I cannot hear characters speaking on commercial DVD films as sound is very muted.
In the UK, the HD TV channels have the capability to transmit multi-channel sound, and this occurs for a small number of programmes (typically blockbuster movies, prestige drama productions, "The Simpsons" on Channel 4). These programmes suffer with the same problem of inaudible dialogue, so using appropriate mix-down settings would provide a cure for both DVD and HD TV.enable down-mixing in your audio codec settings.