Q&A on the News

Why is the crowd noise for TV sports events so loud that you cannot understand what the sports announcers have to say? —Kathy Piska, Atlanta

It could be related to the surround sound function on a TV. The FOX Sports online help center says “your TV may be trying to decode the surround sound.” It advises to check to see if surround, which may be called SRS, TruSurround or WOW, is enabled.

In the online help center, the network writes that the two types of audio are 2.0 stereo, which needs one or two speakers, and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, which requires an external sound system with an audio decoder, five speakers and a subwoofer.

“HD TV manufacturers like to tout fancy features, including surround sound decoding, but most of them fail miserably,” according to the online help center post. “You simply cannot get 5 channels of audio out of 2 speakers without compromising something, and that usually is the center channel.”

The center channel, it says, is used for the primary audio track, which includes announcer voices. The result is an “imbalanced mix with the audience and music overpowering the singers and announcers.”

Consumer electronics companies also offer possible remedies for their devices. For example, Vizio, a maker of products, including ultra high-definition TVs, says on its support website that if your TV is having issues with loud background noises or fluctuating audio, two possible remedies are: turn off the DTS TruSurround setting or turn off the DTS TruVolume.