Use the Enhance Dialogue feature on your Apple TV when you can’t clearly hear what characters in your favorite TV shows and movies are saying.
The dialogue in TV and movies has gotten so bad that many people can’t clearly hear what the actors are saying. That’s why home theater setups often provide speech enhancements to fix unintelligible conversations in movies.
The new Enhance Dialogue feature in tvOS17 makes muddy dialogue clearer relative to the sound effects and cinematic music. Enhance Dialogue works on the Apple TV 4K and the second-generation HomePod, and is compatible with streaming apps which provide the standard tvOS playback controls like Disney+, Hulu and Max.
Apps with a custom video player, like Netflix, don’t work with this feature. Here’s how to enable and use the Enhance Dialogue feature on your Apple TV.
How to use the Apple TV’s Enhance Dialogue feature
If your HomePod or a HomePod stereo pair is set as the default sound output in tvOS, you’ll see the Enhance Dialogue option in the audio menu above the timeline.
- Start a movie or TV show in your favorite app on your Apple TV.
- Show playback controls by resting your finger on the clickpad of your second-generation Siri Remote or later. Alternatively, press Up on the clickpad ring. If you have the first-generation Siri Remote, rest your finger on the touch surface.
- Select the Audio Options button above the scrubber that resembles a waveform.
- Click the Enhance Dialogue option to enable the feature.
The characters should now speak more clearly, courtesy of AI.
But I don’t see Enhance Dialogue in the menu?
There are a few reasons why the Enhance Dialogue option doesn’t appear next to Reduce Loud Sounds in the menu. Do you have a compatible setup? You must set at least one second-generation HomePod as the default sound output for your Apple TV in Settings > Video and Audio > Audio Output.
Remember that Enhance Dialogue is unsupported on the Apple TV HD, original HomePod and HomePod mini. It also doesn’t work on your TV’s built-in speakers, soundbars or other audio devices and Hi-Fi equipment.
AI makes unintelligible conversations intelligible
tvOS 17’s dialogue enhancer is similar in its capabilities and execution to Prime Video’s Dialogue Boost feature. If you’re having dialogue clarity issues, just select the Enhance Dialogue option and you’ll instantly better understand what’s being said—even over deafening explosion and the musical score playing.
With a bit of help from machine learning and computational audio techniques, your Apple TV and HomePod can elevate character voices buried behind the background noise, bringing the dialogue forward to the center channel.
Read an explainer by SlashFilms to learn more about why movie dialogue has gotten more challenging to understand if this mystery has been puzzling you.