Why is the sound on Blu-rays and DVDs always so low? Even through good quality headphones I end having to turn the sound nearly all the way up, and it's still low. Are these things really being this cheaply made? And I'm not just talking about cheap discs. It's the same with releases from high-end companies like Synapse, Blue Underground, Criterion and Arrow.
shareI suspect recent Blu-rays and Dvds have their sound encoded for multi-channel speakers and not for stereo . I have the same problem , because there are too many people in the house using power for computers plus other electronic devices , and the fuse breakers trip ! So no extra power-hungry multi-speaker systems allowed . I have a decent uhd tv with good stereo speakers , but some new Blurays , you have to turn the volume right up !
I don't have anything fancy. I'm the only one in the house and I don't even have circuit breakers.
shareThanks for the info on the multi-channel system , Persen1 !
It's because they're mixed with high dynamic range for a more realistic sound field. In real life an explosion or gunshot is loud as hell so suppressing those sounds for the sake of keeping everything at a consistent level would be unconvincing. If it worries you that much, try looking in the audio settings on your TV and/or blu-ray player because there should be some sort of dynamic range control which will compress the audio and make the dialogue louder.
shareI have tried changing settings on my TV and it never changes anything. The sound is just bad. I don't think the Blu-ray player has any settings that can be changed. Nothing is mentioned in the manual. It's a cheap one. It is also not connected properly - the cable company messed with it last time I had cable hooked up and changed all the connections. When I want to use the Blu-ray I have to disconnect the cable box to connect the player.
shareIt's not your player that's the issue. Movies are mastered quieter than TV for reasons of better accuracy. You'd just need to crank up the volume to compensate.
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TV sound quality is terrible too.
shareWhat do you mean not hooked up properly? It's one cable. If you're not using HDMI then you might as well just watch DVDs.
share