Me too

I really feel like the audio mixes are not intended for regular stereo speakers anymore… I pull a lot of soundtracks out in audacity for the sake of making ringtones and I almost never see a clean center channel… logically this should be dialogue and maybe some extra effects when they would be overwhelming, like an explosion, etc. but that’s not what I see.

I’m reminded of comments regarding Tenet where Nolan said something like “… you mess with the picture and nobody cares, you mess with the audio and people loose their minds.”

Hummmmmm 🤔

Don't worry. I've got a decent surround setup and I still can't hear shit. They just don't enunciate like the theatre trained actors of the past.
- Another solid point.
  This feels like something a Python ninja could turn into a real cool visualization. Unfortunately I’m a python janitor.
- Do you have trouble understanding people in the real world?
  How often?
- turns up center speaker to +15dB manually dialogue is now at a reasonable volume
  What is this madness? The worst part is forgetting you did that.
And you are correct. It's also one of those mainly US things. In other languages it's far more balanced with voices.
- Interesting… not to be a jerk, but now I want to compare foreign language films with foreign language dubs.
  It would make sense that the dubs don’t really have an effects heavy mix simply because it would be more work.
There's a lot of other issues, especially with newer content, but I have found that watching movies with headphones helps.
Over the summer we use window AC units which are quite loud, so we finally decided to ignore our expensive speakers and I bought a cheap headphone amplifier with 4 independently controlled outputs, plus some Bluetooth adapters for when they are needed.
The downside is that our ADHD friends like to be able to talk during movies and the setup makes that difficult. But other than that it's great.
- It’s hard to beat a wire for realtime sound 🤓 I’ve been doing the same lately. It’s amazing how much a little bit of white noise makes.
  I saw a paper years ago that attributed the accelerated cognitive decline in old age to hearing loss. Really interesting and sad, and after trying to convince my dad to try a hearing aid… I can definitely see that being a factor.

I’m the opposite. Anything that overlays on the screen is actively frustrating to me. I’ll deal with it for foreign film, but for English, I always turn them off, even if they’re defaulted on.

I compulsively read so if I have subtitles on I end up splitting my focus and don't enjoy the visual spectacle.

Apparently this isn't an autism thing any more. It's a pervasive problem lots of people are having in the last 10 years or so.

I do have auditory processing problems, and frequently misshear people in the real world. But practically never when watching things, even Nolan films. I literally don't understand how more than half of people report needing subtitles on full time. I'd love to find somone offline who has this problem, and watch something with them to try to experience what they are.

If you don't understand how it feels to need subtitles, try listening to a yanny/laurel video and see if you're able to hear both.
For us folks with auditory processing disorders, it's like the rest of the world hears yanny while we hear laurel. Without subtitles, we are simply incapable of parsing the sound as yanny.
- I heard yammy, not yanny, every time. Which at the end of the video seems to be wrong. I did hear laurel when it was pitched down.
  But that doesn't really help what I'm saying, because I'm not listening to your speakers in your room with you.

I've been to the theatre a few times with the wife to see some musicals. I literally have no fucking clue what's being said or sung. Its all just noise while people prance about on stage to me.

I do enjoy it but I feel like a dog watching TV with its owner or something. I end up just watching everything else instead, watching for cues from the orchestra at the bottom, and seeing if I can see the stage hands and which pulleys work which props.

I... I just... You're right....
I'm a dog watching TV.
I can finally explain it to my wife.

I don't mind subtitles when watching non-English media, but I find they ruin English language media for me.

I find it enhances it for me, since it's easy to miss what people are saying.
- Unless the subtitles don't match the audio in which case I become enraged and I have to shum to calm down.
I completely agree. Cinematographers spend huge effort to frame things in a scene in a certain way. Shots that only last 2s are thought about for hours to figure out exactly how to frame things, where the actors should be standing, where they should be looking, what's in the background, what's in the foreground, etc. When there are words on screen it messes all that up. Even if you don't read the words, they interfere with the picture. If you do read the words you're looking away from the picture.
When you're reading the words, you're also not reading the actors' expressions. Sometimes you miss key things that way, because a subtle glance or gesture from an actor can indicate they're lying, or they're nervous, or they're hiding something.
I really think that people who use subtitles should try to learn to develop their listening skills so they don't need them. They're really missing out on a lot by having those subtitles on. Sure, some people have hearing problems or other disabilities. But, people who don't should learn to do without them because it will enhance the experience greatly.
- I hear what you're saying, but it's a different problem for me. If the dialog is in English, then I'm hearing it and reading it. In fact, I'm usually reading it right before hearing it. I can't ignore/tune out either the written or spoken dialog. This completely breaks immersion for me. If the spoken language is something I don't understand, then I have no trouble tuning it out in favor if the subtitles. Dubbed English is actually more immersion-breaking for me (non-animated media).

Or when eating crunchy food

I watched "We're all going to the worlds fair" without subtitles and had absolutely no idea what was going on. I think I understood maybe 10 lines of dialogue throughout the entire movie. I read the wikipedia synopsis afterwards and it's a shame I didn't understand it because I think I would have really liked it :(

Same but I also have watched stuff at other people's place and realized some people don't invest in speakers at all. Makes a huge difference.

That's not a autismus thing. Basically everybody has this problem nowadays. https://youtu.be/VYJtb2YXae8

Thanks for this... I'm doing a presentation on different disabilities and accommodations, and this will help make my point that accommodations tend to help everyone

Good luck!

I always need subtitles when I watch anything