I have heard from a few sources that dialogue is much easier to follow on Blu-ray discs without needing to have it loud enough where the action scenes exceed the desired peaks for your ht environment. I have heard this observation from 2 separate people who made this claim un-prompted. Both said that it is much easier on Blu-ray to play (listen to) movies comfortably, free of having to guard the volume level, than it is for regular dvd.

After watching Dark Knight on regular dvd I was challenged to tighten my sound setup even more - as this dvd has the largest dynamic range of audio that I've heard on a dvd (other than Master & Commander). Even with the sound from the stereo on my Sony display the audio was difficult to bear. On one hand this was a great help as it challenged me more with my 5.1 setup. I still find that about half of dvd's make it quite difficult to understand dialogue without having the peaks exceed the limits you want. I have a well-calibrated system and moderately treated room and still find this difficult in a living room. I feel that a lot of these dvd's can only be comfortable played in a dedicated HT room, which majorities of people do not have. I've come a long way for my living room as i've refused to surrender to DRC (which to me degrades the sound).

Does Blu-ray sound make this any easier?

Does Blu-ray sound make this any easier?

In theory, blu ray and dvd have the same dynamic range. Due to less compression, the loud peaks of blu ray might sound smoother and less harsh. Certainly Blu-ray does not have LESS dynamic range. And btw, dynamic range is a good thing...I like M&C and the dark knight because they both have such good dynamic range.

It could be that the Blu-Ray players they used had dialog compensation turned on by default, and the compared DVD players did not?

What are your speakers? A poor center channel speaker and/or poor placement of the center channel speaker can seriously affect dialogue intelligibility.

As jwatte said, for whatever reason, it may be that you were listening to the BR with some sort of dynamic range compression engaged.

You may want to try whatever dynamic range compression your receiver offers in an effort to make your DVDs more listenable.

In theory, blu ray and dvd have the same dynamic range. Due to less compression, the loud peaks of blu ray might sound smoother and less harsh. Certainly Blu-ray does not have LESS dynamic range. And btw, dynamic range is a good thing...I like M&C and the dark knight because they both have such good dynamic range.It is the wide dynamic range that causes an issue for many people. Finding that the loud scenes are too loud when the volume is set high enough to hear the softer stuff (like dialogue) is a common complaint. That is what Napoleon D is getting at.

I say, if that is your preference, then get an av reciver that allows you to change the dynamic range. My yamaha receiver allows me to set the dynamic range it produces to either min, normal, max. Me, being a lover of dynamic range, have it set to max, but those who are the opposite could probably do the min.
To me thats better than looking toward the playback media for a solution.

i know the ps3 has a setting that can make the dialog louder. maybe a lot of people use that.