Tv Volume...

[JanetMegan]

Ok is it just me or are shows becoming increasingly harder to understand?

I only watch a couple of non-reality shows. Saving Grace this past Summer and I watch Prison Break. Now on both of these shows half the time I have the tv turned ALL the WAY up and I still can't hear what it going on. My mom says on CSI she has the same problem and has actually started watching it with the subtitles turned on.

I have a good tv (fairly new) good hearing, I'm young. Why on earth are these shows so hard to understand???

[The Flying Dutchman]

I completely agree. I will have to turn the volume way up (after which the Mrs yells at me) and will not notice the actual volume until a commercial comes on, during which I have to scramble for the remote to turn the tv down again in order to save my eardrums and/or the speakers on the tv itself. It's getting ridiculus.

So happy to "hear" :mickey: that someone else has this same issue!

[GrumpyFan]

Yes, I've noticed this too, and it's very annoying. The levels are not as consistent or even anymore. They go from really low talking to loud, booming music or action. I'm constantly riding the volume control, especially on the CSI shows. Mostly it seems like it's the actors who just don't seem to have the vocal clarity to project their voice adequately. But, I blame the sound editors and directors too, because this could be corrected at time of filming or even some in post production.

I was constantly complaining about D.B. Woodside, who plays Wayne Palmer on 24. He speaks in such a low voice that it's very difficult to understand what he's saying.

[JanetMegan]

Glad I am not alone or going deaf. For the last two Prison Breaks I actually had to print out a recap from one of those recap websites to be sure I didn't miss anything important.

[ncscgirl2005]

Glad I am not alone or going deaf. For the last two Prison Breaks I actually had to print out a recap from one of those recap websites to be sure I didn't miss anything important.

LOL! Wow...now that's extreme loyalty to a show!

[ncscgirl2005]

I have noticed that too and I used to be the one telling my husband to turn the TV down.

[chrisb26]

I know what you mean sometimes it is clear and fine and others very quiet. I think part of the reason is all this HD programming. At least with mine. HD channels are alot quieter then non-HD channels. When I switch to one I have to turn the volume up and I forget I did that and go to a non-HD channel and have to almost cover my ears. But I have also had problems with volume even on my TV that doesn't have HD I'll be listening and it will be fine then all the sudden I can no longer hear. I wake up in the morning and turn my TV on and it sounds like I had the volume all the way up the night before.

[GrumpyFan]

We don't have TiVo, but we do have a DVR to save and replay our shows, and at least once per show we have to back it up 10 seconds and replay what was said so we can understand. I was thinking of installing better speakers or surround sound to try and fix the problem.

[JPL]

The cuase of this is the Dolby Surround sound encoding which most shows are using I have had the same problems with DVDs encoded the same way. With a surround sound tuner to decode the audio it becomes difficult to hear sine it is taking 5 channels of audio and compressing it in to left and right only.

[TheDuckRocks]

Bless you for posting this! I thought it was just me really getting a lot older than I am. (OK, we all know that I'm the oldie in the group here at Intercot.)

[thrillme]

Both my Dad and I are hard of hearing. I've been using captions for a LONG time. I finally convinced him to try them. He didn't realize how much he was missing. There's so much "background" noise now that it's harder to make out what they're saying.

[2Epcot]

The cuase of this is the Dolby Surround sound encoding which most shows are using I have had the same problems with DVDs encoded the same way. With a surround sound tuner to decode the audio it becomes difficult to hear sine it is taking 5 channels of audio and compressing it in to left and right only.

I was also going to say something about surround before I saw Jeff's post. When I watched High School Musical 2 it was very difficult to understand a lot of the movie. About 75% of the way through the movie I thought to turn off the surround channel on my HD set and it was much easier to hear the dialouge. That was the first time I really had that problem, but I was running all the sound through the TV set, usually if I watch a movie I use my reciever sound system and speakers to spread out the sound.

[disneydrmr]

WOW! I am soooo glad to find this thread.. cause like others have said I thought it was just me and my dh. Our tv is also fairly new and I thought maybe the speakers were going bad...whew! I can stop worrying about having to buy a new one already! Thanks!

[brownie]

We've haven't had any problems with this, although we're still using analog cable.

[IloveDisney71]

My family was having this discussion last night! We kept turning the volume up really high for the shows and scrambling for the remote to turn the volume down for the commercials. We vary in ages from 17 to 46 and there were 4 of us in the room. I knew all of our hearing couldn't be going! :D It's becoming a really annoying problem!!!!

[PirateLover]

My mom has been muting commercials for years now. We find Fox to be the worst offender when it comes to commercial volume. In terms of low volume on the actual show, that award goes to Lost. We are rewinding that show all the time! (I am 21, parents are 57)

[AvonleaCF]

I find the shows to be okay most of the time, but I have major issues with my DVDs!! I'll have to turn the sound all the way up to hear them properly, and then of course they sound a bit off since the sound is up so high. I thought it was just me or my TV (which is brand new). I'm not fancy/technical enough to bother with extra speakers and surround sound, so I just deal with it. I've learned to remember to turn the volume back down before going back to live TV, but sometimes I forget and then it's BOOMING loud.

[ChipDale]

I thought it was against FCC regulations for the commercials to be louder than the show being broadcasted? We've noticed that ABC seems to be the worst culprit of this. Thankfull we have TiVos and usually just zip through the commercials.