# Sound quality on radio and tv



## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Is it me? Or is anyone else being driven to distraction by constantly adjusting the volume on the radio and tv?


The radio is mostly tuned to Radio 2 with a bit of Radio 4 when Elaine Page comes on or Chris Evans keeps interviewing celebrities. During the music I can turn the sound down to about 16 and hear all the lyrics etc fine. Once dialogue starts up goes the volume to about 20 or even higher. If it is a phone in programme then I need the volume up to 25 or more to hear what the caller is saying. Steve Wright's shows have me turning the volume down to about 10.


The tv varies to the programme but if it is dark and gloomy then I usually give up listening all together and find another channel! "Muttering" is seen by directors as adding atmosphere to a drama I think. The canned laughter is better now than it used to be. The adverts are the main problem, though I have to say I avoid watching commercial tv live, preferring to record it and fast forward the adverts. When I do watch live I have to reach for the remote and turn down the volume by at least half.
We are told that we cannot understand some programmes because they have a regional accent. How do they work that one out? Regional accents are everywhere now!


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## EJB (Aug 25, 2007)

Some of the TV dramas have had many complaints about the variable sound quality recently!
However, the producers say it is tested on all types of receivers and there is no problem.
So, sorry, I haven't got a remedy for you:frown2::wink2:


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## Spacerunner (Mar 18, 2006)

It could be that it's your hearing that's the problem.
I do have partial hearing loss (too many big bangs!) and tend to have the volume up a bit. My wife sets the volume to whisper!
My argument is if I've got a full-on soundbar and subwoofer on the telly then I want to feel a door slam. OH worries about the neighbours!
It's the adverts that annoy me they all seem to turn up the decibels which is stupid as I habitually mute all ads.


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## Glandwr (Jun 12, 2006)

Many tvs and radios have several audio settings. The better ones will have loads, several different music ones (jazz, rock, pop, opera, concert hall, club, stadium, sports etc) and voice ones that take advantage of the speaker set up you have (2,3,5 surround sound etc.)Some will behave differently if you have a speaker set up different to the setting you use. For instance if it is set to 5 speakers and you only have 2 you will not hear certain frequencies to full effect or they may be quieter.

Search for a manual for your radio online if you haven't got one and have a play around.

Dick


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

I realise my hearing is probably not as good as it was. I just wonder if the technicians that make these programmes are all about twelve years old! Lots of load music and very quiet voices


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

TV here is terrible.
We like to watch documentaries and wildlife programs. 
The documentaries sometimes have English speakers in the background and German speaking over the top, very confusing which one to listen to.
Then the animal programs, for instance a beautiful bird flying and this bloody loud music booming out, how stupid is that.
Snooker programs, here as well as in UK where I like to here the ball being hit (no not a fetish :grin2 but we have to put up with this constant commentators gabble.
Jan


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

patp said:


> Is it me? Or is anyone else being driven to distraction by constantly adjusting the volume on the radio and tv?
> 
> The radio is mostly tuned to Radio 2 with a bit of Radio 4 when Elaine Page comes on or Chris Evans keeps interviewing celebrities. During the music I can turn the sound down to about 16 and hear all the lyrics etc fine. Once dialogue starts up goes the volume to about 20 or even higher. If it is a phone in programme then I need the volume up to 25 or more to hear what the caller is saying. Steve Wright's shows have me turning the volume down to about 10.
> 
> ...


I seem to be doing exactly the same thing Pat, not too bothered about Evans either way, but I can survive well enough without E Page (dopey tart, with a maniacal laugh) Vanessa Feltz at any time of the day, and unfortunately the host of the program below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mysv

One other thing annoys me, they employ traffic announcers to help us all out on the roads then play music and sirens etc over the top of it ffs why


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## ob1 (Sep 25, 2007)

Just to add to the list it is the loud background effects that drive me mad. It can be loud background music drowning out whatever is being said in documentaries and/or the same being done with crowd effect sound in sporting events. I can remember when the BBC were world leaders in sound technology. Some of the rubbish they now buy in and broadcast is rubbish. As for blaming people's hearing why is it that old film tracks are as clear as a bell compared to current offerings? It has to be modern techniques, such as camera mounted mics, etc.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

Hans blames Harry Potter.


