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You can stop straining your ears to hear what characters are saying on your favorite Amazon Prime programs, thanks to the streaming service’s new dialogue amplifier, which is now available for select Amazon Original shows and movies.
So instead of cranking up the volume to hear the dialogue (and then blowing out your eardrums when the music swells or when explosions go off) or reading subtitles as you watch, you can use the new setting — called Dialogue Boost — to make only the voices louder.
The new setting on Prime Video, which Amazon says was designed to assist hard of hearing customers, is easy to enable. When you start playing a show, hit pause. In the Settings menu, look for the Audio option under audio and subtitles (this may differ slightly for tablet versus TV users). Under Audio languages, pick the setting you desire: English Dialogue Boost: Medium or English Dialogue Boost: High. You can also access this feature by going into your Prime Video account and choosing the audio and subtitle settings on your device.
While Dialogue Boost is not available for every Amazon program yet, it is already set up so you can use it for a few popular films and series, including “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “The Big Sick.”
If you want to increase the volume of all dialogue on your TV, you can check your TV’s audio settings for options such as “Night Mode,” “Clear Voice,” or “Reduce Loud Sounds.” By turning these on, your television will bring the sound of loud explosions and other booming noises down a notch to match the volume of dialogue.
But hopefully other streaming giants will soon follow Amazon’s move and make a dialogue amplifier an option within their apps.
Amazon said that it hopes Dialogue Boost helps make streaming a more enjoyable experience for all.
“At Prime Video, we are committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and enjoyable streaming experience for all our customers,” Raf Soltanovich, V.P. of tech at Prime Video and Amazon Studios, said in a statement. “Our library of captioned and audio described content continues to grow, and by leveraging our technological capabilities to create industry-first innovations like Dialogue Boost, we are taking another step to create a more accessible streaming experience.”
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