If you have noticed that it is more difficult to hear what is being said in films and TV series, it does not have to be because your hearing is on the decline (however, if you notice that you cannot hear properly on a daily basis, it may be time to have a hearing test ).
The issue of unintelligible speech in movies has been around for a while now, a certain Mr. Christopher Nolan has received a lot of criticism for it in his movies, but now Amazon seems to have found a possible solution to the problem. Prime Video launches it nya features Dialogue Boostwhich uses ai to raise the volume of dialogue above background noise in scenes.
Dialogue Boost is currently only available for a handful of TV shows and movies on Prime Video, including Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Big Sick, and only in English, but the idea is that more titles and languages will be added in the future.
Something to keep in mind regarding the function is that the dynamic range of the sound is reduced when the volume of dialogue is raised. When the contrasts between ordinary speech and sound effects such as explosions are reduced, the explosion is perceived as less bombastic and loud.
There are a number of different reasons that together contribute to the fact that the sound is sometimes incomprehensible. Things like the fact that today we have smaller microphones and the fact that many films today are sound mixed with the very largest cinemas in mind lead to the sound experience at home not being optimal. If you are interested in knowing more about how dialogue in film and television has become what it is today, you can check it out here the video from Vox.
