Improving TV sound [ merged with similar ]

[thirdcrank]

I'd be happy to scrap the telly altogether but my wife watches it quite a lot. At times, she has problems hearing dialogue. It's only certain types of programme and it only started being a problem with a flat screen telly and digital transmission. I presume it's a combination of the performance limits of speakers in a flat telly and different types of transmission. Having said that, I'm much more interested in a solution rather than an explanation.

One obvious possibility seems to be external speakers but even my wife doesn't watch enough telly to be turning our sitting room into a home cinema. Soundbars are another possible solution but they all seem to be what for us would be a silly length. The market also seems to be focused on people who don't think they are getting their moneys worth if they can't feel the physical vibration of the bass.

I'd appreciate any advice on something that would improve the clarity of dialogue on the telly.

[freeflow]

We use a pair of PC speakers with the TV in the kitchen. They plug into the headphone output on the TV. You probably want a pair of stereo speakers that use a mains adapter rather than taking their power from a USB port.

[kwackers]

Modern TV's actually have very good sound systems (assuming it wasn't a £99 TV from Tesco).
It's quite possible that the wide bandwidth of the TV together with age related hearing problems are making it difficult to pull the speech out of the mix.
The use of surround sound can also muddy things a little since there is a lot more 'noise' in the mix intended for the other speakers.

If this is the case you might find a better speaker system might not help as much as you think, although a separate amp and speakers would give you the option of fitting a filter (or changing settings) to help pull the speech out and possibly by sending the signals to the correct speakers allow you to concentrate on the centre where most of the speech is.
If you were going to go this route there are systems designed for the situation you mention with specialised audio processors.

First though, if the TV has bass and treble settings try pulling the bass down and play with the treble - does that help? (Probably reduce the treble too - what you're aiming for is more 'mid-range' making it through since that's were most of the information in the speech is.)
Worth checking also if the TV has a setting for 'speech' (or similar). Some do.

Sorry if it's a bit 'technical', I realise you didn't want an explanation but without understanding the issue you probably can't easily fix the problem...

[thirdcrank]

I could accept the age-related thing if it applied to all TV transmissions, but it doesn't. Having said that, I can see that better speakers will not necessarily have any effect if it's related to broadcasting systems. (The telly is an LG 27")

Incidentally, this search for a solution only started after my wife read a review of a soundbar which is about to become available. When I did a bit of google research, there seem to be plenty of other people in the same situation.

I'll try playing with the audio set-up but it's a touchy area. The problem of other people's noise has always really upset my wife and when that's overlaid with a belief that I am innately incapable of adjusting anything, a solution may not be easy to find.

On the age-related hearing question, I fancy that the demise of the HMV chain can only have a positive effect on the long-term health of the nation by reducing damage to ears. (With apologies to anybody who is out on their lug.)

[gaz]

First though, if the TV has bass and treble settings try pulling the bass down and play with the treble - does that help? (Probably reduce the treble too - what you're aiming for is more 'mid-range' making it through since that's were most of the information in the speech is.)
Worth checking also if the TV has a setting for 'speech' (or similar). Some do.

+1. First step is reach for the TVs manual, or failing that the menu button on the remote control.

I'm sure the various TVs in our home have a variety of sound settings with names such as "Dynamic", "Surround" and "Theatre", which must in some subtle way change the noise that comes out of the speakers at the side.

[al_yrpal]

I have had a Home Cinema Amplifier and speakers for years. About three years ago I upgraded the Amp when I bought a Blu Ray Freesat recorder. The best thing about this besides the fantastic picture quality of real HD is the fantastic sound. If you have an ordinary TV even if its HD you are missing out on the huge improvement of quality of sound in music and sports programmes. The Blu Ray box also acts as a juke box for all your music CDs and mp3s and digital photographs, all available from a click of the remote. Playing any Blu Ray disc is just like the sound and visual experience you get in the cinema. You can also record any programme onto a disc and access things like YouTube. If you are music lovers you would really appreciate such a setup.

The Amp is a Denon AVR - 1910
Freeview Blu Ray tuner and recorder Panasonic DMR BW880
And I have 5 B&W speakers A front pair, a centre and two rear

Another great thing is that you end up with just TWO black boxes that do everything. No need for any sort of cd player, radio, recorder or anything else

Not cheap, but well worth the money, this kit transforms the TV and music experience.

You can sometimes pick up this sort of kit second hand on Ebay in very good condition. Hifi enthusiasts are always upgrading stuff. A good read of What Hifi Sound and Vision will fill you in on any gaps.

Al

[ferrit worrier]

TC, If you dont watch the telly together how about a pair of wireless headphones. I use a set on the PC so that Mrs FW can watch the telly without being distracted by the pc sound. The do work very well and I think the sound quality is better than the speakers. The other advantage is there isn't any distraction from extraneous noise.

[stoobs]

I have to say that I find it at the cinema, too - but not on older films. The modern sound engineers, with degrees coming out of every orifice, seem to have lost the plot. The fault is not yours, it's those numpties.

[thirdcrank]

Thanks for all the advice. If we do use external speakers, we are more likely to be in freeflow's territory rather than mega woofers. (I have done a bit of googling and I've discovered that 5.1 isn't a later version than 5.0 ) With a grown up family, I've inherited all manner of discarded hi-fi as something else became available.

