HBO Max streaming service

[The Ace of Aces 4946]

That Ren Faire guy is a real piece of shit. There's a big story from a few years ago out of Houston about how awful a human he is. 

[thunderlounge 7619]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Fandango is just a gateway to the chains, but the chains want full control once you’re in the door.

This. Plus Fandango is an easy way to sell tickets online without the additional overhead. Fandango gets their cut, sure, but that’s less expense overall.

 

[mdmost 42316]

A question about movies on Max. Does anyone else feel the dialogue on movies is really shitty? We watched Twister last night and I swear I had to crank the receiver well beyond its normal levels of loud. This also was the case with Batman Begins until I remembered I owned it on Blu-ray so we switched over and it sounded incredible. It's not my receiver or Apple TV as rentals and movies I own sound great. 

[thunderlounge 7619]

1 hour ago, mdmost said:

A question about movies on Max. Does anyone else feel the dialogue on movies is really shitty? We watched Twister last night and I swear I had to crank the receiver well beyond its normal levels of loud. This also was the case with Batman Begins until I remembered I owned it on Blu-ray so we switched over and it sounded incredible. It's not my receiver or Apple TV as rentals and movies I own sound great. 

I have noticed this, yes. And not just Max.

Not sure what the deal is, but I also have to turn the receiver up a bit for movies, and some shows too.

GoT, HotD, Rome, etc. 

My best guess is it has to do with compression and saving bandwidth.

 

[Scary Stranger 1711]

Have you tried switching sound modes on your receiver? Sometimes the mix is weird and if you swap the modes to something like straight stereo, it will sound better.

[thunderlounge 7619]

That hasn’t worked for me. 
 

It’s not that it’s terrible, it acts more like the compression lowers the overall volume level, and some lesser sounds are lost. Raising volume helps, but some minor pieces still get clipped from the mix. An aTV or good receiver can overcome compression on a video signal, but can’t make up what’s clipped from the track.

Signal compression has to be the issue, in some form, IMO.

 

 

 

[ChickenSandwich 9760]

See if your receiver has a night mode. Denon/Marantz have “dynamic volume” with a choice of low/medium or high. This levels out the dynamic range and usually boost the dialogue 

*this is different from dynamic eq

[thunderlounge 7619]

Completely different issue. It's not that dialogue or things aren't clear. The sound itself is fine.

Let me try to go through how this happens.

 

Say you're watching something on YTTV. Then you flip to a different app like Max and put on a movie. Changing nothing in between other than service/stream. The volume level is noticeably lower than it was on YTTV. It isn't a setting change, or anything of the sort.

For example, on my receiver the average volume for normal TV watching is around 50. Tonight I'll flip it to Max, from whatever is on YTTV before, to watch House of the Dragon.

When I do that, I'll have to turn the volume up to about 65.

Once that is over and I flip back to YTTV, at that point I'll turn it back down to 50.

 

Here's another example, but the opposite way. When I watch something off the ESPN app, I end up turning it down to somewhere around 40-43.

 

My best guess at this point is it has something to do with the compression of the entire stream, or the lack thereof. I'm thinking that the ESPN stuff has little to no compression, YTTV has some, and Max/others use even more. That streaming services use compression is a known deal. How much, not so much common knowledge. Same thing cable operators do, just streaming.

The only quality issue that I've noticed is that some sounds get "clipped" from the mix, and I'm guessing it's due to compression. But I'm talking minor supplemental sounds that would be background type stuff. Dialogue and things like that are fine. Most of the time 99% of people wouldn't really notice or give it second thought. "Oh, guess I'll turn it up a tick."

And once the volume is turned up a little more, everything is fine. I've seen this both with Roku, and then the appleTV after I switched over to that. So it's not a local issue, but the incoming stream. An aTV or good receiver will make up a good bit of that compression loss in the video, but the audio stream is a bit different in that regard. It's not necessarily a few missing pieces that can be made whole or close to whole like with video.

It really isn't that highs/lows get clipped like with a night mode. There are still those frequencies present. But volume-wise is a little different. Think of a basic equalizer, and raising/lowering the overall volume level. Now if that happens in the stream before it gets to the local system, what can the local system do? You just turn it up a little more to make up for it, but the really really quiet sounds can get lost, regardless of frequency.

It's really just a minor annoyance of having to change volume levels between apps/shows. Max seems to be the biggest difference, but I'll pay closer attention to specifics. Could be different within the same app, even. Just kinda depends.

 

[ChickenSandwich 9760]

Yes, the compression varies greatly from service to service regardless of device. You are 100% correct. 
 

The dynamic volume option is like the old “auto volume” settings for commercials on old TV sets. It works to regulate the audio regardless of which app/stream you are using (avr/wide) adjusting volume and range.
 

Apple TV does not offer “pass through audio” meaning there is no way to get the full uncompressed audio from a film like you can with a Blu Ray etc. I’m not sure if any of the devices do?

Edited July 7 by ChickenSandwich

[Deej 76156]

Just finding new ways to fuck up HBO. 

[thunderlounge 7619]

8 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Yes, the compression varies greatly from service to service regardless of device. You are 100% correct. 
 

The dynamic volume option is like the old “auto volume” settings for commercials on old TV sets. It works to regulate the audio regardless of which app/stream you are using (avr/wide) adjusting volume and range.

 

Agreed. Various names, but same principle. Unfortunately that isn’t an answer for my particular setup. 
 

But again, not a real thing for me. Just turn it up or down. More of an oddity. Overall just letting md know he isn’t getting dementia, or at least this isn’t a sign of such. 

[atomheartbevo 88913]

1 hour ago, Deej said:

Just finding new ways to fuck up HBO. 

Every time this thread gets bumped, I assume it’s about them being shut down for some reason, or wiping all of the HBO content out and just having Chip and Joanna Gaines’ and true crime crap.

[atomheartbevo 88913]

On 7/7/2024 at 4:33 PM, atomheartbevo said:

Every time this thread gets bumped, I assume it’s about them being shut down for some reason, or wiping all of the HBO content out and just having Chip and Joanna Gaines’ and true crime crap.

Earnings call today. Probably hear about. Ore stuff being canceled or sold off.

This is going round the socials

 

[bolverk 29036]

35 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Earnings call today. Probably hear about. Ore stuff being canceled or sold off.

This is going round the socials

 

#2 explains why we didn't get an actual season finale for HotD.

[MissingInAction 24324]

Kite man is pretty damn funny.

[Js1 82948]

3 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Earnings call today. Probably hear about. Ore stuff being canceled or sold off.

This is going round the socials

 

Nah, Imma watch whatever I want to watch

[conVINCEd 21468]

Anyone else think the new Chimp Crazy show was going to be about Banks and Pole Assassin before watching the preview?