Amazon's New Fire TVs Solve One Of The Biggest Complaints That Netflix Users Have

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Amazon has just updated its Fire TV line-up. The new additions include the brand's most affordable 4K streaming stick, new Fire 2-series and 4-series TVs, and new Omni QLED models. Aside from a fresh design and performance boost, they also bring an Omnisense system to the table. But one upgrade that flew under the radar is Dialogue Boost, which is now a standard feature across all the new Fire TV models.

Dialogue Boost is an accessibility feature that was launched in 2023 for the Prime Video streaming service. It lets you selectively enhance the volume of dialogue. The overarching idea is to make dialogue more discernible, especially when there's a lot of background noise. However, it was limited to a small selection of Amazon's original content and films. Now that Dialogue Boost is becoming a standard hardware-level feature on Amazon's latest Fire TVs, it should solve a well-known problem for Netflix users, too.

For years, some Netflix users have complained about subdued conversations against the backdrop of music and sound effects, but the problem persists. The only official recourse available to counter the problem of "quiet voices" has been limited to Apple TV models. That involved switching the audio format to Dolby Digital 5.1 mode. In addition, switching the language to English may help make the dialogue more discernible. However, for non-English speaking users, that won't help.

The arrival of Dialogue Boost as a standard feature across Amazon's new Fire TV models is great news, and not just for Netflix subscribers. It's crucial for any piece of media where voice legibility is an issue. This is an AI-powered feature that "intelligently identifies points where dialogue may be hard to hear above background music and effects," says Amazon. During playback, it separates the voice signals and boosts their volume levels to make sure that conversations stand out against the background sound. 

Instead of raising a single channel in a stereo system, Dialogue Boost is a targeted enhancement. Regardless of whether you have a sophisticated multi-speaker system or a lone speaker, Dialogue Boost should work its magic just fine. 

To enable Dialogue Boost, tap on the "Closed Caption or Subtitles" option while streaming content on Prime Video, or the "Audio" (waveform icon) on other platforms to open the Audio controls dashboard. Once there, select the Dialogue Boost option and choose between Medium and High options, depending on your needs or the level of ambient noise. On Prime Video, the Dialogue Boost label is available on the detail page of all the applicable titles.

As far as the hardware goes, the Fire TV Stick 4K Select is priced at $39.99. Meanwhile, the Omni QLED Series starts at $479.99, while the Fire TV 2 and 4 Series models will set you back at least $159.99. All of them are now available for preorder in the US and come with Alexa+ access out of the box.