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

Our subtitles are always set to "ON" ..........with some hilarious words being written,


tony


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Oh yes! I forgot the bloomin' music over the dialogue! Chris Evans is particularly bad for this, on the radio, and so many tv programmes are ruined by the sound levels of the background music.


Vanessa Feltz needs gagging doesn't she Kev? She spends so much time talking that the guest might as well as stayed at home. J Vine should be turned out in the wild for a year. He knows nothing about anything except music and politics. 


Our tv is modern and we bought a sound system to complement it. Radio has two separate speakers too so not the fault of the equipment I shouldn't think. I honestly think it is young sound technicians who just have to have any music played at full blast


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I find even the thought of Vine or Feltz is enough to lower my mood, I am surprised that the off knobs on all my car radios have survived as I whack them so hard as soon as I hear their voices, I feel they must do a lot of brown nosing to stay in their jobs, or is that the BBC cannot get rid of them.

There are very few peeps on R2 now worth listening to, some I live with, but I like Ken Bruce is still good, I can now cope with Simon Mayo, he's grown up a bit at last, Bob Harris with the gravelly voice, Craig Charles isn't bad at all, Lisa Tarbuck is quite funny, used to like Sarah Green (fatchy pog) Graham Norton, Paul'o'Grady (sometimes) Paul Gambaccini, Dermot O'Leary, Mark Radcliffe, Anneka Rice, Johnnie Walker all good, used to like Alex Lester, but he's gone, some of the stand in presenters are very good too.


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## teljoy (Jul 4, 2005)

GEMMY said:


> Our subtitles are always set to "ON" ..........with some hilarious words being written,
> 
> tony


Got used to leaving sub-titles on as we now watch the danish dramas whenever they're broadcast. We in the UK seem not to be able to produce gripping dramas any more. We seem to switch on sub-titles more frequently nowadays and not just because we are entering the 'old timers' category!


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Watching some stuff from the US you need subtitles, the girls/women are so high pitched only dogs can hear them or they mumble, then you have to endure the coming up/previously crap :roll: if they're that thick no wonder the Donald got it, they probably forgot what an arsehole he is.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Will have to check out using subtitles, but we shouldn't have to!


Agree with all your comments on presenters Kev. I wish they would give J Vine's job to Richard Madely.


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

patp said:


> Will have to check out using subtitles, but we shouldn't have to!


A decent soundbar should help but the real problem is that most people's hearing deteriorates as they get older and it is certain frequencies that suffer more than others. Boots and the like do free hearing tests or you can do your own online hearing tests - although less accurate. Here is one that is quite good.

https://hearingtest.online/hearingTest.php


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

patp said:


> Will have to check out using subtitles, but we shouldn't have to!
> 
> Agree with all your comments on presenters Kev. I wish they would give J Vine's job to Richard Madely.


Yes, he's not too bad at all, None as good as JY was though, he could get the programme made with no hostility, old school methods work, no BS needed.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Agree with OB1 as background music can and does destroy the diction. Even BBC news preview has the Boom, Boom, Boom over the top.
People have been writing to the BBC for generations but they always answer it's balanced. I think it must be very young who control the sound mix and they just don't see the problems.
I did find a setting in the audio set up menu of our TV that has helped slightly. I think it comes under dynamic or intrusion something. 
Any American films or UK drama I find the subtitles help enormously to enable me to follow the plot. Especially when they are whispering or comments on the side.

Ray.


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## JanHank (Mar 29, 2015)

It's not just the hard of hearing that can't understand what's being said Ray, nothing wrong with my hearing, when they speak in these hushed voices I'm sure nobody understands.
I watched Bucket Wish (or Wish Bucket, whatever it is) on the internet a few weeks ago and had to keep winding it back to check what had been said in these croaky voices that seem to be so popular these days.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I think they reckon croaky and squint eyes look and sound sexy, not sure but the trout pout gives us the giggles everytime.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Among those of us who struggle to hear, and put up subtitles etc, how many of us have actually complained to the BBC? I know I haven't. It occurred to me that, if it was my hearing then I would not be turning the music down after turning the dialogue up on the radio would I? I would need the sound up all the time. Steve Wright's show has the balance right, it is just loud


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

I wrote to Points of View some years ago. But just peeing in the wind.

