We all know the modern complaint: movie sound sucks now unless you have a high-end sound system. Frantically turning down the volume after turning it up to hear the dialogue only to need to turn it up again can be frustrating. Now, this doesn’t solve the underlying problem, but why not have a “Volume A” and “Volume B” you can easily set and toggle between with the simple press of a button?
Here is my preferred solution that will never happen:
Divide all media audio into separate tracks for dialogue, music, sfx, etc., and let the users control the volume of each separately. To avoid having an easily ripped pure music track, perhaps premix the other tracks in at 10% or so (in a logarithmic scale) and make that the minimum volume of any track other than music.
Am I the only psycho that just uses the TV as a monitor and my phone as the remote to the PC? After that, you can pretty much macro or script whatever you want.
Most modern TVs have a Night audio mode that will compress audio to a smaller spectrum, basically for this exact reason.
They do?
It’s called “mute” and it toggles between 0 and whatever you had it set to last. 😌
I’ve had a few tv/stereos in the past that had a half mute as well. Press mute the first time and it cuts the volume in half, second press mutes completely, then third press restores full volume.
I have an old tv where the mute button will set it to 1/2 volume first, then mute.
This would be possible to DIY if ‘smart’ TVs weren’t DRM’d pieces of shit.
You could actually do this with some of them. I know Vizio TVs can’t, but iirc LG and Samsung can be controlled via Home Assistant. Google TV as well, and anything with Apple Homekit.
There’s also the option of sticking an IR or RF transmitter on an esp32 and using that without connecting the TV to the Internet. There are some off the shelf devices that can do it and can also be flashed with Tasmota or ESPHOME.
Building my own smart devices is a hobby of mine. I’m even working on a HAL9000 system for my home (with 15% less mental illness).
TV sound should be mono, or stereo, not 5.1 surround, and it should be mixed and compressed for such.
I have multiple reasons to have something like this but I live near an airport and have a cockatoo.
That wouldn’t push people into buying external sound systems. Do you want to see the economy crash? We got to keep it going up /s
Would work for commercials, too
My complaint about remotes is they should all come with a fob that you put on your keys and when you press the fob the controller beeps. That would be the best thing ever.
You can just get ones that stick on
Yes, but it should be a standard feature within the controller.
Apple TV remote does that by default, at least the new ones. It doesn’t make noise, I don’t think, but your phone will point to it. Pretty cool feature.
Oh but it’s Apple, so that only works if you have other Apple devices to find it, because fuck working with anyone else. 🙄
I just build this function for myself with home assistant. Thanks for the inspiration.
I have Easy Effects with Advanced Auto Gain from https://github.com/JackHack96/EasyEffects-Presets running on my laptop. It’s been great in that regard.
Why not select the 2.0 channel audio track?
I recall seeing a setting in VLC that adjusts volume automatically. Can’t remember wat it was called though.
