What'd he say? How to improve home theater dialogue intelligibility

Some of today's DVD and Blu-ray soundtracks are so densely mixed that dialogue can be hard to understand.

When actors' lines are obscured by onscreen mayhem, you may miss important plot details. The dialogue intelligibility problem is even worse for people who are hard of hearing.

Here's a simple fix to improve intelligibility that also works like a charm for quiet, late-night movie watching.

Onkyo's TX-SR805's remote offers direct access to center channel volume.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

Turn up the center channel volume level. Please understand, that's not the same thing as cranking up your receiver's volume control. Raising the center channel volume relative to the left/right and surround channels makes dialogue louder than the music and sound effects, so it's easier to understand what the actors are saying.

The easiest way to make the adjustment is with your receiver or home theater-in-a-box system's remote control. Check and see if your remote has a button marked "Channel Select." My Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver's remote has such a control, marked "CH SEL". It toggles through left, right, center, etc., and once I got to the center I used the "Level -" and "Level +" buttons to adjust the center channel volume.

Experiment to figure out how much louder you want the center channel speaker to be, but start with turning it up by three decibels. That might be enough, but don't hesitate to turn it up higher if that's what you need.

Of course, you can also use the CH SEL feature to boost subwoofer volume to taste whenever you switch movies or CDs. Or adjust the surround channels volume.

If can't do the adjustment on your remote, explore the speaker setup menu.

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)

If the remote doesn't have the Channel Select feature, use the receiver or HTIB's speaker setup menu to adjust the center channel volume.

I've recommended this trick to friends for years, but Atlantic Technology's founder Peter Tribeman mentioned it recently to me. Tribeman prefers the raised center channel volume approach over most Late Night listening modes and I agree. You'll be able to listen at much lower overall volume and still hear every word. Give it a try.

[minimalist]

Timely article.

Is there any fix for people who are watching through a regular 2 channel stereo system? Several older members of my family complain that they cant stand watching DVD's anymore because the dialog is almost impossible to hear over the sound effects and soundtrack.

Does changing between the 5.1 mixes and stereo mixes make any difference if your equipment only supports 2 channel stereo?

[taylorp--2008]

I have this same problem. My fix with my Vizio TV was to go into the menu settings for the TV, choose sound and then turn Surround sound OFF. Good Luck!

[Brent212]

Yes, if you only have a stereo sound system, use the 2 channel audio track, if it's available. It'll sound better than the 5.1 downmixed to stereo.

[Synthmeister]

We've simply started turning on subtitles for just about every movie we watch. Even our kids pretty much turn on the subtitles for every movie.

[NocturnalCT]

Yeah, we enable subtitles for many movies as well. Pretty sad really when actors mumble so badly that you can't make out the words over the explosions. I'll give this tip a try, thanks!

[Wes#1]

Yes, it is sad we have to resort to subtitles. And it is even more insulting that these "subtitles" are often aimed at the deaf-- without an option to have just the dialogue subtitled, and not be cued in on every sound effect, too. ("Loud explosion.") Duh.

[DWes]

Difficult to understand dialog during loud scenes is a sign that your amp is not keeping up. Lowering the volume or getting a separate monoblock amp for the center or a 2-channel amp to power the left/right speakers (leaving more power from the amp's power supply for the other channels) can help.

The problem is that most receivers' amp channels all their power from the same power supply. Lots of explosions take lots of power, draining the power supply and causing distortion. You don't notice the distortion in the sound effects, but it shows up in the dialog.

[rapier1]

Or it could just be that the actors are mumbling and the mix sucks. ;)

[scaught78]

It amazes me how many mixes are all over the map sonically. Depending on what I am watching, I am constantly adjusting the center channel's DB levels. But after adjusting, I never have a problem hearing, unless as mentioned above the actors really suck at reading lines.

[funkyboot]

With music people complain that the mixes are over-compressed and not dynamic enough, yet here are film people making the opposite argument. The reason the mixes are all over the map is because the film industry actually preserves dynamics in order to ensure that what needs to be loud for effect, is actually loud. While this can be annoying for night watching (i.e. adjusting the TV volume for dialog to be clearly audible then have a loud explosion go and shake the walls), it provides excitement.

The solution (mix-wise) would be to limit and clip the dynamic range in film soundtracks like they do music, and trust me, you don't want that either. Not only would it make things loud and boring (think bad commercials), it would completely negate the benefits of having the 24bits that DVD's provide for audio.

A better solution would be for the hardware manufacturers to build limiters into the receivers themselves, and call it "night mode" or something. These could compress and limit the dynamic range of the audio, so that everything is at or near the same level constantly. It would sound like garbage in most scenarios, but it would be great for avoiding the jolt of a surprise explosion or loud commercial when watching TV at night. Especially for those in appartments who have neighbors to contend with.

[Weeji]

Couldn't agree more. The problem with "night mode" is that every receiver implements it differently. Mine, for example, only works with Dolby Digital encoded audio. This was great for most DVDs, since they mostly used Dolby Digital, but now I have a HTPC and a Blu-Ray player. Blu-rays seem to have mostly DTS tracks, and audio coming from my HTPC could be anything, and almost never works with the night mode.

[Wes#1]

Compressing dynamics does not help if the dialogue track is weak. You still have left, right, and multiple surrounds overpowering whatever mumbling is coming from the center. Boosting the center helps, though you have to settle for a soundfield that pretty narrow with most eveything coming from the screen (enhanced mono?)...

