I can't understand Actors who speak softly and mumble ...

[dogtag]

I turn the sound up to see if that helps but all it does
is make the mumbling louder, plus the music that come
in is deafening.
I watched "Piece of Cake" part one last night but couldn't
understand a word anyone one was saying although I
could get the gist of what was going on. There were no
subtitles and the thing was getting boring so I gave up.
I've never had trouble with older movies - I guess it's
to do with the older microphones versus the new, the
new probably being small and attached to the actor,
but whatever it is, I'm sure I'm not the only complainer:

The problem starts on the movie set. In decades past, actors had to project loudly towards a fixed microphone. The advent of portable mics has allowed a shift towards a more intimate and naturalistic style of performance, where actors can speak more softly ? or, some might say, mumble.Jan 27, 2023

[JohnMOhio]

dogtag, it could also be the recording level in use and what the director wanted from the sound man.

[Allen]

With all the volume ups and downs (especially the commercials), foreign accents, and my aging hearing I use the closed captions feature.

[Tenboremag]

It sure makes the show less enjoyable when you can't understand what they are saying. I will sometime use the captions, especially when there are foreign accents involved. It seems to be getting worse with movies that have a lot of action. Although my high frequency hearing is shot, I can still hear a gnat fart in the next room. And the speakers on flat screen TVs are garbage.

[Mark in Ottawa]

We tend to watch a lot of British mysteries on TV and I find that without the sub-titles I can't understand half of what is being said and I'm not sure if its just the accent.

[Art]

It probably isn't the actors but stuff that's done in post production.

I find that my abused ageing ears can be part of the problem, especially with foreign accents. I don't have a problem with conversation usually as long as I'm facing who I'm talking too even if they have a soft voice, but TV can be an issue unless I turn the volume up a bit which can annoy my spousal unit who's hearing is still darn near perfect. I don't have to go to closed captioning but that could be in my future.

[dogtag]

There was a time too when movies were so dark it was
hard to make out what was going on.
What's next, Actors mumbling in the dark ?

[Allen]

I hope one big advantage of AI is the elimination of Hollywood actors and their mumbling.

Movies hopefully can be made from scratch with no human actors. They can be made to look like whoever. Old dead actors can be brought back to life in new shows.

Wouldn't it be nice to see a newly made "Tonight Show" with an AI Johnny Carson 2023 style and no politics ?

[dogtag]

My CC is at the top of the screen and while I'm reading it I'm
missing the picture below. Plus the CC is a second late.
So I don't use it.

[pcox]

Modern day actors whisper their lines while the mood music behind them swells. I miss the old days, you didn't have to wonder what John Wayne was saying.

[Allen]

My CC is at the top of the screen and while I'm reading it I'm
missing the picture below. Plus the CC is a second late.
So I don't use it.

Strange, mine is at the bottom and appears as the people on the screen are speaking. On prerecorded programs this is to be expected. Live TV would be a different issue.

We leave it on all the time. The words are small enough to not interfere. My wife has normal, if not above normal hearing and prefers the CC left on for all the reasons listed above.

We have Direct TV with the DVR. I think the Dish network is the same and maybe the cable companies that offer DVR's but we can back up the video if we miss something up to about 2 hours without having to record it. If you had it on you can back it up. This comes in handy when you don't understand what is spoken or the phone rings, the dog needs to go outside or etc... You can back it up any number of times if need be.

[Doc Sharptail]

DVR. I think the *** network is the same and maybe the cable companies that offer DVR's but we can back up the video if we miss something up to about 2 hours without having to record it. If you had it on you can back it up. This comes in handy when you don't understand what is spoken or the phone rings, the dog needs to go outside or etc... You can back it up any number of times if need be.

There's a couple of channels here out of the DVR loop~ Turner Classic Movies and Silver Screen Classics. That's just 2 out of over 700 channels.
I've been using C/C for at least the last 20 years, and it's all hearing problems related. I think the last phone voice call that made any sense to me was around the same time 20 years back...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[PWC]

It's the damn music! Too loud to hear the words.