Your very petty pet hates

[Wirral Writer]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

This is just one of the many reasons that I refuse to watch modern movies (with a few exceptions).
I haven't watched a new Hollywood movie for over 10 years now, I spend my movie time catching up with amazing films from the past.

For those of you that do watch these silly loud explosion filled movies, a lot of home cinema amplifiers have a quiet/midnight/whatever mode which when enabled will level out all the sounds, making dialogue more audible & effects quieter.
However, this is far from the perfect solution.

I could do with one of those noise-reduction functions on my telly! I hate these modern movies with their over-amplified sound effects and poor dialogue.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

Another thing that I hate is the sound on today's DVD movies. The sound of the dialogue is so disproportionate to the actual sound effects, being too low in comparison to the excessively loudness of the sound effects. Why the hell should we have to keep raising the volume of our TV sets to hear what the actors are saying - then suddenly jump out of our skins at the sound of, for example, gunfire, explosions etc.

Isn't it about time DVD film producers started doing about the terrible sound quality on today's DVDs?

I totally agree. The sound quality on these modern dvd is appalling! The horror jump-scare movies are the worst, necessitating you having to raise the volume of your TV to hear what the actors are saying - only to be shocked out of your sking when a jump-scare moment comes. What idiot decided to mess around with the sound of the DVDs??

This is just one of the many reasons that I refuse to watch modern movies (with a few exceptions).
I haven't watched a new Hollywood movie for over 10 years now, I spend my movie time catching up with amazing films from the past.

For those of you that do watch these silly loud explosion filled movies, a lot of home cinema amplifiers have a quiet/midnight/whatever mode which when enabled will level out all the sounds, making dialogue more audible & effects quieter.
However, this is far from the perfect solution.

[Wirral Writer]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

The sound mixing is terrible in most things. I think they should do away with the 1 to 100 volume scale and replace it with a decibel scale. Make it a standard. 1 to 100 can mean anything. If you are outputting xxdb then you are outputting xxdb, it's an actual measured unit.

Also, casting should stop bringing people who mumble on films and tv. If you cannot control the words that come out of your mouth as an actor you're not worth my time.

I totally agree. The sound quality on these modern dvd is appalling! The horror jump-scare movies are the worst, necessitating you having to raise the volume of your TV to hear what the actors are saying - only to be shocked out of your sking when a jump-scare moment comes. What idiot decided to mess around with the sound of the DVDs??

[Romany Jones.]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

Whilst we're at it......the BBC for loosing or scrubbing a lot of early TV shows......what on earth were they playing at.....oh I know....saving money.

[amethyst]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

Feel like venting having a good old grumble
The national Lottery a £1 of hope for most people hoping for a decent win for a new life changing experience retire early and no financial worries!
if you cant get 3 numbers for £10 what hope do you have for getting the six,unless luck is on your side you have no chance it is like chucking your pounds down the drain think of how much you have spent since 1993 and add up your winnings of small prizes.

[PC66]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

If you are outputting xxdb then you are outputting xxdb, it's an actual measured unit.

The decibel is actually a measure of relative power, so saying that something is so many dB without specifying the reference point doesn't actually give an absolute measurement of level.

For example, you could compare two signals and say that one is 6dB higher in level than the other, which would mean that the higher signal is four times the power of the lower one (in round figures). But to just say something like "the level is 6dB" is meaningless by itself without a reference point. There are standard reference points which are commonly used though, such as 1 milliwatt, to which other levels are compared using dBm (i.e. decibels relative to 1mW). So 6dBm means 6dB above the 1mW reference point, or 4mW, while -6dBm means 6dB below 1mW, or 0.25mW.

There was a trend in the 1980's for home audio equipment to start putting meaningless scales on both volume controls and on the LED power indicators which suddenly became the "in thing" for a while. And some resorted to putting dB scales on them which weren't actually calibrated in decibels at all - Clearly attempts to make it "look more technical" but which in reality were equally as meaningless as the arbitrary 1 to 5, 1 to 10 or whatever.

[Sly]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

The sound mixing is terrible in most things. I think they should do away with the 1 to 100 volume scale and replace it with a decibel scale. Make it a standard. 1 to 100 can mean anything. If you are outputting xxdb then you are outputting xxdb, it's an actual measured unit.

