"I can't hear you!": New feature set to do away with subtitles
Nothing is more annoying than sitting in front of your TV, eager to watch your favourite show only for the dialogue to be completely wiped because of cars passing by or a plane taking off.
Not being able to hear the dialogue in a TV show or movie, especially in an action or crime-driven blockbuster where anything exploding masks all dialogue has been an everlasting problem for viewers.
Netflix has revealed that 40 per cent of subscribers have subtitles on at all times while surveys in the US and UK saw anywhere between 60 and 70 per cent of young viewers as frequent users of subtitles.
If you’re using subtitles for the purpose of hearing the dialogue rather an accessibility reasons, streaming giant Amazon is introducing a new feature that could eradicate the need to turn them on because of the sound mix.
The feature is called ”dialogue boost" and it raises the volume of the dialogue track relative to the score, ambient sound or effects.
Although Amazon has so generously offered this solution to subscribers, the dialogue boost feature will only be available on a handful of Amazon Prime Video’s originals, like Beautiful Boy, Being The Ricardos, Jack Ryan and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.
A similar feature already appears on some expensive sound systems and TV sets, but Amazon boasts it’s the first streaming platform to roll it out worldwide.
To work the feature, select it from the audio and subtitles drop-down menu on an individual title, there will be two options to select from, “English Dialogue Boost: High” or “English Dialogue Boost: Medium”.
The title page for a TV series or movie will show whether the dialogue boost is available.
According to Variety, the helpful feature was originally designed for hearing-impaired viewers.
Rest assured, if you struggle to hear the dialogue due to the sound mix, there's help on the way, granted it's exclusive to Amazon.
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