When I was a kid I identified old TV shows because they were black and white...

Hypersapien@lemmy.world to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 531 points –

These days, kids identify them by the aspect ratio.

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This is actually because our microphones became better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8

Sure, microphones got better but there is more too it. One huge factor is the mixing for cinemas and not for home theaters or worse for TV speaker.

No, the video actually goes into that. Directors think it's "more real" to have mumbled dialogues. But they seem to misinterpret that as "more mumble = more good".

It's a combination of both. Studios typically will mix the end result for the highest-end sound setups, which most people don't actually have. If you're lucky enough to have a full surround with the ability to properly dial in equalizer and other settings, you probably won't have a problem hearing the dialogue even when it's mumbled. But on conventional tv speakers, it can easily get lost in the mix.

This video was exactly what first came to mind when I read "badly understandable dialogues"! It bothers me that as we got better mics, the actors became more unintelligible instead of the other way as one would predict.