Fire TV Stick owners need to change this audio setting ASAP

I’ve been using a Fire TV Stick 4K Max as my go-to streaming device for about a year now, and during that time, I’ve come to appreciate its extensive settings menu, which seems to have a solution for every problem I run into, such as HDR quirks or Bluetooth issues. But there’s one useful feature I recently discovered buried in the settings menu that has really improved my streaming experience: Dialogue Boost.

You’ve probably experienced this before, and it’s one of the things that irritates me most when watching a TV show or movie: missing dialogue because the music or sound effects suddenly get so loud that they drown everything out. Usually, I end up rewinding a scene or cranking up the volume to try to fix this, but neither is a great solution, and both can pull you out of whatever you’re watching. That’s where Dialogue Boost swoops in to save the day.

As the name suggests, Dialogue Boost specifically increases the volume of spoken dialogue in what you’re watching, above sound effects and music, without raising your overall volume level. Even better, it offers multiple levels to choose from. Whether you just need a subtle lift or a much bigger boost, you can set it to whatever works best for you and whoever you’re watching with.

It’s an underrated feature on Fire TV Sticks, and even if you don’t think you need it, setting Dialogue Boost to its lowest level can still improve your viewing experience in ways you might not notice until you try it. Best of all, enabling and adjusting Dialogue Boost on your Fire TV Stick only takes a few seconds.

How to enable Dialogue Boost on your Fire Stick

Never have to rewind again

Dialogue Boost is available on the latest-generation Fire TV Sticks, including the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, 4K Plus, and 4K Max, as well as the Fire TV Cube. Here’s how to enable it step-by-step:

1. On the Fire TV home screen, navigate to Settings.

2. Under Settings, go to Display & Audio.

3. Select Dialogue Boost.

4. From there, you’ll see varying levels of Dialogue Boost available.

5. Choose the level that works best for you.

Once you’ve picked a Dialogue Boost level and tested it out, you can always go back and tweak it if the dialogue is still too quiet or if it ends up feeling too loud. Personally, I find the “Low” level works perfectly for me since it offers the best balance, but your mileage may vary.

If you’re curious how Dialogue Boost actually works, it uses a machine-learning algorithm that runs directly on your Fire TV Stick. It intelligently identifies spoken dialogue in shows and movies, then adjusts its volume relative to background music and sound effects — all without cranking up your TV’s overall volume. Even better, Dialogue Boost works across all apps and streaming services on Fire TV, not just Prime Video.

Music and sound effects still sound the way they should at the lower levels of Dialogue Boost, which matters a lot when you’re watching something like Star Wars and don’t want to miss out on the epic soundscape it offers.

There are plenty of ways to address missed dialogue, such as turning on captions, using Bluetooth headphones, or raising your TV’s volume, but I’ve found that Dialogue Boost does the best job of making dialogue clearer without ruining the rest of the sound experience. Music and sound effects still sound the way they should at the lower levels of Dialogue Boost, which matters a lot when you’re watching something like Star Wars and don’t want to miss out on the epic soundscape it offers.

Overall, if you want to hear the characters in shows and movies more clearly on your Fire TV Stick, I highly recommend trying Dialogue Boost. Even at its lowest setting, it can noticeably improve your streaming experience, and it takes only a few seconds to turn on and adjust.