• Blaster M@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    4 days ago

    A rage comic spotted in the wild… an endangered species that clings to life, despite the territorial advances of wojack and the skibidi horde

  • Ryktes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    171·
    4 days ago

    The actual reason, for anyone curious, is that movies and shows now are recorded and mixed for 5 or 7 chanel surround audio systems. The dialogue is meant to rout to the speakers closer to the viewers so it’s tuned lower, while big loud shit is meant to come from the bigger, bassier speakers up front farther from viewers so they tune it louder.

    If you watch on a laptop, invest in surround sound headphones. I got a decent pair for $40 USD and it has vastly improved both my movie watching and gaming experience.

    • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      3 days ago

      Ok… so why isnt audio devices mixing the stereo from a 5 channel source? I mean thats exactly what your ‘$40’ headphones are doing.

      • Ryktes@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Headphones can emulate multi-channel spacial audio because the speakers are right on your ears. Tvs and laptops could do the same thing my headset does, it just wouldn’t do any good because speakers are too far away and in the wrong orientation.

        • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          3 days ago

          If you have stereo speakers… surround is not a concern. The device should just assume the audio will be originating from the front of the listener, and mix it at equal levels and call it a day.

    • gens@programming.dev
      3·
      4 days ago

      Stereo headphones are surround sound. It’s how ears work. You percieve position by how late the sound comes to one ear compared to the other. There is a bit more, but I don’t want to write on the phone more. Google HRTF for that part.

      • Ryktes@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        That’s my bad, I should have been a lit more specific. Most basic stereo headphones are straight dual channel and have the same issues as listening through laptop or tv speakers. I’m talking about the ones that actually use multi-channel signal to simulate a 5.1 or 7.1 environment.

        • gens@programming.dev
          2·
          3 days ago

          Not really. It’s up to the software, soundcard, and/or recording.

          Stereo headphones are surround. The reason laptop speakers are not is because they are in front of you. Headphones are one for each ear, separate.

          Our brain is very sensitive to phase difference between sound in either ear. That is how we can tell sound direction. It’s like triangulation, except the third variable is the shape of our ears (is it comming from the front or the back, see HRTF again).

          There is no such thing as surround headphones. There can not even be such a thing. All headphones are surround. It’s either sound card drivers, software in the chain, the recording itself, or just marketing. Get “normal” headphones and check out some directional audio videos on youtube.

          Openal is an audio library used by some older games and they patched HRTF into it to make it sound even more surround.

          Decent headphones that are comfortable are better then even more expensive full room setups, although just for one person.

          Edit: Funny enough the last time I explained this was to an audio engineer. Took him a bit, but he got it when I used sharks ears as an example.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      Most systems should be capable of downmixing to stereo. I have found that sometimes this issue comes from a double downmix where the streaming box converts to stereo but still sends it encoded in DTS or similar so the TV or soundbar downmixes it again. The result is that it reduces the volume of the left and right where the dialog now is and increases the now silent center channel.

    • saltesc@lemmy.world
      3·
      4 days ago

      Apparently my TV has normalisation, but it doesn’t seem to do much. There is a setting that boosts dialogue, but it’s jarring enough that being the fastest remote in the West still comes out on top.

      Maybe I can do something with the spare Pi…

    • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
      2·
      4 days ago

      Also make sure settings are 2 channel, if not most dialogue gets sent to a non-existent center speaker. All you’re getting is the “surround” part.

  • JadenSmith@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    As someone pointed out, this happens due to the source output being surround sound, which causes this effect when listening with stereo speakers.

    Good news is if the TV or media player doesn’t have a Stereo option, usually there’s an option to force Mono audio which sometimes does the trick. If your speakers are shit enough you can barely tell the difference!