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Sound problem with my TV.

TV sound problem

  • What's up with the sound on my TV? Both my TVs exhibit the same problem. Reception is via cable. On one set, I use the TV speakers, on the other I route the sound through my audio equipment. The problem is this. When there is no conversation, the sound is normal ambient sound from the soundtrack. As soon as conversation, the background ambient sound cuts out abruptly and the speakers only seem to put out the dialogue track. I've tried all sorts of settings on my cable audio and on my TVs with no success. Any help gratefully accepted.

  • Answer:

    I'm not sure what's causing it, but it sounds like something is going on either with surround sound settings, or just stereo. When there's dialogue in a surround-sound setup, it tends to come almost exclusively from the center-channel speaker. I would imagine that when there's no dialogue, the center-channel speaker plays ambient/background. I've never noticed whether the ambient cuts out from center channel when dialogue is going on instead, but it stands to reason. It might be a longshot, but perhaps you're somehow (I have no idea how) only outputting the center channel to both systems? When it comes to plain ol' stereo, dialogue usually comes through equally from both channels, while ambient sound is truly "in stereo". There's some way that wiring can get mixed up such that the two channels are "subtracted"-- that is, things that come through equally from both channels (dialogue) are erased, and only the unique signal (ambient sound) remains. It sounds like you have the opposite problem, though. Not sure if wiring can cause that. Sorry to not have more insight, but those are really the two qualities of dialogue that could distinguish them from ambient sound. I would put it at a greater-than-even chance that something is going weird along those lines, either at your cable provider's end, or yours. Just out of curiosity, how is each of the sound systems (TV and audio equipment) hooked up to your cable box? Do you have HD service?

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Other answers

You should check the settings on your cable box. There is usually a specific setting for "loudness" or "compression". Make sure it is "off". When the dialog is coming in, it is killing the ambient sound in the background and then when the dialog stops the ambient sound comes rushing back to the loudness of the dialog. When the dialog is happening there isn't enough sonic space for both. Let me know if this improves with the setting changed (it should be under audio).

fantasticninety

Sounds like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression. Try what fantasticninety says. Your cable box, your TV, and your audio processor each probably has a setting for this.

pants tent

Have you tried using a source other than cable?

wongcorgi

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