| OlfinBedwere said: While HDTV/theatrical mixing and the trend for actors to mumble their dialog have already been mentioned, I think a lot of filmmakers nowadays deliberately have the audio mixes done so that viewers at home have to turn the volume way up in order to listen to the normal dialog, because it's a simple way of ensuring that sudden crashes, explosions, and soundtrack flourishes hit the viewer with a much greater impact than they would do otherwise. |
Netflix specifically went from HDTV standard to current one in 2018, with Amazon doing it in 2019, explicitly to provide for more dynamic range. As I said, there is this dual nature of current TV watching - broadcast HDTV, that respects TV dynamics and intended environment (though not as tight as old SD standards), and streaming, that delivers to TV, but not really intended for classic TV listening.
As for filmmakers deliberately making dialogue soft...well, from my experience, sort of yes, but not quite - they just want that dynamic cinematic experience that sound in theater allows for, not understanding delivery medium of broadcast/streaming or flat out refusing to accept they're not working for actual cinema theaters. So in a sense, yes, there is sort of artistic problem as well, since some of them are behaving as if movies/shows they're making for home environment can have same aesthetics and approach as theatrical films (you can see this not only in sound, but picture grading as well) expecting for viewers to have home theaters to fully appreciate their "vision".
Last edited by HoloDust - on 31 May 2026
