Adjusting volume on BluRay movie

[fme]

Hi all,
Just got a PS3, largely for watching movies however have just watched Star Trek blu ray movie and while the picture was excellent, I constantly had to keep the remote in hand to turn up/down the volume. Action sequences were loud (not good for keeping baby asleep upstairs) whereas dialog was very low and needed volume pumped up more than on any Sky channel.
Our sound just comes through TV - no separate sound system otherwise I could at least adjust the centre/surround speaker volumes.
There are some volume options on bluray disc, on PS3 and on TV but none seemed to help in this scenario.
Any thoughts on whether I can 'equalise' the action and dialog volumes or is this normal?

 

[gebbel]

The is no substitute for a good surround sound system when watching Blu Ray movies, as this format also encodes terrific sound effects that no TV can reproduce. In your case, you mention that only the dialogue was poor. That's your TV's(and the majority if not all TV's) inability to process audio effects like a separate system. With a good 5.1 SS system, you can increase the dialogue effect without increasing bass for example.

 

[Latrade]

There's usually settings on the TV or even the player to control this. Usually something like "dynamic range compression" in the AV settings. Some are basic as in just on, off or automatic, but some allow you to tinker with it manually.

I think the PS3 one is very basic, so it may be better to try and adjust it through your tv.

As gebbel said, it's really a feature on newer movies as they're mixed for digital surround and so it cause these issues with just tv speakers. A home cinema system is an expensive way to control the problem and even then you'll still get big booms etc and will have to tinker around with the settings.

Another means of treating the symptom rather than fixing it is to see if your tv has a "night time" setting for the audio. This adjust the dynamic range.