Four TV settings you should swap to instantly make movies sound better – even with a Roku or Fire Stick
Date: 2024-10-21IT’S easy to obsess over TV picture quality – but getting your sound settings right can be just as important.
The Sun has four simple tips to make the most of your audio, even if you don’t have an expensive surround sound system.
TV TIP #1 – USE SOUND MODES
If you’ve got a decent television, you might be familiar with TV picture modes.
Well many TVs and streaming devices also offer sound modes, which work in much the same way.
They’re one of the easiest ways to set up your TV for what you’re about to watch – and require very little tech expertise.
Usually you’ll find them in your audio settings, and probably fairly well advertised.
In fact many devices will want to show off their sound modes as a feature – as a lot of work goes into the tuning.
For instance, Roku devices offer the following sound modes:
- Standard: Basic audio mode for general use
- Dialogue: Conversations are easier to hear over background sounds
- Movie: Optimized for an immersive movie theater-like experience
- Music: Unaltered sound, authentic like the artist intended
- Night: Optimized for listening at lower volumes with less bass
And Samsung TVs have these modes:
- Standard: Balanced sound where no tones are emphasized, such as the voices or bass.
- Optimized: Specific effects are more powerful and sounds are more spacious.
- Amplify: Amplify mid and high tones of the sound. This is useful when voices are difficult to understand.
Make sure you’re using the right sound mode for what you’re watching.
And if you’re using streaming devices too, make sure they’re correctly aligned with your TV’s settings.
TV TIP #2 – SPEECH VOLUME
Sounds modes are great, but you can go one step further and even adjust speech volume.
Some TVs and streaming devices will let you amplify voices specifically.
You won’t necessarily always want this – especially if you’re using your TV to listen to music – but it’s great for certain types of content.
Sometimes these voice modes are bundled in with sound modes (like Samsung’s Amplify).
But they might also be pulled out separately.
If you have a Roku audio device (like a soundbar) for instance, you can specifically boost Speech Clarity.
And you can even set it to low or high depending on your needs.
“When watching a movie or a TV show, conversations can get lost with other sounds in a busy scene,” Roku explains.
“Speech clarity works by boosting dialogue separately from background noise, allowing you to hear important conversations without needing to adjust the volume.”
It might be handy in one of those action movies where the sound effects are so loud that you’ve got no idea what anyone is actually saying.
TV TIP #3 – HEADPHONES!
This might sound ridiculous, but sometimes the best way to listen to your TV is not through its speakers.
Here’s advice from The Sun’s tech expert Sean Keach…
Think about how much time you spend in front of your TV.
Even if it’s only a few hours a week, that’s still a huge amount of time.
And you probably forked out a decent bit of cash for it too.
With that in mind, make sure you’re getting your money’s worth – and set it up properly.
Ensure you’re using the very best settings for the picture, but don’t neglect audio either.
Good sound can make or break a movie night.
You don’t want to miss important bits of dialogue, or have loud action scenes absolutely killing your ears.
And if you love sticking Spotify on the TV or some music via YouTube, you’ll want to be using a more music-friendly mode.
It might save you the money you would’ve spent on speakers.
Finally, don’t be afraid to use headphones with your TV. If you’ve got a good pair of headphones, you can have a much better experience.
Many TVs and streaming devices let you connect your headphones.
So if you have a decent pair of headphones, you might find yourself having a much better time.
Now that’s not necessarily great for movie night. But if you’re watching something alone, it’s perfect.
The other advantage is that you can watch TV at night without disturbing anyone.
And some platforms – like Roku – let multiple people connect headphones too.
So you can all crank up the volume to enjoy deep and personal audio without waking anyone up.
Sadly mostly people don’t associate headphones with TV so it’s an easily forgotten feature.
You don’t even necessarily need wireless headphones for this to work.
For instance, Roku lets you connect wired headphones to a smartphone, and then connect that to the TV via the official Roku app.
TV TIP #4 – TRY NIGHT MODE
If you don’t want to wear headphones but you’re still keen to watch TV after hours, see if your set-up has a Night Mode.
Some TVs and streaming devices have a Night Mode – although it might have a name that refers to dynamic audio range of loudness.
What happens is the very loud sounds are dampened, but quieter audio isn’t.
It’s a great alternative to just turning down the volume – which stops loud noises, but means you can’t hear quiet parts either.
You probably don’t want to leave it on all the time as you’ll lose the full effect of loud noise during the day too.
Instead, simply use it at night when not waking up the whole house is important.
It should give you a much better audio experience versus just lowering the volume.
