Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tips on How to Deal with Loud Movies at Home | Video

*Ever find yourself annoyed by the loudest pasts of a movie, such as big explosions — then suddenly the sound bounces back to a quiet or normal volume? 

Why do movies do this? As reported by Get Pocket, it has to do with dynamic range. The outlet writes, “they mix it that way so when that explosion finally happens, it kicks you in the gut and rocks your world.”

“This is generally not a problem in commercial cinemas, which have high-quality sound systems and good acoustics,” said Scott Wilkinson, audiovisual technology journalist and consultant (and the “Home Theater Geek” on TWiT.tv), according to the report. “So you can hear and understand quiet dialogue in one scene without lessening the impact of loud explosions in another scene.” 

Here’s how to improve the acoustics of your own soundproof home theater, per the report. 

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Happy African American family relaxing and watching tv at home, enjoying weekend together.

Turn on “night mode”

You might not realize it, but there may already be a setting built into your TV, sound system, or streaming box designed to deal with this: it’s called “night mode,” and it does exactly what it sounds like.

“This compresses the dynamic range, reducing the difference between the loudest and softest parts of the soundtrack,” says Wilkinson. “Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find this setting in the device’s menu system, though some devices have a dedicated ‘night mode’ button on their remote.”

Use a good sound bar or set of speakers

Wilkinson recommends an outboard sound system, such as a sound bar or AV receiver with multiple speakers. Ideally, you’d have a sound bar or set of speakers with at least 3.1 channels—one left, one right, and one center (with a subwoofer for good bass). So when you shop, keep an eye out for that “3.1” label—5.1 if you’re going for surround sound. 

The site recommends Vizio’s 3.1 sound bar.

Turn up your center channel

A speaker system with a center channel will be a big step up from your TV speakers, but you can further decrease the dynamic range with in-menu volume adjustments. On many sound bars and receivers, you can increase the volume of the dialogue-focused center channel alone, without increasing the level of the other channels, Wilkinson says. This isn’t usually an option for two-channel systems, but it never hurts to look in your sound bar or receiver’s settings. Once you find the center channel volume level, crank it up a few notches and see where that gets you.

When all else fails, use headphones

You probably already have headphones that’ll do the trick, but I’d recommend against using Bluetooth, since there’s an inherent delay that’ll cause sound to be out of sync with the screen. Instead, connect your headphones to the TV or sound bar with a long 3.5-millimeter extension cable, or use a pair of radio frequency (RF)-based wireless home theater headphones like the Sennheiser RS 175

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