Why is the crowd noise so loud on TV

[Blister]

Trying to watch the Little League World Series on ESPN2 right now. The crowd noise is so loud that impossible to understand the announcers. I have also noticed this on football, and basketball games for the last couple of years. Am I the only one annoyed by this seemingly recent change in the way the crowds are miked?

 

[GWguy]

They're transmitting in 5.1 surround sound and (I'm assuming) you only have a stereo TV. The center channel is being dropped, where all the main action is, so it is soft compared to the background levels now on left and right channels.

Go into your cable box setup and change the audio options to stereo, and do the same for the TV.

 

[Blister]

Thanks, no cable box, but turning off the surround sound did help.

 

[Larry Gude]

Trying to watch the Little League World Series on ESPN2 right now. The crowd noise is so loud that impossible to understand the announcers. I have also noticed this on football, and basketball games for the last couple of years. Am I the only one annoyed by this seemingly recent change in the way the crowds are miked?

No. I HATE IT.

The last, and I mean LAST in every sense of the word, Redskins game I went to, you got assaulted by the live mic'ing of the crowd so that the BILLION speakers in that place created this inane feed back loop of fake crowd noise. This is what happens when promotional people rule football; you get promotion, not football.

It's like when justice is run by lawyers; you get law, not justice.
Insurers run health care, not doctors. So, we get???

One bright spot is in the restaurant business; it is ruled by chefs so, we get really good food nearly everywhere.

 

[GWguy]

Thanks, no cable box, but turning off the surround sound did help.