Absolutely. Sometimes I cannot understand a word. Of course, then I quit watching the program. Probably not what they intended.

Tell 'em!

They don't want you changing channels.

ole joyful - old fart who, with hearing issues, shares your frustration

Background noise, cluttered or high noise levels, yada yada yada, don't bother me.

I've had my hearing tested recently and I've had no loss at all, yet. I do find some people can be hard to understand. It seems that pronunciation and enunciation practices may have changed, or maybe some people have sloppy speaking habits.

I have trouble understanding one of my kids on phone calls. Sometimes I have to ask they repeat what they'd just said. In this case, I think it's running words together and speaking too fast.

Good luck. I'm not sure there's much you can do.

" I hate how many shows are so dark in color that I can't even make out what's happening in the scene. "

Maybe your TV's settings need to be adjusted? Light/dark, contrast, hues, etc. usually can be changed.

^^^ I, like Fun2B, sometimes find the image too dark. Last night I began watching a program and couldn’t continue. I usually have my TV screen on Vivid.

Elmer, I’m glad that you have good hearing and are not annoyed. I should probably get my hearing tested and maybe a hearing aid while insurance will help.

Audiologist? Where to go? chiropracter lol

Indeed some people and youngun’s are not as careful when they speak. But they seem to understand one another.

The other crazy thing is that only lately have I discovered South Park. Talk about trying to figure out what the characters are saying. They speed up the speach. I have to put headphones on for better acuity, volume down, and subtitles. I have to keep backing up to play segments over. Some of the episodes are meh, but others have me in stitches.

There are earbuds with hearing aid type features that allow you to dampen background noises and focus on voices. Like these (link)

edited to add an updated version of the earbuds to the link

My husband speaks with no ups or downs in his voice. Monotonal. If there's music playing or any other noise in the room...I can't focus on HIS individual voice. If we're driving in the car together....I swear he's whispering. It must be the traffic noise drowning him out.

Yes, a chiropractor for sure. They can adjust the bones in your inner ears. Or, a homeopathic or naturopathic practitioner. They can give you water to drink that will fix the problem.

The thing about audiologists I've experienced (with oldsters in my family) is that many of them are scoundrels. Highwaymen wearing white coats waiting to take your money with overpriced products.

Maybe Costco would be a good place to go, a place you can trust. I believe there's little professional skill involved to administer a hearing test, they're programs that run on PCs. And the results are printed out on paper. Many insurance policies cover the cost, check to see if yours does.

I think Costco's "health" related offerings - the pharmacy, the audiology/hearing aid department, as well as the optical department with optician-led eye exams, are open to the public. No membership is required.

There are settings in your TV (if you have a more recent model) and on some streaming services that can help with this. For example, on Netflix, you'll see that most shows by default are set for 5.1 audio, which is surround sound. If you go into your audio settings and choose English, rather than English 5.1, you should be able to hear dialogue better.

" There are earbuds with hearing aid type features that allow you to dampen background noises "

I think petal is talking about a unitary sound source that has background noise in it.

Noise cancelling ear devices reduce ambient background noise in the room or place the listener is sitting. Like when sitting on an airplane, whether listening to something or not. Do they also do the same with "background sounds" embedded in a recorded sound stream? I don't think so - how would the device know what sounds are to be excluded from the sound source and which are to be covered?

It definitely pays to check your TV sound and picture settings. I started watching something yesterday, and couldn't understand why everything looked like it was a night shot, so I checked the picture settings and it was on Vivid, and when I switched to normal, the darkness was lifted 🙂

And our TVs have a sound setting that enhances voice, however I notice the bad mixing more often when listening to radio shows and podcasts. What's supposed to be background sound is way too forward and sometimes drowns out voices.

Keeping closed captioning on is a real thing now - many people report using it, even when they do not have hearing impairment.

Something else I've noticed is that sound levels can vary a lot from one streaming app to another, and also from one show, video or movie to another - along with ads, of course. It seems that one must constantly be adjusting.

Nicole, my husband is your husband!!!

