Amazon Prime Dialogue Boost Feature A Cure for Poorly Mixed Dialogue?

[gene]

Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service has launched a new accessibility feature called Dialogue Boost. This innovative feature uses artificial intelligence to make dialogue easier to hear. Dialogue Boost lets users select dialogue volume levels, and it works on any device with Prime Video.

Could this be the answer to poorly mixed dialogue in movies and streaming shows?

Read: Amazon Dialogue Boost Feature

 

[Bobby Bass]

Great idea will have to check it out. Sonos has a similar feature on their soundbars as do others. Reading that some people are watching with closed captions on so they can read the dialogue. Too often the dialogue is buried in the sound mix and when you turn up the volume the next sound effect is too loud and I turn the volume back down. Hope this feature helps eliminate the chase the right volume game.

 

[Mr._Clark]

Interesting. Hopefully it works and it becomes a widely available option.

In some movies the majority of the dialog is reasonably clear but it is extremely muffled in some scenes. Cranking the center volume is not a great solution in these cases. If the dialog boost really does selectively boost only the muffled dialog it would be a nice option.

It will be interested to see how it does with dialog that is intentionally muffled.

This is just my opinion, but it would be nice if the studios would increase the dialog level in the streaming mixes at the time they are created. I suspect the vast majority of those streaming do not watch at full volume on high end systems, and the streaming audio is compressed so it's going to suck regardless. How many people are going to think "Gee, it's really annoying that I could understand what Bane was saying. I sure wish the dialog was muffled and unintelligible like it was when I saw it at the theater"?

 

[Hobbit]

Denon had the dialog enhancer, which didn't really work.

I would rather just have the problem fixed at the source instead of with add-on processing. I really can't recall having many issues with dialog at the movie theater on movies that I struggled with at home. Which makes me believe it was just poorly converted for streaming purposes. That they are making tools like this only acknowledges the problem. Unless movie theaters have been using this technology unbeknownst to us!

 

[afterlife2]

Thanks Gene. I'll try the medium setting and see how I like it.

 

[lovinthehd]

I noticed that in settings the other day, but didn't try it....don't generally have dialog issues (dialect maybe ). Knowing more now, maybe I'll experiment with it anyways...

ps Wasn't in Amazon Prime (i.e. I don't see it in the Amazon Prime settings themselves), but do see it in my Amazon Fire stick's advanced audio features and is what I was thinking of (and is just on/off). Same tech? I don't think I've seen it as an audio choice for a specific show but off to look....

 

[conanb]

Good idea, but ironically I will NOT go out to the movies, because they refuse to turn down the painful volume.