The Vent and Rant Thread

[dreams]

covingtoncat - congratulations on your job.

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

<snip>So I'm going back in on Monday because I can't go in on Saturday due to the fact that I have class all morning and afternoon.

I am just speechless. I want this to be over with already.

So sorry to hear that. I really hope they get it together soon and figure out what what is causing your pain.

[Rumpelteazer]

Not paying attention when ordering some clothes online. Two items I've ordered the right size but with the third I forgot to choose the size so it ordered the standard size which is much too small for me. Of course, I saw that only when I got the confirmation email.

I called but the order wasn't registered in their system yet. I was advised to call back in two and a half hours, then it should be in the system and they can try to adjust the size.

[Rumpelteazer]

The rant about my own stupidity has now become the opposite of a rant for the webstore.

Because I paid by credit card they can't change the order, but they will send the right size pants without me having to pay for shipping if I will send back the one I ordered in the wrong size. Great customer service! A lot of webstore/store/companies can learn something from them!

[Jessica Lares]

*YAWN* I have a cyst around my left temple. They said it's something they have to watch, but they need a second opinion. So I have to go see a Neurologist.

Better than I expected though. I'm not going to lose my hearing.

I really need to block WedMD and all those other medical sites.

[poohbear_nc]

Deep breath Jessica! And yes - stop reading about all those fatal brain diseases!

[dreams]

Thanks for letting us know Jessica and I am with pooh; those Web Dr. info sites can make you believe you have anything.

[Lady Blue]

Why have the scores of movies and TV shows become so increasingly loud over the past several decades that you can't hear the dialog? It should be background music for goodness sake.

I like to watch nature, history and science shows on TV, but the background music overpowers the narration so much that you can't hear half of what's being said. Same goes for movies.

Now, if I can hear the voices in my head over the ringing in my ears, I can see no reason why they can't do the same on TV. They have a much bigger budget, after all.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Lady Blue

Why have the scores of movies and TV shows become so increasingly loud over the past several decades that you can't hear the dialog? It should be background music for goodness sake.

I like to watch nature, history and science shows on TV, but the background music overpowers the narration so much that you can't hear half of what's being said. Same goes for movies.

Now, if I can hear the voices in my head over the ringing in my ears, I can see no reason why they can't do the same on TV. They have a much bigger budget, after all.

+1. +2 if you count my spouse. We cannot understand why some of the British shows still have such incredibly lousy sound, (they apparently have never tried using sound studios to re-record the voice tracks) and why Barrington Pheloung's (sp?) music has to overpower shows like Inspector Lewis. And it's not confined to that show; almost all the newer shows have the same problem. Between overpowering background music and (in the case of British shows) no sound-board management to dampen background noises, it's just nearly impossible to hear dialogue. Broadchurch, for example....music swells to big moment, and we're cranking up the center channel on our sound system in a (usually) unsuccessful attempt to hear whatever's said. Very frustrating.

The same thing is true of movies--the whole "smother them with noise" issue is really disturbing. I think that studies have shown that a human can really only hear (decipher) 3 sounds at any given time, so scenes with bombastic music, gunfire, bombs, alien weapons, other weird sounds AND dialogue? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Hitch

[Lady Blue]

Originally Posted by Hitch

The same thing is true of movies--the whole "smother them with noise" issue is really disturbing. I think that studies have shown that a human can really only hear (decipher) 3 sounds at any given time, so scenes with bombastic music, gunfire, bombs, alien weapons, other weird sounds AND dialogue? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Hitch

^ Exactly. Decades ago background music (scores and underscores) enhanced the experience of a movie or TV show, and usually only increased in volume to accentuate a scene where there was no dialog, but a heightened emotional response was the goal (think Psycho's shower scene).

Music has gone this way as well. Years ago you could actually hear and understand every word of a song. These days, not so much. Why there are even words in songs anymore is beyond me. You can't hear them anyway.

Why do THEY (the powers that be) spend so much money on research, scripts, actors, scene re-takes, etc. when in the end it's all a waste because the words get lost along the way. May as well read a book.

[poohbear_nc]

It's not just me! I had to turn off the first Inspector Lewis episode! The music was SO loud I couldn't hear any dialogue!

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

It's not just me! I had to turn off the first Inspector Lewis episode! The music was SO loud I couldn't hear any dialogue!

