Background / Foreground music

[bob1234]

I know Sky can only distribute what they are given, however it also applies to Sky produced programmes, but why oh why is background music so loud and irrelevant a very, very few get the balance right. I would quite like to hear the dialogue.

This is really just a moan as I know no one can do anything about it.

[TimmyBGood]

@bob1234 

Different causes on a TV to an external device: on a television it's often a bad automated on-chip down-mix from 5.1 to stereo while on externals it's usually poor (or no) calibration of an AV receiver or similar hardware.

I had truly awful output from my AVR until I added a decent Mission centre to the L/R front and rear cabs and then ran the calibration routine using the supplied Yamaha mic.

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

This is a pretty comprehensive review of the topic:

"How to Improve Your TV Sound and Hear the Dialogue Better" 

[bob1234]

@TimmyBGoodThank you an interesting article, I have tried most of the sound settings but they seem to make no real difference, TV only no soundbar etc.

In desperation I added a "Bose TV speaker" connected to the ARC HDMI socket, this made a marginal improvement. (I don't have room for a proper soundbar)

The Sony TV ( KD43XE8005)   I have was supposed to have particularly good speakers (I know flat screen TVs are not generally very good) Sony made much of it having Harman Kardon speakers.

[TimmyBGood]

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@bob1234 wrote:

The Sony TV ( KD43XE8005)   I have was supposed to have particularly good speakers (I know flat screen TVs are not generally very good) Sony made much of it having Harman Kardon speakers.

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I guess GiGo still applies though: it doesn't matter how 'good' those two speakers are in terms of how they move air around if the mix they are being fed by the TV audio chip has been horribly mangled in its transition from a complex 5.1 mix composed and balanced on state-of-the-art studio separates to something that a simple pair of drivers can output.

[bob1234]

@TimmyBGoodYes next time I change my TV I will listen to one rather than just being happy (I still am) with the picture.

[TimmyBGood]

@bob1234 

Problem is only a set with physical 5.1 drivers can output a 5.1 mix in anything like the way the audio designer intended: automated down-mixing to stereo is always going to have the potential to go wrong.

Apparently the LG CX OLEDS have a nice trick where they use the microphone on the handset to run an audio calibration routine, and there are those high-end Sony units where the screen is itself an audio driver...

https://www.techradar.com/uk/best/tvs-for-sound 

(plus, of course Sky Glass, assuming the subwoofer in the unit shipped actually functions)

[TimmyBGood]

Actually Glass isn't 5.1, it's sort of 3.1.2 for an Atmos track, if you think upfiring drivers count.

(or I guess 3.0.2 with a broken sub ; )

[yome]

Background noise in programs is really uncalled for, you can understand it in films but most of what i watch has it and to make things worse most have no subs either, it is a double wammy to us hard of hearing people. Surely one or the other can be done, Lower or get rid of the BN or **bleep** subs.

[yome]

I typed Add and made a typo of it and it got sensored. lmao

[TimmyBGood]

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@yome wrote:

it is a double wammy to us hard of hearing people.

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My daughter uses hearing aids: as I noted above what really improved things for her was adding a centre speaker to split dialogue (which tends to be mainly on a centre channel in a 3.1 or 5.1 mix) away from the 'background stuff' on the left and right drivers.

[LGUser]

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@bob1234 wrote:

I know Sky can only distribute what they are given, however it also applies to Sky produced programmes, but why oh why is background music so loud and irrelevant a very, very few get the balance right. I would quite like to hear the dialogue.

This is really just a moan as I know no one can do anything about it.

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Sometimes BBC can be really bad.