I bought a hdtv and home cinema system on Thursday, great system but the only trouble is the voices are too quiet and the sound effects are loud even watching normal tv but it is worse when watching a dvd

For Example I was watching Sister Act last night and when they talk I can just about hear them and then they do the singing and its really loud

I have looked at various threads but they all say you have to buy certain things, surely there is a setting I can change to make the voices louder and the effects quieter

I have put the db up on the centre speaker but sound effects also come out from there so they are twice as loud and I have also tried DRC putting that up halfway

Make and model of your sound system would be of help.

You should have a test tone that you can select which will help you correctly set-up all channels to the recommended level.

You can do this by ear, but a sound meter will be more accurate. Ideally you need to set all channels to 75db. Setting to this level will ensure all channels are firing at the same level.

The make of tv is the GOODMANS LD3255HD and the make of the surround sound set is SAMSUNG HTTQ25

The true nature of me asking this is mainly for night when everyone has gone to sleep and I am watching a dvd I want the voices to be slightly louder and the effects quieter and not suddenly have one huge explosion and wake everyone up

As I said before its also the same on my tv when I switch the sound from coming through my 5.1 to my tv speakers but not quite as bad
Last edited by Murk : 27-11-2006 at 14:41

when you say effects come from the centre speaker, is this on DVDs or TV or both?
Last edited by FlatProblem : 27-11-2006 at 15:00

Only on the dvd

This is because on 5.1 soundtracks around 75% of the soundtrack (effects and dialogue) are replayed via the centre speaker, this keeps the action tied to the screen, the front left/right and surround speakers come into play more when the effects like planes, helicopters, bikes, cars etc exit off screen to the left/right and overhead.

If all channels are set up correctly (75db) and you are applying night mode/DRC this should calm the loud effects from the soundtrack to a much reasonable level keeping the dialogue untouched.

Have you calibrated the system, speakers settings, delays etc?

I have tried but it does not seem to work, like there are various settings on the dvd player like Music, Cinema, Pro Logic and Matrix

When it comes to adjusting the db side of things I can do +1db to +6db and -1 to -6db

As for the DRC i had it set to halfway

Delay times I think I have got correct

So which is the best setting to have then Music, Cinema, Pro Logic or Matrix

All the above are basically used for non DD5.1/DTS soundtracks.

Music/Cinema are normally associated with Pro-Logic/DTS Neo soundtracks. Basically they are a DSP (Digital Sound Processing), a further enhancement to the soundtrack.

You can select Pro-Logic on stereo sources, this will then give you surround sound.

Not sure how Samsung will be implementing Matrix. The manual should explain this.