[research1st]

Wow, I just thought it was my damaged hearing that was causing me problems in hearing and understanding the dialog in movies. Sic. Sic.

I have been boosting my center channel for quite some time to help aleviate this problem. I have also believed for a very long time that the "sound mixing" for movies was terrible. Especially on high decible action flicks. And what about the overdone and overloud "dramatic music" used in place of good writing and good acting. But I digress......

My parents do not have a surround sound system, or any kind of Hi-Fi equipment for that matter. They do have a DVD/VCR combo player hooked up directly to their TV. And the sound is absolutely horrible through the little 2 channel speakers. I have tried several different wiring combinations, left/right audio cables, etc. The only thing that can give semi-intelligible audio from a DVD is just using the regular old COAX and watching everything on CH. 3. And I have tried other DVD players to see if it's the unit. It's not.... Ironically, some of the old VHS tapes sound better than the DVD's.....

[dabigwaxy]

Are we really calling this a "Hack"? Come on, Cnet. This is common sense. Let's try to pretend that the majority of your readers aren't new to technology or logic.

[RTFM]

Yes, come on now joe user. Read The F.... Manual.

[Wes#1]

Glad to see this getting some press. It's a pathetic situation that film sound mixes for home theater have gotten so "hot" and wild that the most important track -- the dialogue! -- is balanced so poorly against less significant foley and music. Generally, our only options are to compress the dynamics (that sound engineers worked so hard to expand) and collapse the soundstage by advancing the center channel. Is there a way to wake up Hollywood and let them know people are applying these counter-measures? It would be wonderful if they would supply an optional soundtrack that offers "dialogue priority" over the slam-bang, ultra-hot mix... one where an engineer has optimized all sounds to keep the dialogue dominant, yet provides a good surround spread and tamer dynamics. I bet 90% of viewers would choose it every time.

[Go_Bruins]

If there is anyone out there who owns a home theater system and doesn't immediately perform this so called 'hack' then they should be required to re-box and return the HTS due to extreme ignorance. Seriously? Does anyone else have the feeling that CNET requires an article every "X" days of no less than 350 words (I used MS WORD - wordcount).

What's next week? Home Power Consumption Hack?

Step 1 Visit electronic distributor and find power strips with pass through plugs
Step 2 Connect modem and cable box to pass through plugs
Step 3 Shut down strip when other devices are not needed.
Step 4 Relax, watch your money grow as bills decrease
Step 5 Add in some random text and highlight a few models as filler to get word count to 350

Honestly, I'm simply insulted at the amazing tip to pump up center channel, hey guys here's another insider's tip 'plant your BASS on a hard surface and raise the level to +2 or +3 for that great rumble effect' ... shhh ...

[Brent212]

You're hired!

[stuntman_mike]

Ummm... This is not a hack in any sense of the word. That's like saying I have a hack to increase the bass on CD's. Use your equalizer lol.

This is more common sense than anything else.

[tehooper]

I didn't know you could adjust the volume levels of your channels independently. This is a great tip for those of us who don't pore through our 50 + page manuals before setting up our HTIB's. Those things read like the Handbook for the Recently Deceased.

[gildorluthien]

We watch our movies on a multimedia PC I have in the fmaily room. So we use a software based player. The use of the 2-track audio is a good idea, also check out the audio settings on your application, often there is a setting where you can tweak the audio mix using downmixes, or virutal surround, etc. I just wish I still had my component stereo system.

[ocguy7]

I am speechless.
I thought it was some kind of a breakthrough in technology.
When I am watching movie with 5.1 surround system, I usually make some adjustments
including center channel level. Folks, this is necessary because all movies recorded
differently. Even broadcast TV programs have similiar or worse problems. You simply make
level adjustments accordingly.

If you have bad speakers or listen thru tiny TV speakers, then there isn't much you can do
other than using subtitle function.

[sharpnine]

I think this can be a good solution (I wish receivers made it easier to adjust the levels of each channel on the fly, like a mixing board). However, I recently discovered that I like my system better without the center channel. I bought a good pair of front speakers, got rid of the center, told the receiver I no longer had a center, and the sound got better overall. I think if all your three fronts are exactly the same speaker, placed level with each other, you might get great sound. But most people's setups are not like this, and I find the sound stage of good full range fronts, with good amplification, you never know the center is missing. And everything sounds smoother. I never have problem understanding dialog, either. The center channel hack won't work for me (I don't think the receiver allows you to adjust the center when there isn't one) but I don't think I need it.
My advice to anyone interested--try running without your center, but leaving the center in place. You will still think you hear it, and the sound might actually be better.

[griz_fan]

Your center channel speaker must have really sucked, then.

I see two issues here: people without surround sound systems who should be listening to the stereo track on movies. Also, there are settings for audio defaults on most DVD players. Make your adjustments there, too.

If you do have a surround sound system, be sure to optimize your settings, which may include boosting the center channel. If your receiver has Audyssey/MCACC/YPAO or other automatic calibration routine, run that a few times to dial in your system to your room acoustics. Make sure your center channel speaker is well placed and not behind the front edge of your TV. Also, make sure your speakers are up to the task. Small "lifestyle" speakers just can't reproduce a full range of sound. Most have a huge mid-frequency gap where dialog disappears into. Make sure your center channel speaker has at least a pair of 4" drivers and a 3/4" or larger tweeter. The larger, the better. Again, puny little speakers with a single 2.5" driver (and no tweeter) just can't fill the audio range needed for clear dialog.

[ragner]

Buy good speakers. Listen to them. If you buy good speakers with high intelligibilty you wont need to any fixing