Is there any way to normalise film/TV audio so the soundtrack isn't LOUD?

[Barry Admin]

I'm trying to watch this Bo Burnham film on BBC3 and it's a good example of why I don't bother to watch much these days.  I know why audio is compressed and whatever in this manner, but it fucks me off.  The dialogue is only really audible to me at 10 or 11, but every time music starts to play, I have to dive for the slider and turn it down to 2 or 3.

So I've just had to stick on subtitles and keep it there so I don't blast my ears and fuck off the bloke downstairs.

Surely there's some way round this shit?

[chutnut]

This really does my head in too. I guess it depends on your setup, I use an nvidia shield which has a 'night time listening mode' and it works pretty well to be fair. I leave it on all the time and never really have to touch the volume. I'm sure lots of tvs have the same function.
If you're watching through a laptop you could also put a compressor on the output but it was a bit of a faff last time I tried

[steveh]

There are quite a few soundbars with dialogue enhancers which aren't that pricey. Mostly they are boosting the volume of what's in the centre of the stereo field or from the centre channel for 5.1 sound but some claim to do more tricks than just that. There may even be an option buried in the TV settings to do this. Some streaming devices like Amazon's Firesticks also have an option to boost dialogue.

The problem is not really compression, it's more that the films are mixed for surround sound in cinema spaces. There's an additional issue that BBC / Channel 4 / Channel 5 HD channels have 5.1 audio streams with a usually higher dynamic range which then get downmixed into stereo by TVs, but some may not do this well so what's on the side channels can overwhelm the centre.

[Memorex MP3]

Is there something that can be done with an equalizer to balance out the lows and highs?

If someone can just tell me how to do this on vlc I'd really appreciate it, getting to the point where I'll just avoid major films after 2010 because I know I'll be toggling the volume for all 3 hours

[gabrielconroy]

Is there something that can be done with an equalizer to balance out the lows and highs?

If someone can just tell me how to do this on vlc I'd really appreciate it, getting to the point where I'll just avoid major films after 2010 because I know I'll be toggling the volume for all 3 hours

VLC has a built-in EQ that should be more than adequate for this. Play around with boosting in and around 2-6kHz, and cutting the bass (especially 3-800Hz, which can make things sound boomy) until the dialogue is clearer and you don't get huge SUDDEN BURSTS OF SOUND that overwhelm everything.

@Barry Admin as others have said, have a look in your TV settings for stuff to boost dialogue and/or optimise for watching at quiet volumes.

Failing that, do you have a soundbar or speakers, or is the audio coming directly from the TV? If the former you can use a hardware EQ to fiddle around with stuff and potentially also use a compressor or limiter to cap the volume to an acceptable level, although that's obviously far more fiddly.

I actually have a bog standard EQ I got a while back that I don't need any more, so you could have that if you want to cover the postage.

[Barry Admin]

I have an old plasma TV I also now use as a computer monitor.  The whole thing goes through my stereo.  I dunno what software to use to try and fix this, or if the EQ would work?  Thanks for the offer though @gabrielconroy

[gabrielconroy]

Well it should work as I used it for exactly this purpose! If you're running an audio cable from the TV/computer to the stereo speakers, then you just stick the EQ in between (as in, plug the cable that goes from the TV to the speakers into the EQ instead, then run another cable out from the EQ to the speakers).

Then you can adjust the various frequencies until it sounds good.

Actually, you know what I'll cover the postage! I'm having a clearout right now in any case and I just don't need the EQ any more. If you want it, PM me your address and I'll send it over to you this week.

[Barry Admin]

Thank you so much!

[Sebastian Cobb]

VLC has a built-in EQ that should be more than adequate for this. Play around with boosting in and around 2-6kHz, and cutting the bass (especially 3-800Hz, which can make things sound boomy) until the dialogue is clearer and you don't get huge SUDDEN BURSTS OF SOUND that overwhelm everything.

@Barry Admin as others have said, have a look in your TV settings for stuff to boost dialogue and/or optimise for watching at quiet volumes.

Failing that, do you have a soundbar or speakers, or is the audio coming directly from the TV? If the former you can use a hardware EQ to fiddle around with stuff and potentially also use a compressor or limiter to cap the volume to an acceptable level, although that's obviously far more fiddly.

I actually have a bog standard EQ I got a while back that I don't need any more, so you could have that if you want to cover the postage.

Windows actually has in-built normalisation/compression settings that are similar to TV 'night mode' now, I guess they just snuck it out without telling anyone.

https://www.minitool.com/news/loudness-equalization-windows-10.html

There are quite a few soundbars with dialogue enhancers which aren't that pricey. Mostly they are boosting the volume of what's in the centre of the stereo field or from the centre channel for 5.1 sound but some claim to do more tricks than just that. There may even be an option buried in the TV settings to do this. Some streaming devices like Amazon's Firesticks also have an option to boost dialogue.

The problem is not really compression, it's more that the films are mixed for surround sound in cinema spaces. There's an additional issue that BBC / Channel 4 / Channel 5 HD channels have 5.1 audio streams with a usually higher dynamic range which then get downmixed into stereo by TVs, but some may not do this well so what's on the side channels can overwhelm the centre.

Yeah if you can bring yourself to fuck around with something like ffmpeg you can have it do its own stereo mix with a bit of a boost on the center channel to accentuate dialogue. I've used this a few times as the firestick I was using with plex on holiday didn't seem to include the centre channel in its stereo downmix at all.