Why Disney+ has low volume and how to fix the 'quiet' streaming service
Since it first launched in the US in November 2019, Disney+ has quickly grown into one of the world’s largest streaming services, with a whopping 129 million subscribers as of January 2022.
However, despite coming from one of the biggest media companies in the world, fans have still found issues with certain aspects of the platform.
One particular complaint centres around supposedly low volume on Disney+, with numerous fan threads on social media claiming that the streaming service is unusually quiet compared with its competitors.
Two recent examples of this can be found in Marvel’s newest arrival, Moon Knight, and the Star Wars series, The Book of Boba Fett, where fans – including this writer – have noticed that the volume of certain scenes, notably action sequences, doesn’t quite live up to expectations.
But just what is causing this supposed issue and is there a fix?
What is causing Disney+ to be so quiet?
The cause of Disney+ having low volume could differ depending on the device you’re using or the show/film you’re watching.
But for the most part, the reason why shows like Moon Knight and The Book of Boba Fett seem quiet is most likely due to the streaming service making use of Dolby Atmos audio in its original series.
That’s because Dolby Atmos makes use of a higher audio range to give Disney+’s staple series movie-quality sound, with crisp dialogue and deep, booming explosions during action scenes.
However, when watching Disney+, most viewers won’t have a pre-setup cinema screen to make the most of said Dolby Atmos sound resulting in action scenes that sound like they’re taking place in a library.
For this writer, this was especially noticeable during the car chase scene in Moon Knight’s opening episode, as dialogue scenes were fine but the action sequence seemed almost whisper quiet.
It’s worth noting that fans are unlikely to notice a similar problem for traditional TV shows like The Simpsons, for example, as the long-running animation was originally created for TVs with a lower audio range and so any dialogue and action scenes will already be mixed to suit typical TV viewers.
Is there a fix?
To make full use of the higher audio range of Dolby Atmos, the best way to solve the issue is to turn the volume up on your TV during one of the action scenes in question and set it to the level you require.
This will allow you to find the right volume level so that action scenes play with the booming, uncompressed sound they were intended to have while also giving added weight and clarity to dialogue scenes as you’d find in the cinema.
However, if this isn’t possible as you don’t want to wake sleeping children or disturb your neighbours, another potential solution would be to tweak the audio settings on your device.
Most modern TVs allow the option of enabling a ‘night mode’ or something similar, which shortens the audio range, meaning that action and dialogue play at a similar level throughout.
And finally, if your TV allows, turning off Dolby Atmos altogether could also help normalise the volume as one Reddit user suggested in a thread on the topic.
Fans discuss Disney+’s quiet audio
Since Disney+ first launched in 2019, the audio levels on the streaming service have been a regular topic of discussion among subscribers with many taking to social media to offer their thoughts.
One fan in a Reddit thread explained: “It seems to me that the higher bandwidth requirement in comparison to other streaming services is entirely due to the video. Everything on Disney Plus looks stunning but the audio is lower, sometimes significantly so than Netflix and Amazon. However, shows on Disney Plus are much better/evenly mastered than those on Netflix. My main device has good speakers and I’ve got headphones for everything else so I’m okay with the audio but I could definitely see some people having trouble with it.”
While another Reddit fan said: “This is true for me. My headset is on 84 [for Disney+] and normally it’s on 25 for YouTube and 40 for Netflix.”
Elsewhere on Twitter, this fan commented: “Is it just me or is the audio on Encanto hella low? Dialogue, not the songs. I’m constantly changing the volume. WHY?”
Another fan wrote: “Why is the Disney+ app volume so low? @disneyplus So annoying. Max volume and can’t hear it on my devices. (YouTube, Netflix everything else streaming is just fine).”
And finally, this fan summed up their thoughts perfectly in gif form:
I like @disneyplus and all, but the volume seems really low. I actually could not watch it on the plane. I have to crank my tv to 100, where other streaming apps are about 50, and YouTube tv was 25. Anyone else have this? I feel like it's made for creatures with really large ears
— Chad – Screen Team (@TheScreenTeam) February 17, 2020
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