Is there a way to balance the sound when playing DVDs?

Question

While watching DVDs played on a Philips home theater system, I have a problem with hearing the movies dialogue unless I turn it way up. But when music or sound effects such as gunshots or explosions begin I have to quickly turn it down or get blasted out of the room. This also occured when I used a PS2 routed through a home stereo. I have looked through the menu options to see if there is any real way to adjust the sound and I haven't found any. Is this a common problem with a fix that I haven't discovered yet? Help in this matter would be greatly appreciated and save me a a few lumps on the head from my wife when I accidently wake the baby because I didn't get to the volume control fast enough.

Answer 1

You should be able to balance the speakers in the audio set up of your receiver.
Depending on your receiver and how old it is.
Some of the newer receivers will do a self analysis of your speaker set up and balance all of the speakers levels accordingly.
If it does not have this feature you still can do it manually, you will have to go to Radio Shack and buy a sound pressure level meter.
Then you will have to go into the audio set up for your surround sound receiver, it should play a pink noise through each of your speakers, using the level meter , set all the levels of each speaker until they all read the same level, then your speakers should be balanced.

Answer 2

All are good answers if you have a receiver. If it's a Philips all in one home theater system, where all the speakers are hooked up to a DVD player, your problem may be as simple as seeing if your center speaker is blown or not even hooked up. When people are just talking during a movie, all the dialog comes out of the center channel. When something interesting happens, like an explosion, then your surround sound kicks on. If your system is cranked cause you can't hear any dialog when the surround pops on, that's an unhappy baby. Check the center channel.

Answer 3

If there is a "Night Mode" on your stereo system, try that. It will raise the dialog and lower the effects. But not all Home Theater systems have one. If not, try using stereo mode. It will put dialog through all the speakers. If you have a 5-channel or 6-channel stereo, that will work even better.

You have to play around with different settings to see what works best. You may also be able to adjust each speaker individually through the setttings menu. Try adjusting the center channel speaker way up and the Mains down. Try turning down the subwoofer also.

Answer 4

The dialogue in a movie mostly comes from the center channel/speaker, where sound effects would be on your other speakers. Depending on your receiver feature-set, you may have a feature where you can increase the dB or volume only on your center channel.

That is what I had to do on my Sony receiver. I could control each speaker output individually.

Since you have not shared your home theater model, it is difficult to help you. I would suggest looking at the manual, if you have it. If not, look at the manual at Philips' web site.

Answer 5

Did you ever calibrate your audio channels? If not, run, don't walk, to your local Radio Shack and buy a Sound Pressure Level meter. Then run through your receiver's setup procedure to calibrate your audio channels.

Philips is a decent brand and I assume they support such a calibration. But if your HT system does not, the simplest thing is to raise the level of the center channel relative to the other 5 channels. The center channel is where virtually all of the dialog comes from.

I think I'll choose this as my epitaph, because I find myself repeating it so often: "As always, you will get better answers if you specify exact model numbers of your equipment."

Answer 6

Hi There should be an adjustment on your DVD player to alter the dynamic range of DVD programs .If there is turn the dynamic range indicator to low or min. This should stop the music from overpowering the dialog in your speakers.The dynamic range is the ratio between the softest and loudest parts of a DVD program.If it is set too high the quiet parts are hard to hear and the loud parts are too loud which effects the dialog.