How to enable dialog enhancement on your Roku TV system
When watching a movie or a TV show, spoken dialogue can sometimes get lost amidst other sounds in a busy scene. Turning up the volume may help, but it may annoy others nearby. When you are watching a movie or TV show on your compatible Roku TV™ system, a feature called dialog enhancement can help you better hear critical dialogue without needing to adjust the volume. Dialog enhancement works by boosting speech audio separately from background content without increasing the overall loudness of the scene.
Note: Dialog enhancement may also be referred to as speech clarity on some TVs. Dialog enhancement and speech clarity function the same way. You may have either option depending on the type of content being played and the capabilities of your TV.
How to change dialog enhancement settings
When streaming a movie or TV show, or watching content from an external device connected to your Roku TV system (e.g., Blu-ray™ player, cable set-top box, game console), you can change dialog enhancement (or speech clarity) settings with the following instructions:
- Begin streaming content or switch the active input to a connected device (e.g., cable set-top box, game console)
- While content is playing, press Star
on your Roku remote - Select Sound settings
- Use the directional pad to select Dialog enhancement (or Speech clarity)
- Select the desired dialog enhancement (or speech clarity) option
Note:
- In some streaming apps, Star is assigned a different function meaning it will not open the Options menu as described above. In these cases, you must launch a different app, such as The Roku Channel, and follow the steps above. Once the feature is switched to the desired setting, it remains when you return to the original app.
- On some TVs, the dialog enhancement option may appear under a different menu such as DTS Studio Sound or Sonic Emotion.
Dialog enhancement and speech clarity options
Dialog enhancement has two options:
- On: Dialog enhancement is engaged, and speech audio is boosted over background content.
- Off: Dialog enhancement is not engaged, and speech audio is unmodified.
Speech clarity has four options:
- Auto: Adjusts speech clarity based on what you're watching.
- Off: Speech clarity is not engaged, and dialogue is unmodified.
- Low: Dialogue is slightly louder than the rest of the scene.
- High: Dialogue is noticeably louder than the rest of the scene.
Last updated at 2/25/2026 5:29:23 AM
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