If I was the one with square eyes, the headset solution might be the one for me because I have hearing aids, although I don't use them all the time. It would avoid my having the volume turned up and annoying everybody.

The suggestions to check what the telly itself had to offer reminded me that there's a whole audio menu. A check shows that one of the options is something like "clear speech" and the default is "off." Things like this give credence to stoobs' numpty explanation. "Let's set the default to unintelligible speech." Anyway. I've switched it on and tried it; it does seem to be a feature for altering the components of the sound in a logical way rather than aimless experimenting. It has different levels up to 6, with 3 being the default. I tried it during a programme coincidentally called "Talking Pictures." It was about old Tony Curtis films so it might not have been the best raw material for a numpty soundtrack, but the speech did seem clearer. One scene involved some medieval maidens playing croquet and with the setting at 6, the mallet hitting the ball (if that's the right term in croquet ) sounded like a rifleshot. Bearing in mind the number of unused buttons on our remote, it's a pity that this feature needs a menu to set or adjust it. My wife is very much a don't-interfere-with-anything type.

[hexhome]

Dynamic, surround sound and all the other derivatives including the Bose Soundbar may not be a suitable solution for some hearing difficulties. Such devices add audio features, without always addressing specific hearing problems. It is not always a simple or obvious fix. I suspect that the control which has improved the situation for your wife has reduced stereo separation, this is the opposite to what some devices would achieve.

The easiest and often best solution is to use the audio output from the TV into the Aux input on a home stereo system. Providing the speakers are positioned in a suitable position, such as angled towards the viewer and in line of sight, this can be more than enough to improve audio clarity sufficient for less than perfect hearing.
If an external receiver (Freeview/Freesat/Sky etc.) are being used, the audio feed should come from the receiver. This gives level control from the receivers' remote.

The other great advantage of digital TV is that subtitles are available via your tuners menu.

[fausto copy]

We (particuarly I ) noticed a huge degradation in sound quality when we dumped our 17-year-old 16" Panasonic and bought a new 30 something digital version.
I played around for weeks trying all the different sound options in the menu, but couldn't get anything suitable.
One programme would maybe OK, but then if say BBC Wales were transmitting one of their programmes, the sound was totally different.
My mate's a TV engineer and told me that the speakers behind the flat screens were garbage compared with a normal speaker. So, I looked for an active single speaker, but couldn't find what I wanted.
As I've got a good hi-fi system, I simply got a phono to phono cable and connected the TV to the Hi-FI.
To be honest, I only really use it when there's a good music programme on or if I'm listening to a digital music station.
Quite a lot of thetime it's not just down to sound quality though. For instance, today I was watching football focus and there was one piece with the bloke talking over background music.
If Mrs. tc is like me and finds it hard to differentiate between sounds, items such as this are infuriating.
This isn't just down to age-related hearing loss though; anyone remember Radio 1 years ago when that awful Simon Bates used to do talk pieces with tinny music playing in the background.
Sadly, when we're watching most programmes, especially films, we end up with the subtitles on.

Hexhome's post came up, whilst I was typing, so sorry for a bit of repetition.

[Graham]

I have plugged a Denon mini-HiFi into the back of a 19" Panasonic flat screen, using the phono connections.

This has improved the sound quality enormously. Even so, I find that the broadcast sound quality does vary widely and sometimes speech remains inaudible or incomprehensible for a variety of reasons.

The mini HiFi has various modes and function that help to clarify the speech or improve the quality of music.

Benefits :
It definitely improves matters.
No additional cost : already in the house and not really being used otherwise.

Costs :
Additional electricity.
Need to use the HiFi remote control as well as the TV / recorder / other-totally-essential gadgets.

[thirdcrank]

One point that I'd like to reiterate is that all I am looking to achieve is is clarity of speech, not brilliance of sound effects or to enhance any of the qualities of music (especially the bass.) I understand that the circumstances of the sound being captured affect this, so that a person speaking in a studio with a personal mike will sound clearer than somebody at a brass band competition on a windy day speaking into a distant mike. Beyond that, it seems that different broadcasts sometimes have different technical qualities which affect how they sound and it's unlikely that one solution will cover them all. This is why I said it would be preferable to have something available on the remote. If some broadcasting buffoon believes it's acceptable to raise the volume when the ads (or BBC equivalent) come on, then the advantage of a remote is that the sound can be turned down easily and quickly. (Or in my case, the stand-by button is a more convenient option than throwing a brick through the screen. ) Something that involves menus to alter the sound quality is a pita if it regularly needs altering.

Anyway, I think the "clear speech" menu choice is a good starting point, and I'm grateful for being pointed in that direction so that it can at least be tried. We have grandchildren staying with us this evening and overnight so faffing with the telly hasn't been on the agenda.

[hexhome]

If some broadcasting buffoon believes it's acceptable to raise the volume when the ads (or BBC equivalent) come on,

Although it sounds louder, the 'volume' is not raised. In fact the peak audio level has to remain the same for all broadcasts. What is happening is that audio compression is used to reduce the dynamic range. In simple terms, all the audio is squeezed into a smaller space which makes the sound punchier. There are very strict rules to control all of this.

[hexhome]

Need to use the HiFi remote control as well as the TV / recorder / other-totally-essential gadgets.

If you are using an external tuner or satellite receiver, taking the audio feed from there will result in audio control from the one remote.