For fucks sake, can we just get releases that have separate audio tracks for dialogue, music, and effects that we the viewer can decide how we want to hear it?
Video games figured this out
I don’t want the explosions to be so loud that it wakes my entire house.
Yeah! It would sure be nice if we took accessibility issues seriously.
Like one lesson we learned as a society in the aftermath of implementing strong ADA laws (in the US) is that what’s needed for the bare minimum for some of us is often really nice for the rest of us.
For example: if you’re delivering a dolly of boxes to a building, the wheelchair ramp really beats working the dolly up the stairs.
It would be amazing if dialog were a separate channel, if only so that it can be boosted for the hard of hearing. If that meant more options for remixing for you and me - oh no?
It would be amazing if the subtitles were available and accurate. Great if you can’t hear the audio. It’s useful for scrubbing if you want to remember and find a obscure movie quote.
My pet peeve. I also watch shows in the original (foreign to me) language to train my listening comprehension and often the subtitles are not word for word accurate especially in the hard to understand parts.
I’m not sure but Dolby Atmos might be responsible for some of it. Dolby Atmos lets the engineers assign coordinate values to each “sound object” in the scene, then your receiver takes that information, along with the room calibration mic info and your speaker layout, and actually generates the channels itself based on the listeners position within the scene. As an example, if an object is moving from front to rear then the engineers no longer have to pan it between channels, just tell the coordinate system that the sound is moving “that way” and let the receiver take care of it. Maybe engineers just aren’t putting as much work into making discrete channel audio mixes anymore when the “gold standard” no longer uses discrete channels/tracks.
For people with Atmos-supporting audio equipment, this is actually an improvement. My rear surrounds aren’t in the same place as yours, and my system knows that, so I can hear the positioning the audio engineer intended.
Yeah, full disclosure I have a full atmos system and it’s a noticeable improvement in positional accuracy over even DTS-HD Master. I wish there were less expensive solutions though so that it could go mainstream.
That’s the same configuration I have, with a Denon amp doing the atmos processing. I had some rear upfiring speakers also but I ditched them because my ceiling is too high for the heights to work anyway D=. Even without the heights though you get SIGNIFICANTLY improved positional audio. Things like panning from front to rear are seamless, especially with timbre matched speakers.
I mounted some speakers in the ceiling (I think they’re ceiling mid rather than ceiling front or ceiling rear) and whilst there’s not that many things that really take advantage of them, some stuff is fantastic.
The voices in Max’s head in Fury Road are great and the sounds of below decks in Master and Commander stood out too.
Turning up the center channel gives you more dialog. But that assumes you’ve got surround sound set up… Producers don’t give as much love to stereo setups these days.
It also assumes all dialog is centered. That usually works for the main characters of a scene, but not all dialog, e.g. a character off-screen trying to get the attention of the other.
For fucks sake, can we just get releases that have separate audio tracks for dialogue, music, and effects that we the viewer can decide how we want to hear it?
Video games figured this out
I don’t want the explosions to be so loud that it wakes my entire house.
Yeah! It would sure be nice if we took accessibility issues seriously.
Like one lesson we learned as a society in the aftermath of implementing strong ADA laws (in the US) is that what’s needed for the bare minimum for some of us is often really nice for the rest of us.
For example: if you’re delivering a dolly of boxes to a building, the wheelchair ramp really beats working the dolly up the stairs.
It would be amazing if dialog were a separate channel, if only so that it can be boosted for the hard of hearing. If that meant more options for remixing for you and me - oh no?
It would be amazing if the subtitles were available and accurate. Great if you can’t hear the audio. It’s useful for scrubbing if you want to remember and find a obscure movie quote.
My pet peeve. I also watch shows in the original (foreign to me) language to train my listening comprehension and often the subtitles are not word for word accurate especially in the hard to understand parts.
Even when it’s English subs with English audio, so much is done with “AI” now but clearly they’re never checked by a human!
I’m not sure but Dolby Atmos might be responsible for some of it. Dolby Atmos lets the engineers assign coordinate values to each “sound object” in the scene, then your receiver takes that information, along with the room calibration mic info and your speaker layout, and actually generates the channels itself based on the listeners position within the scene. As an example, if an object is moving from front to rear then the engineers no longer have to pan it between channels, just tell the coordinate system that the sound is moving “that way” and let the receiver take care of it. Maybe engineers just aren’t putting as much work into making discrete channel audio mixes anymore when the “gold standard” no longer uses discrete channels/tracks.
For people with Atmos-supporting audio equipment, this is actually an improvement. My rear surrounds aren’t in the same place as yours, and my system knows that, so I can hear the positioning the audio engineer intended.
Yeah, full disclosure I have a full atmos system and it’s a noticeable improvement in positional accuracy over even DTS-HD Master. I wish there were less expensive solutions though so that it could go mainstream.
My front speakers have Atmos but my rears don’t.
But Atmos is a receiver level technology?
How does a speaker “have Atmos”?
It has to have upward drives to really have Atmos. It needs the ability to bounce it off other surfaces for it to really be Atmos.
Wouldn’t that mean you have a 5.1.2 setup, a valid Atmos configuration?
The rear ones don’t have to have any upfiring capabilities.
That’s the same configuration I have, with a Denon amp doing the atmos processing. I had some rear upfiring speakers also but I ditched them because my ceiling is too high for the heights to work anyway D=. Even without the heights though you get SIGNIFICANTLY improved positional audio. Things like panning from front to rear are seamless, especially with timbre matched speakers.
I mounted some speakers in the ceiling (I think they’re ceiling mid rather than ceiling front or ceiling rear) and whilst there’s not that many things that really take advantage of them, some stuff is fantastic.
The voices in Max’s head in Fury Road are great and the sounds of below decks in Master and Commander stood out too.
No, the directors intent is more important, and obviously you need a full Dolby speaker system to properly enjoy. /s
Turning up the center channel gives you more dialog. But that assumes you’ve got surround sound set up… Producers don’t give as much love to stereo setups these days.
It also assumes all dialog is centered. That usually works for the main characters of a scene, but not all dialog, e.g. a character off-screen trying to get the attention of the other.