Also, casting should stop bringing people who mumble on films and tv. If you cannot control the words that come out of your mouth as an actor you're not worth my time.

[Wirral Writer]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

I've seen TV shows where not only are the tops and bottoms have been chopped, but also the left and right.

Really anything made after the late 00's should be full widescreen with 1080p. High Definition has sort of standardised the format globally so we'll have hopefully seen the back of the old 4:3 or lesser scan lines making stuff look like a mess. Well, that's how I understand it anyway. The NTSC and PAL cause a few problems I can fathom, especially in games where they couldn't be bothered to port right so they ended up running slower on PAL machines.

Another thing that I hate is the sound on today's DVD movies. The sound of the dialogue is so disproportionate to the actual sound effects, being too low in comparison to the excessively loudness of the sound effects. Why the hell should we have to keep raising the volume of our TV sets to hear what the actors are saying - then suddenly jump out of our skins at the sound of, for example, gunfire, explosions etc.

Isn't it about time DVD film producers started doing about the terrible sound quality on today's DVDs?

[Sly]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

I've seen TV shows where not only are the tops and bottoms have been chopped, but also the left and right.

Really anything made after the late 00's should be full widescreen with 1080p. High Definition has sort of standardised the format globally so we'll have hopefully seen the back of the old 4:3 or lesser scan lines making stuff look like a mess. Well, that's how I understand it anyway. The NTSC and PAL cause a few problems I can fathom, especially in games where they couldn't be bothered to port right so they ended up running slower on PAL machines.

[PC66]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

Another hate of mine is people who watch TV at the wrong Aspect ratio!

Definitely! Engineers spent a lot of time in the development of television perfecting designs to ensure good picture geometry with perfectly linear scanning, etc. And now so many people seem to work on the principle of "I have a wide screen, so I must have a picture which fills the entire width," even when the source material is 4:3, and deliberately distort the picture in order to achieve that.

The broadcasters aren't always too careful either. Sometimes you'll see a format change for, say, a commercial break, then after the return to the show it's in the wrong format for a minute or so until somebody eventually notices and switches it back. Or on the digital feeds they sometimes set the format flags incorrectly; I've seen instances in which 4:3 material was showing correctly on the analogue broadcast, but with a digital receiver coupled to a conventional 4:3 TV and set for letterbox widescreen mode, the format flags resulted in seeing a 4:3 image set within the widescreen frame which was itself then letterboxed into the 4:3 display, i.e. a 4:3 picture of the correct aspect ratio, but not filling an entire 4:3 screen leaving blank areas all around.

And then there are the widescreen-produced shows (not 16:9, but often a compromise widescreen) which include clips of older 4:3 material which has been expanded in order to fill most of the width, cropping off large amounts of the top and bottom of the original picture.

It's really become an absolute mess.

[amethyst]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

Blame Commercials tv radio ads etc spend spend world

Female celebrities or WAGS spending huge amounts on designer gear Gucci handbags boxes of Jimmy Choo shoes etc

Walking around in 6 inch skinny stillestoes what would they feet be like later on in life

[darren]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

thats a bit too early.
never seen it that early myself.

but yes christmas stuff should be in the shops till say start of november.
the puddings etc could go off if they are there in august.

i doubt much would sell that early.

I've seen Valentines stuff in the stores on the day after Christmas.

[PC66]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

"Aloominum" What's that about? It's AL-U-MIN-I-UM.

This is one of those historical consequences of having multiple names in the early days after the element was discovered.

In the early years of the 19th century it was proposed that it be named alumium. After the element was successfully isolated and identified, the name aluminum was decided upon instead. Then a change to aluminium was agreed by various scientific societies of the day in order to be consistent with the many other element names ending in -ium.

Fast forward to the early part of the 20th century, and the major American scientific society involved decided to revert to the earlier name of aluminum. Hence this spelling became the dominant everyday form in North America, while Britain and much of the rest of the English-speaking world use aluminium.

[amethyst]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

Easter eggs in January with hot cross buns

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Your very petty pet hates

Christmas gifts cards decorations,xmas pudddings cakes etc much too early on the shelves in shops especially August.A month before xmas would be fine with me,this year I vowed to treat it as an ordinary 2 days rather than going through the expensive routine of spend spend spend

I've seen Valentines stuff in the stores on the day after Christmas.