For years now I’ve wondered why people keep complaining about dialog in movies. Now I’ve spent a few days in a hotel with a TV stuck on default picture and sound settings. I started a Dune marathon. (He just passed the gom jabbar)

Much of the dialog is far quiter than it should be. Enough to be difficult to understand if I didn’t know the movie so well. Even softer sounds I know should be there aren’t audible at all. While I wouldn’t call the loud portions too loud, I’m in a hotel and don’t want to disturb my neighbors, so I’m riding the volume some.

I don’t have access to the TV’s settings, so I don’t know if it’s possible to improve things at all. I can say, the built in sound on televisions is certainly not what it should be. It could be improved from factory, with better down-mixing and level curves. That might cause issues with other programs though.

Atraides are about to rescue a harvester. I’ll get back to it.