ETA except (lots of exceptions) my DH has added features. while in the same room, he talks to the floor, AC, wall. I remind, implore him (hourly) to aim his mouth-voice in my direction. He cannot sustain that. Sometimes he will not make eye contact. I ask him if he is uncomfortable looking at me (I was never a babe, fa shuwah, but not ugly, not scarey). He says no.

I think I might want to hook him up to a shock-stun device. He can behave in an arrogant, self absorbed way. He can seem pretty immature.

The plan today was to work around house, yard before winter. At 2 PM he still was slogging around the 1st floor, in my way, not doing any of what he said he was going to do. Yesterday, I spent 2 hours and tendinitis hand pain points re-constructing yet another ”Joint ToDo Task List.” Does not register.

Today, with tons to do and little sleep last night, I am tempted to just order out expensive food and a case of wine. Turn TV on loud. Binge on South Park. Maybe find YouTube vids on ” How to be a grownup” for somebody.

Or, look for a place to live with no bars, and from where I can smell marine air (my bliss).

Its like he gets his period every few days.

Sorry for the rant again. I am so peeved, again, at his ?? laziness, immaturity?, dementia, pissy attitude. I keep saying to him that if he’s not going to help (home maintenance or cleaning chores that are backlogged, he should just take a vacation somwhere. I will do all with him out of my path. Leave me with some$ cash.

He used to be a bit industrious, focussed, disciplined. Growing dark outside at 4 PM. Another day sabotaged. Wasted. I have to again readjust my expectations for another sabotage, Jersey barrier in my path.

So his mumbling, sloppy enunciation is small fry by comparison.

We always are frustrated with the sound on the tv. Videos have to have the volume up a bit, but when we switch to broadcast or streaming we have to remember to turn it down first, especially if one of us has gone to bed. And like carol, we find it can vary from one service to another.

The other night we watched Serena, and between the mumbling and the more-annoying-than-usual music, we had a hard time understanding. I’m happy to turn on subtitles, but DH will not for an English-language movie.

Our tv remote is super sensitive and we occasionally accidentally set it to 3D mode. Yikes! That will mess with your brain.

Funny story: I went with my parents to see a matinee, Coal Miner’s Daughter, way back when. My mom commented how dark the movie was, really lent a lot to the movie’s setting and atmosphere. Then she realize she still had her sunglasses on from outside.

I agree that the earbuds are best for filtering out background noises when in a live conversation, but I find that when I pair mine with my TV, it really clarifies the dialog over the background noise. Maybe just making the dialog clearer is what does it.

^^^ Yes, can really help. I use the noise cancelling headphone to block out AC noise as well. But after a while cannot tolerate anything on me.

bpath — funny story

FWIW, I remember reading something about older people and hearing issues that pointed out it's not necessarily a hearing deficit, but that older brains seem to have more difficulty differentiating between speech and background noise in loud environments. I had my hearing tested and it was normal, but I still have issues making out speech when there's a lot of other noise - and I work in a pretty noisy environment.

Petalique, I don't find earbuds as uncomfortable as headphones. You pretty much forget you're wearing them.

I've seen a print ad for hearing 'aids' that you wear around your neck -- nothing in your ears. Some MD/inventor was flacking these. They weren't expensive. I'd try something like that. Most ads are all about, "No one will know you wear aids." Well, I do not care.

I need to look for South Park again. A hoot.

Oly, for some reason, in ear things hurt my bony ears.

carolb, oh, no. I may be doomed.

chisue, I think you can find a lot of the South Park episodes at YouTube. Some of them really crack me up. If the DH decides he’s tired of walking in circles around the messy house, or spending 2 to 3 weeks fixing a garage door, I might persude him to watch some. He will likely find them too silly. Not a big belly laugh kinda person.

Lately Comedy Central is broadcasting a slew on them. Some I giggled over:

— How to Eat with Your Butt

— Sickofancy

— Tonsil Trouble

— (anything featuring Cartman is great)

oly, I think you're right insofar as suggesting earbuds or headphones providing clearer sound when watching TV. The speakers and sound systems of most TVs are usually low quality (absent being connected to a soundbar or sound system). The speakers often face backward or sideways and so the sound can pick up the delays and artifacts of muddle while being reflected before bouncing back and reaching ears.

