If you’ve ever found yourself grabbing your remote and turning up the volume to hear what was said on a television program, you’re not alone. The biggest offenders are Queen Latifah from the CBS crime drama The Equalizer, Michael Weatherly (pictured) from the now-syndicated legal drama Bull, and Jim Caviezel from the now cancelled CBS crime drama Person of Interest. Some people have blamed their television sets for the lack of clarity, but it turns out that “mumble acting” is a real thing. It’s a style of performance where actors speak in a softer, more natural way. That’s not the only reason for viewers being forced to use closed captioning because of the low talking. It also comes down to advances in technology. Back in the day — when TVs were just TVs — the small, tinny speakers they came with pushed out the high frequencies where the voice sits clearly and loudly. As technology progressed, electronics companies began to expect consumers to buy their own sound system separately. Unfortunately, things like sound bars come with a setting called Virtual:X, which enhances the background sound. The easiest way to increase volume and clarity of dialogue and decrease background music is to turn that setting to OFF. If you don’t have a sound bar, look for the speaker settings on your TV and make sure it’s optimized for speech; wind up the treble if that’s an option. The only people who are going to be upset by you doing that are the audio professionals who worked hard to make sure that the background sound is filled with as much drama and adventure as possible. In time, they’ll get over it.
