TV Q&A: Readers sound off on audio annoyance

You have questions and here are particular with a common theme and a long answer Q Why do producers allow music so loud you can t hear the dialogue Q I find the background music in shows extremely annoying and it sometimes makes it hard to understand the dialogue I think it should be done away with Q Why is the background noise in Hallmark movies so loud The dialogue cannot be heard A There are more like that and background music has been the most of asked-about topic in this column s mail for years This dilemma doesn t just involve TV Ben Pearson of SlashFilm wrote a detailed discussion of why movie dialogue can be hard to hear in theaters as well as on your home screen Certain of the reasons in Pearson s article included filmmakers deliberately making the sound arduous for artistic reasons mumbling actors trying to be naturalistic how the sound club is treated when a movie is being made filmmakers lack of knowledge about getting good sound ever more complicated movie machinery the differences in mixing a movie s sound for theaters streaming and home-theater systems and the lack of a single standard for measuring audio for streaming services Among other things Pearson concluded that if the processes of capturing creating and shaping great sound were better understood throughout the industry substantial attempts to improving those processes could be implemented All those problems can affect your TV too Keep in mind that the show has paid for that music and may want to highlight it The show s makers often believe the music adds to the drama of a scene Considering the speed at which TV shows are often made the sound may have been mixed hastily and imperfectly Or a broadcaster may not have been careful with its audio settings while transmitting a undertaking Then wonder about the audio quality in your TV set since it s long been argued that selected TV speakers are not up to the task of modern sound Or you may need to look at the TV settings to see if they let you reconfigure the audio A decidedly low-tech key may be moving the speakers in relation to where you sit so you re not getting too much sound from a too-near source Another low-tech idea turning on closed captions when available as a multitude of readers have suggested The music-vs -dialogue concern also declined when we made the switch from speakers to a soundbar But even with a home theater or a soundbar you may have to work with the settings to find the best balance As one commenter noted on CNET com various time back if you re watching a show in and your sound system is you re going to have to do a combination of settings to get it right and while that may solve the dialogue predicament it s still not fancy sound In the end as painful as it is to hear there may be human factors We older folks are less accustomed to a loud music mix than younger viewers who grew up with it Zvox for that matter has stated that Baby boomers listened to LOUD music when they were young For the first time in the history of the United States there are million people over the age of and various of them have particular degree of hearing loss Tribune News Operation