Dialogue to low, action to loud.

netranger

Hi everyone,

Setup: Two Polk Audio Tower Speaker (T600)
My receiver: Yamaha 500 Watts 5.1-Channel Home Theatre Receiver (RXV371)

At the back of these speakers there are 4 connectors. I have them plugged in with just one wire using two connectors.

The setup is basic and nothing fancy.

Problem: When playing a movie, dialogue is too low and when the action starts, things get to loud and I have to ride the volume control.

Can anyone help with this.

20hz

netranger wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Setup: Two Polk Audio Tower Speaker (T600)
My receiver: Yamaha 500 Watts 5.1-Channel Home Theatre Receiver (RXV371)

At the back of these speakers there are 4 connectors. I have them plugged in with just one wire using two connectors.

The setup is basic and nothing fancy.

Problem: When playing a movie, dialogue is too low and when the action starts, things get to loud and I have to ride the volume control.

Can anyone help with this.

Does it have a center channel ?
If not that will help a lot plus if you are listening to movies ond the yamaha is set for a center channel you wont get much dialogue to the large polks
ALSO on the DVD player when you put in a movie there is a setup with a few choices and if thats wrong it will sound weird .

rooftop59

The key here is probably the setup in either the dvd player or the receiver or both. Either your receiver thinks you are running a center channel or the receiver is sending a 5.1 signal, which if the receiver is setup right it would change to 2 channel, which makes me think that it has got to be the receiver. Make sure you go into the receiver set up and set your main left and right speakers to large, and every other speaker (including the sub) to no or off (can't remember what yamaha says). Hope that helps. The better solution would be to go to newegg.com and order a cs1 or cs2 center channel speaker. Especially with the cs2 the dialogue would sound much better.

Welcome to Club Polk!

Polkitup2

netranger wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Problem: When playing a movie, dialogue is too low and when the action starts, things get to loud and I have to ride the volume control.

Can anyone help with this.

I have this problem with some movies like Priest which I watch last night and could barely hear the dialogue and the action was way too loud. Sometimes you have too ignore a calibrated system and pump up the center channel volume because the mastering of the audio on some movies just isn't very good.

danger boy

go into your receivers 5.1 ch set up menu and raise the center channel volume so you can hear dialog better... and you're done.

rooftop59

danger boy wrote: »

go into your receivers 5.1 ch set up menu and raise the center channel volume so you can hear dialog better... and you're done.

It looks from the original post that he does not have a center channel, which may be the problem.:rolleyes:

tonyb

Also should ask if he has the jumpers in place, ya never know.

Most modern receivers re-direct signals from missing speakers in a surround sound format, but I don't think you can adjust a speaker level on a non-existant speaker, which Rooftop is eluding to. However, he may be able to make certain adjustments in the player to boost the center signal before handing it off to the avr.

EndersShadow

As stated you need to go in and either change your setup to reflect only 2 speakers (right and left) or change the signal type to Stereo. Either of those will cure your problems with dialog in a movie.

netranger

rooftop59 wrote: »

The key here is probably the setup in either the dvd player or the receiver or both. Either your receiver thinks you are running a center channel or the receiver is sending a 5.1 signal, which if the receiver is setup right it would change to 2 channel, which makes me think that it has got to be the receiver. Make sure you go into the receiver set up and set your main left and right speakers to large, and every other speaker (including the sub) to no or off (can't remember what yamaha says). Hope that helps. The better solution would be to go to newegg.com and order a cs1 or cs2 center channel speaker. Especially with the cs2 the dialogue would sound much better.

Welcome to Club Polk!

When my movie started playing, I went up close to my receiver. It was showing a SUB and two speaker. I don't have a sub.

I started playing with the receiver settings and turned off all other speakers. I also set my distance in feet to 6.5 for both. Things are good now.

There may have been a problem with the movie also. Other movies play fine it seems. Like someone else mentioned, PRIEST was bad for them. It could just be the movie I was watching.

If I don't have a centre channel will raising the centre channel volume help? I don't think so but just checking.

EndersShadow

netranger wrote: »

If I don't have a center channel will raising the center channel volume help? I don't think so but just checking.

No. Folks thought you had one and the sound wasnt as loud out of it.

