Can’t listen to TV anymore? You’re not alone. The television dialogue has getting harder to understand over the years, leading everyone turn on subtitles while watching. Today, that issue is top of mind as Amazon Prime Video introduces a new feature that may make subtitles no longer necessary, at least on some titles. It is introducing “Dialogue Boost”, an option that allows Prime Video viewers to increase the volume of spoken dialogue in relation to background music and effects. The feature will be available for the first time on select Amazon Original shows globally, including “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” “Harlem,” “The Big Sick,” “Being the Ricardos” and ” Beautiful Boy,” among others.
Similar features to increase the volume of dialogue are available on other platforms, such as high-end theater systems, specialized audio equipment, and some smart TVs and streaming media devices. Roku, for example, offers something called “clarity of speech” which also increases dialogue content in relation to other sounds, such as background music or louder sound effects, such as car crashes.
But Amazon notes that it’s the first global streaming service to offer this kind of feature.
Although the option was first created with the needs of hearing impaired customers in mind, Amazon believes that it can help everyone better enjoy its service.
Image Credits: Amazon
To create its Dialogue Boost tracks, Prime Video first analyzes the original audio in a movie or TV show and intelligently identifies the spots where human speech is hardest to hear over background music and effects. Then the speech patterns are isolated and the content is enhanced to make dialogue clearer, Amazon tells TechCrunch. The company says the AI-powered approach can deliver targeted enhancement to parts of spoken dialogue, rather than general amplifications on the center channel in a home theater system. That means enhanced audio can be heard on any device where Prime Video can be streamed, instead of being device-dependent like other solutions.
Enhanced tracks are available for end users to select from the subtitles and audio options widget on the playing video. Here, viewers will be able to select between options like “English Dialogue Gain: Medium” and “Dialog Gain: High” depending on their preference.
Prime Video users know if a title is available with a dialogue boost option because it will show up on the show’s or movie’s details page on the service.
Image Credits: Amazon
At launch, the feature is available on roughly 100 Amazon Originals, though some only offer the option for select seasons. In addition to the programs mentioned above, Dialogue Boost is available in other titles such as “Bosch”, “Fleabag”, “Modern Love” and “Crown Heights”. Amazon says it will continue to roll out more titles in the future as it expands, but it didn’t provide a time frame for covering its full original library.
“At Prime Video, we are committed to creating an inclusive, equitable and enjoyable streaming experience for all of our customers,” said Raf Soltanovich, vice president of technology for Prime Video and Amazon Studios, in a statement about the launch. “Our library of captioned and audio described content continues to grow, and by leveraging our technology capabilities to create industry-first innovations like Dialogue Boost, we are taking another step toward creating a more accessible streaming experience.”
Prime Video isn’t the only service tackling issues around muffled audio, but rival Netflix recently took a different approach. Last month Netflix introduced a feature which allows subscribers to customize the size and style of closed captions and captions, in an acknowledgment of how popular viewing with closed captions has become.
Dialogue Boost is available on all Prime Video compatible devices starting today.