Comments by "Mikko Rantalainen" (@MikkoRantalainen) on "Why we all need subtitles now" video.

  1. The major problem is poor audio reproduction systems. When audio is originally mixed, the studio uses proper monitors with DSP corrected subwoofers. The frequency carving for the dialogue is designed to work correctly if your audio reproduction system can work correctly. When you emit the final mix through e.g. tiny smartphone speakers, the low frequency signals and high frequency signals have so much distortion that the speech becomes corrupted because that distortion causes extra noise in the important frequency band. If you have trouble understanding the dialogue without subtitles and actors are not actually mumbling their words, try using high quality headphones (preferably proper around the ear headphones) and you'll be surprised how clear the dialogue actually is. I think the peak of audio reproduction systems in general use was around years 1980-2000. After that smartphone speakers and other battery operated tiny speakers got majority. If you truly want to keep using inferior audio reproduction system (e.g. smartphone speaker) then the least bad option is something called dialogue lift which has spoken audio information on separate digital track and it's played back with higher than intended level. This is basically the thing described around 6:05 and it will destroy the feel of the original audio but in return you can hear the dialogue more easily. As you already opted for inferior audio reproduction system, this is probably what you want anyway. I would personally opt for subtitles instead of messing with the audio. And despite the lies that the marketing departments often tell, you cannot get high quality audio from something as tiny as smartphone unless you move the device really close to your ear (e.g. in-ear monitors). The speaker system that I've connected to our TV costs about the same as the TV itself (which is 75" so it's not the cheapest one) and I would consider this as the minimum level that I consider good enough to watch movies and well mixed music. Update: I see you had something related to this around 7:35.
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