Face

RTFM.

Play with the Adaptive DRC(Dynamic Range Control), it should help your issues.

20hz

netranger wrote: »

When my movie started playing, I went up close to my receiver. It was showing a SUB and two speaker. I don't have a sub.

I started playing with the receiver settings and turned off all other speakers. I also set my distance in feet to 6.5 for both. Things are good now.

There may have been a problem with the movie also. Other movies play fine it seems. Like someone else mentioned, PRIEST was bad for them. It could just be the movie I was watching.

If I don't have a centre channel will raising the centre channel volume help? I don't think so but just checking.

NETRANGER have you checked the movie settings on your DVD player yet ??
If its set to anything but 2 ch it will remove the dialogue thinking its sending to a center (that you dont have) .

DON73

I've had the same problem and I do have a center speaker. I ended up raising the center speakers volume 5db. You can get a center speaker for your system for a reasonable price and it will allow you to hear dialogue over the action.

Mon40CSMM10

I have the same problem with movies and dialog even though I use a center speaker (Polk Audio CSM) that is also a 4 ohm speaker that Polk says is compatible with 8 ohm systems. The dialog is way too soft, and turning up the volume to hear the dialog results in other sounds being too loud.

Dynamic Range Compression doesn't help much. It adjusts the dialog only slightly and the too loud sounds are still quite loud.

What I ended up doing was increasing the center channel volume +2.5 dB. But then when I listened to music, it started sounding like too much from the center channel. To compensate for that, I also used a Pro Logic II Music center Width value of 6, so that music doesn't sound like it's too much in the center channel.

That's all good for my setup, but I think the movie studios need to have an Enhanced Dialog option on their DVD and Blu-ray discs that will increase the center channel dialog for home theater listening in smaller rooms. That way, a properly calibrated system could still remain calibrated, but for those movies with way too quiet dialog passages, the Enhanced Dialog option could be enabled for that disc.

I am also aware that some receivers have a dialog enhancement option, but in my experience at least using the Pioneer "dialogue enhance" function it also messes with the imaging by mixing the center into left and right channels.

pietro944

First off......why are you using the center channel for music?
Even on Sacd's and DVD-A,I always go 2-channel or with my Pio Elite Recvr,or at worst,"surround"...which is 4.1-no center.
Using the Center to "steer" the vocals....sounds terrible to me and is hard to balance.....better to let the tweeter and mid-ranges in your mains handle vocals,rather than the tweeter in the ctr channel....even with the LSIC,IMHO.

Mon40CSMM10

Using the center for music--Dolby Pro Logic II Music mode provides three parameters.

The first parameter is Dimension which goes from -3 to +3. At -3, the bias is mostly to the surrounds. At 0, the bias is balanced between the fronts/center and the surrounds. At +3, the bias is mostly to the fronts/center and there is very minimal surround presence. I use the Dimension +3 setting for mostly front staging across the fronts and center.

The second parameter is Center Width. At 0, the sound is fully contained to only the center speaker. At 7, there is no sound in the center speaker. The Pioneer VSX-571K receiver I use has a Center Width default of 5. After experimenting with Center Width values of 4, 5, 6, and 7--I found that some center presence sounds the best so I do use a Center Width setting of 6. Especially with the increase center channel level for better movie dialog, anything other than Center Width 6 is way too much center channel presence. For some reason, I don't like the reduced vocals presence when using Center Width 7 (no center channel presence). This is why I don't use the two-channel only modes Stereo or Direct, and when I tried Advanced Surround, Rock/Pop or Advanced Surround, X-stereo... I found that I could adjust the effect level between 10 and 90, but neither advanced surround mode allowed adjusting the center presence like Dolby Pro Logic II Music mode did. Honestly, I think it balances just fine for my setup and listening room.

The last parameter is Panorama. If Panorama is On, sound in the front speakers is also "wrapped around" to the surround speakers, i.e., left front gets double in left surround and right front gets doubled in right surround. I leave Panorama set to the default of Off, with the minimal surround presence provided by the Dimension setting of +3, there is no benefit to using Panorama.

Ricardo

Isn't it funny how people reply with recommendations without even reading the original post?