Supposedly most Gen Z now use subtitles and I don’t blame them. With the way movie sound is mixed it’s really hard to hear the dialog. Not everyone has a Dolby-certified sound system in their living room.
Even with a basic surround system that has a separate center channel (and fiddling with the settings for 5.1, Atmos, stereo) we still often have to use subtitles. It’s major failure on the part of movie studio audio engineers.
I’ve noticed an annoying trend lately with movies that have foreign or alien language parts to them where the streaming site won’t show the translation for what they’re saying unless all subtitles are turned on.
And then sometimes when you have subtitles turned on it has digital subtitles that cover up in-video subtitles with something useless like [speaking alien language].
At the same time though, there’s lots of older movies and TV shows that had bits of foreign language in them and the shows/movies never translated it. I finally get to know what the villains are saying thanks to streaming sites using subtitles.
Funny thing is, that it is only in the original language audio track, if you watch in German (what I not recommend, since I can’t stand the synchros) the speakers are way louder compared to the background noice/action scenes.
Luckily Plex has a feature to fix that on original language tracks as well and reduces loud sound automatically.
If you run on a window system, there is a setting deep in your sound device’s advanced options that will allow you to suppress those loud sounds as well. It seems to cut the dynamic range and makes most media much more tolerable in that respect.
I’m Gen X and have been using subtitles ever since I had kids. My kids have only ever seen the TV with subtitles on. Just recently I noticed that they watch Youtube with subtitles on. So, not sure if it’s nature or nurture :)
Supposedly most Gen Z now use subtitles and I don’t blame them. With the way movie sound is mixed it’s really hard to hear the dialog. Not everyone has a Dolby-certified sound system in their living room.
Even with a basic surround system that has a separate center channel (and fiddling with the settings for 5.1, Atmos, stereo) we still often have to use subtitles. It’s major failure on the part of movie studio audio engineers.
I’ve noticed an annoying trend lately with movies that have foreign or alien language parts to them where the streaming site won’t show the translation for what they’re saying unless all subtitles are turned on.
And then sometimes when you have subtitles turned on it has digital subtitles that cover up in-video subtitles with something useless like [speaking alien language].
And sometimes that alien language is… Spanish.
[yells in foreign language]
It’s funny when things will translate some sentences and not others.
What you’re looking for is forced subtitles! They’re subtitles that only have text for different languages/overly quiet ones
At the same time though, there’s lots of older movies and TV shows that had bits of foreign language in them and the shows/movies never translated it. I finally get to know what the villains are saying thanks to streaming sites using subtitles.
Funny thing is, that it is only in the original language audio track, if you watch in German (what I not recommend, since I can’t stand the synchros) the speakers are way louder compared to the background noice/action scenes.
Luckily Plex has a feature to fix that on original language tracks as well and reduces loud sound automatically.
Is the feature client or server side? What’s it called?
I need it
If you run on a window system, there is a setting deep in your sound device’s advanced options that will allow you to suppress those loud sounds as well. It seems to cut the dynamic range and makes most media much more tolerable in that respect.
Oh I just learned that this is a feature of the Apple TV player, not plex, plex just uses apple’s player on the Apple TV
Which I do not recommend.
I think you got what I wanted to say
I’m Gen X and have been using subtitles ever since I had kids. My kids have only ever seen the TV with subtitles on. Just recently I noticed that they watch Youtube with subtitles on. So, not sure if it’s nature or nurture :)
The nice thing about a dedicated center channel is you can focus your volume battles there for some movies.
The best are the Amazon originals with no 2.1 mix where the dialog is center channel only. My daughter loves cartoons with zero dialog.