11
Found a weird trick for watching shows with bad audio
I was watching The Wire on HBO Max last week and couldn't understand half the dialogue. Turned out my soundbar was set to some fake surround mode. I switched it to stereo only and suddenly I could hear every word. Has anyone else dealt with audio settings ruining a show for them?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
craig.olivia15d ago
lol my dumb ass spent like 3 months thinking my hearing was going bad, turns out my TV was in some "night mode" setting that squished all the sound into a tin can. i was literally watching everything with subtitles just to cope. swapped it to plain stereo and suddenly i could hear people breathe. honestly half the time i just blame myself for not checking the settings first, bet my soundbar has been lying to me for years too. the wire's mix is rough for sure but i can't sit here and pretend i wasn't the clown who had it set to "mall kiosk mode." your tip actually saved me from buying a new soundbar i didn't need, so thanks for that.
8
Oh come on, are we really blaming the soundbar for bad audio? The Wire is SUPPOSED to sound like that. It's a creative choice, not a technical error. David Simon wanted you to work for the dialogue because that's how Baltimore actually sounds. You're supposed to lean in and pay attention, not have everything spoon-fed through a fancy speaker setup. All these surround modes are just gimmicks anyway, they're trying to make everything sound like an action movie. If you couldn't understand the show with fake surround turned on, maybe the problem isn't the audio settings but your listening habits.
7
thea_bell15d ago
Thea_bell here... I used to hate the mix on The Wire but @dianawilson actually convinced me otherwise.
5