Ray.


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## HermanHymer (Dec 5, 2008)

When I get "back 'ome", I'm just so happy to listen to BBC I can leave it on 24/7... My DAB in the moho has very good sound balance so don't have the issues you experience.

TV in South Africa is D-I-A-B-O-L-I-C-A-L, beyond anything you could imagine in your wildest dreams. 

With the twice kicked out (by the courts) but still in the building until recently, head of TV, who just didn't happen to admit that he didn't even have the equivalent of O levels, we have recently undergone a process of indigenization' and we have the oddest selection of programmes so that there is probably only one or two for each target group in a week. One of which is a vernacular version of a consumer programme trying to recover money from unscrupulous tradesmen. Well the dialogue and programme format is a dead ringer of Cheaters, complete with minibus, pokerfaced (trying not to laugh?) presenter et al. It's hysterical. (At least they are doing good for someone every week!)

And all the old favourites have been - I can't think of a word for it - multi-lingualised. The dialogue goes half a sentence in English, half a sentence in Afrikaans with the odd English word thrown in for good measure. Then enter a dark-skinned person stage left, and the dialogue changes to Zulu, or Sotho, or Tswana, or Xhosa. I can't tell which because my knowledge of the 9 vernaculars is very limited. Then back to Afrikaans or English or whatever again, half a sentence at a time. You cannot imagine how utterly annoying that is. To follow the dialogue I have to look up and read the subtitles. I've even had new bifocals made so I can look down at my sewing/knitting/newspaper and then up at the TV to follow the dialogue, with minimal disruption. We also have a slew of new presenters who bray like donkeys every time they can't think of something to say fast enough. Which is about every 30 seconds. "Now we are standing outside KFC.... hahahahahahahahaha.... there's a donkey cart ....hahahahahahahaha.... yeh great.....hahahahahahahahaha" and talk shows where the interviewee can't get a word in edgeways because the presenter is telling them about themselves and what they are thinking/feeling. Then of course there are the occasions where the interviewer tells the interviewee what a clever, talented person he/she is and the interviewee, totally oblivious to the concept of modesty or humbleness, proceeds to agree with him/her and expound in more detail just how wonderful he/she is.

I managed to get BBC on my phone for a weekend till they realised I was out of the jurisdiction then they cut me off. (Barstewards!)

Min dae 'back 'ome' in about 7 weeks. Then I'll glue myself to the TV for a week and pig out (in English!!!).

Truly, you don't know which side your bread is buttered!


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## HermanHymer (Dec 5, 2008)

Oh yes, my ultimate indulgence - The Cube. A whole programme in British!!! (How sick is that???)


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I just Googled bbc tv world service, not much there, it does seem to have a presence on YouTube though, so maybe worth a look, plus lots of old and new TV progs on there.


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## charlieivan (Apr 25, 2006)

Just watched Jamie and Jimmys Friday show and had to ask my wife if it was me or was the sound going from loud to almost dead silent at irregular times. She confirmed that it wasn't my hearing but it was definitely the tv sound. All other programs were ok.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Viv, I have no complaints about the content of the BBC. Having had extended stays in the States I am truly grateful for the BBC! It is just the sound quality  ITV is the same.


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## HermanHymer (Dec 5, 2008)

patp said:


> Viv, I have no complaints about the content of the BBC. Having had extended stays in the States I am truly grateful for the BBC! It is just the sound quality  ITV is the same.


Was just having a rant! Sound fluctuations are annoying, as they are here. :smile2:


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Guess what.....................


The BBC’s latest big-budget drama, wartime thriller ’SS-GB’, debuted last night, and became the latest TV epic to draw complaints from viewers about incessant mumbling.


Some critics went so far as to say the dialogue was inaudible, amidst a catalogue of sound quality issues, with others complaining they’d been forced to switch on the subtitles.

Ray.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

raynipper said:


> Guess what.....................
> 
> The BBC's latest big-budget drama, wartime thriller 'SS-GB', debuted last night, and became the latest TV epic to draw complaints from viewers about incessant mumbling.
> 
> ...


Hmm I'll give it a quick look, but if it is that bad I'll bin it, what a waste of licence payers money if it is though.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Don't bother Kev. I gave up on it.


