Another option is to find the surround sound setting for your TV or streaming device and make sure it’s configured correctly for the number of speakers you have. If your hardware is set up for a 5.1 surround sound system but you’re only using two speakers in a stereo configuration, for example, a dialog box may be lost.

If there is nothing on your streaming device, check your soundbar, if you have one. These soundbars often come with functions to increase the volume of speech. For example, with any Sonos soundbar, you can enable Speech Enhancement in the Sonos app for Android or iOS: Go to the Now Playing screen for your soundbar, then tap the Speech Enhancement icon (it looks like a little figure talking).

Listen through headphones

Another option you have here is listening through headphones, which means you can turn up the volume as much as you want without annoying the people you live with (or the people who live next door). We have previously written about in more detail connect wireless headphones to your TVbut in short, you simply need to find the right setting on your TV and then put your Bluetooth headphones in pairing mode.

Let’s take Roku TVs, streaming sticks and streaming boxes as examples. One option is to install the Roku app on Android or iOS, then connect a pair of wired or wireless headphones to your smartphone and listen to the audio through your phone while the movie or show plays on the big screen.

Most Roku devices and TVs support wireless headphone connections.

Courtesy of Roku

Another option is to connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones wirelessly to your Roku TV or device. (Not all Roku devices can do this, though many of them can.) Select from the Roku main menu on the home screen Remote controls and devices > Wireless headphones > Add new wireless headphones and follow the instructions on the screen.

This is an advantage of watching movies and shows through streaming apps running on a game console (like PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X): They’re configured with wireless headset support, so you’ll find tons of headphones on the market that can connect to your console in seconds, then stream the audio from your movies and shows right to your ears.