How to make films look and sound better on a Windows PC

A film can look flat and sound uneven on a PC even when the screen and speakers are good. Most of the difference comes from a few display settings, the way film sound is mixed and what your player can do with both. Here is what to check, in the order that makes the biggest difference.

Start with the display

1. Native resolution and scaling. In Settings, System, Display, keep the resolution marked Recommended. Anything else makes Windows scale the picture and softens it.
2. Refresh rate. Under Advanced display, a higher refresh rate makes scrolling and menus smoother, but films are mostly made at 24 frames a second. A rate that divides evenly by 24, such as 120 Hz, avoids uneven motion in slow camera pans.
3. HDR, if your screen supports it. Turn on Use HDR in the display settings for HDR films. On many laptop screens HDR looks dim or washed out with ordinary video, so switch it off again if everyday content looks worse.
4. Video playback settings. Settings, Apps, Video playback lets Windows process video automatically to enhance it on supported hardware, and choose whether battery life or quality comes first when you are unplugged.

Why dialogue is quiet and explosions are loud

Films are mixed for cinemas and home theatres, with a wide gap between the quietest whisper and the loudest blast, and with dialogue on its own centre channel. On two laptop speakers or headphones that centre channel is folded into the left and right, and the wide range means you reach for the volume every scene. Three things help:

• Loudness equalisation or a night mode narrows the gap between quiet and loud, so you can hear speech without waking the house during action scenes.
• Dialogue boost lifts the frequencies where speech sits, which makes voices clearer without making the whole film louder.
• Spatial sound for headphones, such as Windows Sonic, places surround channels around you instead of squashing them between your ears.

Colour and the look of the picture

Brightness and contrast on the screen change everything you see. Grading inside the player changes only the film, which is how editors give a scene its mood. The tools are the same ones colourists use: colour wheels for shadows, midtones and highlights, scopes to see what is really happening to the image, and LUTs, small .cube files that hold a complete look you can apply in one step. A before and after split shows whether a change is actually an improvement, because the eye adjusts to any look within a minute.

Subtitles, audio tracks and speed

• Subtitles. A separate subtitle file, usually .srt, plays alongside the film when it has the same name and sits in the same folder. A good player lets you change its size and timing.
• Audio tracks. Many files carry several languages or a commentary track. Choose them from the player rather than hunting for a different copy.
• Playback speed. Slightly faster playback suits lectures and documentaries; frame by frame suits checking a detail.

Streaming services

Streaming services decide their own picture and sound quality, based on your plan, your connection and the browser or app you use. Their streams are protected, so players and tools on your PC cannot regrade or save them. For the best result from a service, pick the highest quality its plan allows and use a wired or strong connection.

How XLUNA Media Elite handles this

XLUNA Media Elite plays your films, series and music and regrades the picture live while the film plays, with colour wheels, your own .cube LUTs, scopes and a before and after split. Four 3D sound engines, a ten band equalizer, night mode, dialogue boost and loudness matching tune the sound for headphones or speakers, and a scene sets picture and sound together. Any subtitle file, several audio tracks and speeds from 0.25x to 8x are built in, and Theatre opens the streaming services you already use alongside your own files. Your library stays on your PC.