They were talking right down in their boots. It seems to be the way to create "atmosphere". That and the sepia colour that we have to endure too.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

patp said:


> Don't bother Kev. I gave up on it.
> 
> They were talking right down in their boots. It seems to be the way to create "atmosphere". That and the sepia colour that we have to endure too.


I have to give it a look at least, we have a colour TV though > :>)


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Yes, perhaps if we ask for our colour licence money back they might take notice


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

patp said:


> Don't bother Kev. I gave up on it.
> They were talking right down in their boots. It seems to be the way to create "atmosphere". That and the sepia colour that we have to endure too.


Agreed Pat, I lasted a good 7 minutes before I gave up.

Ray.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

raynipper said:


> Guess what.....................
> 
> The BBC's latest big-budget drama, wartime thriller 'SS-GB', debuted last night, and became the latest TV epic to draw complaints from viewers about incessant mumbling.
> 
> ...


I listened to the producer defending it on the Today programme this morning. Essential to the role, artistic interpretation etc. Crap. If people can't hear it it's just crap.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

erneboy said:


> I listened to the producer defending it on the Today programme this morning. Essential to the role, artistic interpretation etc. Crap. If people can't hear it it's just crap.


Yes Alan. That is always their stock answer for 30 years at least. But complaints have been there for 30 years plus.

Ray.


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

erneboy said:


> I listened to the producer defending it on the Today programme this morning. Essential to the role, artistic interpretation etc. Crap. If people can't hear it it's just crap.


Pardon?


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

They had an actress and a voice coach on Jeremy Vine. They both wanted to work again and so went with the "it is all about creating atmosphere" line. He played some stupid clips from the 1950's as if that is what we want to return to. Luckily a middle aged listener with perfectly good hearing came on and pointed out that he, too, struggled to hear the dialogue.
Apparently the BBC sound engineers are going to "look into" the quality before the next episode.


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

It's trendy is some films too, as is having the picture so dark as to make it practically impossible to see what's going on. Can't remember which ones now but we both have good hearing and eyesight and have found ourselves beginning to watch a film only for one or the other of us to ask whether the other can see or hear it properly. I've tried adjusting the sound and picture settings to no avail. I think it's fashionable.


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

I am so glad that I decided to read this thread, I thought that I was going deaf and blind. Quality these days is very poor,, have to endorse all that was complained about.However cannot ask for money back as we do not pay any.


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

This morning the Beeb blamed the mumbling on the viewers flat screen tvs, their design left no room for good speakers and were often mounted on a wall which ruined the acoustics 

tony


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## teljoy (Jul 4, 2005)

GEMMY said:


> This morning the Beeb blamed the mumbling on the viewers flat screen tvs, their design left no room for good speakers and were often mounted on a wall which ruined the acoustics
> 
> tony


There is some truth in that comment. I read an article some time ago on this subject and although my TV isn't on the wall I moved behind it and listened. The speakers seem to be located at the rear and the sound is much, much clearer. I suppose some would say I need a soundbar. but that isn't the point.

Terry


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

No Terry. We can put the TV sound through the Kenwood Hi-Fi and Celestion Ditton speakers to make the mumbling louder. But it's still mumbling and indistinct.
It's not volume we need it's clarity. Two very different things. I guess the BBC with all their £millions can't see that.

Ray.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Chis Evans asked his, very experienced, sound producer for his opinion this morning. In his opinion, it is nothing to do with TV's or speakers it is the actors that are to blame. Apparently voices come over very well from small speakers. Large speakers are meant for music.


We asked for some speakers when we bought our new flat screen tv because we were already finding some programmes hard to follow. It makes no difference if they are on or off. Mumbling is mumbling. Much as I loved Terry Wogan, he could be prone to it. He would produce his voice from deep down in his chest rather than projecting it outward.


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

In the last 30 odd years technology and digital sound quality has improved no end from the old sqwork boxes and vinyl reproduction. But TV sound seems to be stuck in the same time warp it's been for the last 40+ years. And to call it atmosphere is just adding insult to plain stupidity.
I suffer from hearing loss like many older men but my wife has perfect hearing and she can sometimes suggest having subtitles on with American films.
George Seagal was the master of mumble after Stalone. 

Ray.


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