Yeah, I really wished home video releases had a separate professional surround mix with a much lower dynamic range between normal dialog and the loudest sounds. Dynamic range compression works, but it's often heavy-handed and very noticeable (especially on an Apple TV).
I think cinema mixes are conventionally around 30 dB between dialog and the loudest sounds, which works great in the cinema (both because there is less ambient sound, and because you expect really loud sounds in the cinema), but is pretty extreme at home if you don't have a proper "home theater" setup. That's like the difference between normal conversation and a lawn mower. If you're watching a movie at home and two characters are talking and then one of them starts their lawn mower, do you actually want it to be as loud as if you fired up a lawn mower in your living room? For sustained sounds I generally wouldn't want it much more than 10 dB above dialog (that's like running a washing machine) and for very peaky effects like gunshots 20 dB is probably pushing it for most people's living room setups.
>is pretty extreme at home if you don't have a proper "home theater" setup
I have a proper home theater setup and it seems worse.
With subs the walls shake. Try watching a movie at night with someone asleep in the next room.
It's so irritating, I wish they'd be sensible. It doesn't seem like anyone enjoys it, I can't work out why the directors don't want a movie to be an enjoyable experience for the viewer.
Every comment that I've seen echoes the same sentiment. Nobody is springing to the defense of these ridiculous dynamics.
The “home theater enthusiast” community online definitely seems to enjoy it, they’re always chasing higher bandwidth and bit depth audio formats! Meanwhile I can tell the difference in video quality between a UHD Blu-ray and a high quality 4k stream (like Netflix) but there’s no way I could tell the difference in the surround sound tracks.
You're getting data compression mixed up with dynamics.
I'm talking about the difference between the volume level of the quiet dialog compared to the ridiculously loud explosions. This is an "artistic" choice by the director.
> I have a proper home theater setup and it seems worse.
> With subs the walls shake. Try watching a movie at night with someone asleep in the next room.
I mean that's the point of a subwoofer. If you want to have actual low frequency response you will feel it. Obviously this setup is not compatible wiht someone trying to sleep in the next room.
Yes but too much dynamics, ie I want to set a volume level where the explosions are just a little bit loud, and still be able to hear the dialog.
The way it is in most movies nowadays, if I set a volume level where I can hear the dialog, the explosions rattle the walls and shake the floor. It seems crazy. Why isn't the dialog louder?
I think cinema mixes are conventionally around 30 dB between dialog and the loudest sounds, which works great in the cinema (both because there is less ambient sound, and because you expect really loud sounds in the cinema), but is pretty extreme at home if you don't have a proper "home theater" setup. That's like the difference between normal conversation and a lawn mower. If you're watching a movie at home and two characters are talking and then one of them starts their lawn mower, do you actually want it to be as loud as if you fired up a lawn mower in your living room? For sustained sounds I generally wouldn't want it much more than 10 dB above dialog (that's like running a washing machine) and for very peaky effects like gunshots 20 dB is probably pushing it for most people's living room setups.