I suspect regular headphones and earbuds would provide the same clarity improvement as do sound cancelling ones.

I think I have a soundbar, in packaging, from a older TV. Think I could hook it up my LG ?Bravia?

How about better lighting on movies and TV?

DH and I always joke that the director ran out of lighting budget. But it is a real thing. Our monitor adjustments did nothing so I googled it last year and lighting has trended much darker since digital filming. It has something to do with a preference for under exposing rather than over exposing. Blah, blah, blah. Makes me feel blind as a bat and I'm only in my early 50s. I'll be damned when my vision gets even worse.

oh, boy! did you touch a really big annoyance! I have almost the same exact problem and complaint. How many times I have turned off a program because the darned background music is so loud that I cant hear the dialogue. I hate it. I have had to give up on some things that I really wanted to watch , because of that darned ovebearing music.

Then you have the actors sometimes speaking in a subdued .voice and they add some dramatic over music to it, and there is no way that I am going to be able to hear the voices at all. I just dont get it. It is almost impossible to watch over the loud and over bearing music.

Another complaint is that there are scenes where it is so dark that it is hard o see what is happening. But, I think that the over music is worse than the dark scenes. But, if it is a dark scene and they are whispering while the background music blares.....thats it, I am done with it .

There is no point in continuing with it.

I did not first read the others comments about the darkness and was surprised to see that most of you here have also noted it

I know that the music supports the action on the screen but this happens even with non dramatic presentations, in documentaries, in everything, actually. I just keep waiting for the noise to stop so that I can hear the voices, and it doesnt stop. I have no option but to switch it off. Very often I am knitting while watching, anyway . I depend on hearing more than seeing because I am watching my knitting.

We do run the subtitles when they are possible.

Want to talk about the overhead music/noise in a retail store? Another supreme annoyance! I worked in retail for years when I was young but I can hardly stand to go in as a customer anymore. I remember when Target was music free. Then they revamped and changed it all and I hardly ever linger in there anymore. I do what I came for and leave. Sometimes I put on air pods and at least I have my own choice of sound and it rather much insulates me.

And the music is everywhere!

Worse is down in central America . There is music blaring everwhere.

I remember when we were in Costa Rica a number of years ago and we had boarded a ferry to go across the bay. Nice day, sitting top deck, waiting to take a nice ride across the water, and, as soon as we pulled away from the dock there was this ear splitting level of scratchy soundtrack just blasting across the ferry , very loud! I could hardly wait to get out of there. It was awful! the same on any bus down there, lots of loud music.

I hate the overhead in the grocery store, too. Most of the soundtracks are so insipid and just awful . Walmarts over head "radio" is the pits and makes me cringe and try to get out of there as fast as I can.

@petalique - I’ve had hearing problems for many many years – severe tinnitus, acoustic neuroma irradiation in one ear which is now just about deaf and severe hearing loss in the other ear – but I can’t complain. I have been using Sennheiser assistive TV listening wireless earphones also for many years. My currently installed model is the RS 5200 and before that it was the RS 4200. For TV listening these are a great help to me. I like to watch soccer – the unfiltered crowd noise on some broadcasts coupled with announcer accents make it real tough. I bought the 5200 in Jan 2023 – I’m sure there are probably upgrades and newer devices. I wear a hearing-aid in one ear, and I have absolutely no ability to tell the direction of where any sounds are coming from (and I love watching and hearing birds). In one-on-one conversations I do fine – add another person or background noise and all bets are off. Another useful capability of using these earphones is that the TV speakers can be set at any volume for others preference or you can turn the volume off the TV external speakers completely and still have sound through the earphones (some of this may be dependent on your TVs features). Also, my earphones are only installed on 1 TV (have 2) which is used mostly at nighttime. I’ve been thinking about a soundbar for the TV that does not have the earphones attached but I haven’t gotten around to doing the research. Good luck with your hearing.