Nolan's resources the fact you cannot understand like what he says in the sailboat- that's also a choice.

I guess I'm trying to say that some directors can pull shit off cause they're good, others cannot. the shaky fight cam thing from the first Jason Bourne was novel, a decade later not so much.

 

I turn the volume down a bit and always use subtitles if possible.

 

Last edited: Sep 7, 2022

Haven't tried on speakers myself, but with some sub $50 headphones it did sound really good like it was meant for headphones... 1080p quality...

 

I don´t care about the mixing standards at this point.... The placement of the music and excuse me for my opinion the quality, in comparison of the original ST including the hobbits, is pure series mainstream. Sorry bad placement of incompetent scoring, equally mediocre sound mixing, does not create the same illusion.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2022

We gave up years ago and just keep the subtitles on.

 

Yea I noticed it's a constant barrage of generic sounding orchestral music but I thought I was a just cranky as I tend to hate most music. (I'm not even kidding lol)

Maybe part of it was the mix that was bothering me. I wish movies would have more silence instead of feeling like they have to fill in all the "blank" space.

 

I've heard it mentioned before that they mix sound for theatre and then just transfer as is to home product but if the movie is going to spend minimal time in a theatre and the rest of human history on streamers it might be worth it for them to make sure the it sounds ok. Nothing lowers the quality of a movie more than shitty sound.

 

I was mentioning that because I listened for the first time a critic I know complaining about the mixing in the theaters. That really shocked me . I watched it at home, with my subs and DRCompressors so it was ok-ish. Sorry for continuing the OT but feels relevant.

 

And here I am, thinking it was my ears who went coocoo.
To me, LOTR is unwatchable. Watched another episode yesterday and despite dialog enhancer and a fairly decent 5.1 setup, the mixdown quality is just bad and the whole series is no fun to watch.

 

Sound has been fine for me, no intelligibility problems at all. Stereo mix.

Been really enjoying it.

 

Main problem is how absolutely, relentlessly dull and (a lot of times) comically bad the series has been. Makes Peter Jackson look like he made several masterpieces! I used to quite like Bare McCreary; he did decent work on See, but there was literally 10s of music I liked in this. It was a (I guess throwaway) tiny piece in (I think?) the final ep that alluded to Herrmann. I often had to remux the center channel and sometimes use subs. Just a joke; we're not in teh cinema. The only thing this (billion dollar) thing had over (far better) HotD was the lighting / look of exterior shots. Everything else was (various degrees of) worse.

 

cannot tell I am not watching it ever. But a wide dynamic range is also annoying on some media. Balance is key.

 

For this, the technology god invented MPEG-H, which (theoretically) allows the viewer to determine the ratio of dialog and, for example, sound effects and music. Unfortunately, no one is currently using this option. Even Dolby Atmos and TrueHD offer the possibility for different mixes. For example, you could create your own stereo mix, which can be completely different from the surround/atmos mix. Everything in one and the same audio track. Unfortunately, hardly any studio/streaming provider uses this possibility.

So there are technical possibilities to mitigate the problem a bit. They just have to be used.

 

Haven't noticed any sound issues, here. I will also point out that I watch pretty everything with subtitles on now cause i find dialog in most things a bit harder to hear.

 

Sound is literally the least of this abomination's problems.

 

Found my issue:
Dolby Atmos activated on Apple TV because my AVR can do Dolby Atmos.
but I only have a 5.1 Speaker system.

Fixed that by disabling Atmos in Apple TV. Now my AVR shows Multi ChIn + DSur which sounds okay.
Enabled Dialog Enhancer
Disabled Dynamic EQ from the Audissey Setup Procedure
Enabled Dynamic Volume to Light in the Audissey Setup

Now, I even understand the voices from "The Batman"