No. It's not just you. The Lewis experience, particularly this past season, has been very bad. I even tried it various "ways;" through Amazon (via Roku); via Acorn (via Roku), and the problem persists. Ditto Broadchurch. I think some of it is a matter of taste, or lack thereof; I had no issues whatsoever with Whitechapel and I still don't have issues with the old insomnia standby, Midsomer Murders (yes...I know it's practically a parody of itself, but after a night of being assaulted by increasingly ridiculous television/movies/whatever, if you want something in the cozy category, it's an alternative, particularly if you've run through other soft stuff, like Doc Martin or Pie in the Sky or the Landscaping Chicks, like Rosemary & Thyme). I can hear Ultimate Force pretty well. Inspector Frost, fine. Old Dalgleish's, (the Roy Marsden ones) not to save our lives. I had problems with Wire in the Blood, via Netflix, from time-to-time..as if it were being broadcast in old Stereo, all via the center speaker, rather than in at least Surround or Dolby. Was mostly able to hear Silk, on Masterpiece, and ditto this last/new Foyle's War, although again--suddenly, Foyle seems to have gone background-music crazier than it was before (verified by watching the first season of Foyle's War on my Acorn-Roku last few days--much, much better sound clarity.)

On US TV..hmph. I don't watch much that is current but I can mostly hear Longmire (pissing me off for other reasons), Justified, Hell on Wheels; The Killing occasionally has issues, both with background music and the "whispery" factor (damn you, Christian Bale and the stupid director that thought that raspy, incoherent dialogue was cool!)...The one-two episodes I tried of Dark Winter Sun (name? The Detroit show) were not dreadful, in terms of being able to hear the dialogue. We have a better-than middle-road sound system, and although we do have issues with bounce/echo (stone floors, high ceilings in the great room), it's not simply that, as we can hear other shows just fine.

I don't know if it's age (cough, cough) or just a "trend" that's gone insane, but, I do wish it would stop. If I wanted to read my movies/TV via closed-captioning, I'd just read the damn books.

ETA: I should add that while we've had very few problems with most "premium channel" Shows via HBO/Starz/etc., like Boardwalk Empire, Ray Donovan, and the like, we have had issues with Strike Back (soft porn with guns!), again, big sound and music over voices. This is a SA-produced show, so I don't know if their sound codex is the same as the EU, and thus the conversion produces the same problems, and I know that there are HZ differences between the US and the EU that contributes to this. However, a little care during the conversion process before sending them this way would alleviate a LOT of this.

I also admit that the increasing use, in both US and British shows, at least, of actors with the diction of my neighbor's dog--the one that had a stroke and now barks and whines only out of one side of its mouth--is contributing to the problem. Saying I long for the days of "BBC English" sounds snobby, and that's not my intent, but we don't have these problems with the older actors that trained at RADA or for the stage--they have diction and can project. Even with the lovely Idris Elba on Luther--sometimes I have to play back what he's said several times to figure it out, due to the speech patterns of the character he's playing. Like I said...maybe I'm just going deef in my old age, but it's not consistent across all shows, so...hard to know. Frustrating as hell, though!

Hitch

[Rumpelteazer]

+1
I've noticed that with more tv series I need to put my headphones on so I can hear what they're saying. I already had to do this with films, if I don't I have to turn up the volume so much that my sister hears it.

Broadchurch was one of them, as was the second season of Game of Thrones. Luckily there are only a couple of shows I follow that have this problem.

Another volume rant: it seems that lately the volume of tv ads are a lot louder than the tv programs. In the past this was a problem and there were a lot of complaints about it. The last couple of years the volume tv shows/films and ads seemed to have been about the same but it's changing again. Another reason for me not to watch tv much but buy dvd's or watch Netflix.

[samhy]

+1 too. And when watching something in a foreign language, the loud so called background music makes it difficult to grasp what is actually said (that and mumbling actors re- )

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Lady Blue

Why have the scores of movies and TV shows become so increasingly loud over the past several decades that you can't hear the dialog?

Originally Posted by Hitch

+1. +2 if you count my spouse.

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

It's not just me! I had to turn off the first Inspector Lewis episode! The music was SO loud I couldn't hear any dialogue!

Originally Posted by Hitch

No. It's not just you.

Ahhhh... the advantages of being deaf... Between the mumbles and reading lips, I have no difficulty with understanding what is being said. I don't even bother with my hearing aids when we watch these days!


Stitchawl

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Ahhhh... the advantages of being deaf... Between the mumbles and reading lips, I have no difficulty with understanding what is being said. I don't even bother with my hearing aids when we watch these days!


Stitchawl

I'm with you Stich! That is why I love watching Netflix on my tablet. I turn on the captions.