Prime Video Adds Dialogue Boosts So Actors Won’t Seem Like They’re Whispering

Say you’ve tuned into an action-packed movie or series equipped with high-stakes chases, explosions, and thrilling combat, completed with some popcorn and a comfy blanket, and you’ll have a stellar evening planned. The only downside is that many shows nowadays will have intense action sounds, but the dialogue is often so quiet that it feels like the actors are whispering to each other.

Prime Video has a solution to this dilemma with a new ‘Dialogue Boost’ option meant to increase the sounds of those speaking on-screen.

The system uses an artificially-intelligent model to help raise the volume of conversations happening relative to the music and background sounds of the show. It can isolate dialogue and deliver a “target enhancement,” according to Amazon, so viewers won’t have to increase the entire volume of what they’re watching.

“At Prime Video, we are committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and enjoyable streaming experience for all our customers,” says Raf Soltanovich, the vice president of technology at Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “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.”

The feature only works on select Prime exclusives such as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Harlem. It’s also featured in movies like Beautiful Boy, The Big Sick, and Being the Ricardos. If you’re watching any of these, there will be an option under the audio and subtitles section to choose different levels of the “boost.”

Next on the list will be to increase the brightness of movies and shows nowadays, and everything will be right as rain.

Amazon plans to bring it to more titles later in the year.

[via PC Mag and Pocket-lint, images via Amazon]