People Are Just Realising How To Keep Netflix's Music Quiet And Dialogue Loud, And It's Literally Just A Button

<span class="copyright">NurPhoto via Getty Images</span>
NurPhoto via Getty Images

I thought it just happened to me, but it turns out lots of people have been dealing with hearing a blaring theme tune followed by whispering dialogue on their fave streamer’s TV shows and movies.

Thankfully, one Netflix user on X (formerly Twitter) revealed why this can sometimes happen on the site over the weekend ― and it could just be a settings issue.

In the post, which has garnered over 170,000 views as of the time of writing, @MittenDAmour shared: “Can’t remember who told me this but it’s fixed the blight of Netflix playing tiny mouse fart dialogue audio drowned behind trumpeting background noise.”

They added: “It thinks your TV is surround sound, so change this from English [Original] 5.1 to just English [Original]. You’re welcome.”

And the pros agree

Writers for TechRadar have covered this before.

“If you have anything other than a surround sound setup, be it a 2.1 soundbar, stereo speakers or just your TV’s built-in speakers, Netflix may be defaulting to a setting that will have a negative impact on the audio you’re getting,” they revealed in a 2023 article.

The feature was introduced to make TVs and laptops with surround sound capability sound better.

Netflix themselves say that you can tell if a movie or TV show is using the feature because they “will show a 5.1  or a Dolby Digital Plus icon on their description page”.

How can I get rid of this problem? 

Begin by starting a movie or TV show, then pause it.

After that, hit the “other” option from the toolbar and choose English [Original] instead of English [Original] (5.1).

Your sound should equalise better for non-surround sound devices if this was the issue causing the problem.

People were pleased to learn the trick 

“It works! Now I can fully appreciate Russell Crowe’s mumblings in Gladiator,“ one commenter said under the post.

“Trying this when I get in coz my hearing isn’t great and find the sound balance awful on most telly. Nice one!” wrote another.

“I realised this just last week. I felt reborn afterwards,“yet another app user said.

Having tried it myself, I can confirm it made my listening experience a lot smoother (now for an even more intense Baby Reindeer binge...).

Related...