Their bitrate is roughly double the other popular services.
For example a 1 hour 4K TV show is about 9-11GB on AppleTV+. On Disney and Netflix and Amazon, it's about 4-6GB. On HBO MAX it's about 7-9GB.
The audio is the same across them all more or less. Most using 768K DD+ with Atmos these days.
How is this so hard to get right?
I have a Apple TV 4K (and Roku doesn't do much better, to be clear), connected to a Marantz Cinema 70s (8K, Dolby Atmos, 7.2), and little to nothing that is done either on the receiver, ATV, or playback source does anything to alleviate the huge frustration that is "being able to hear dialog cleanly without rupturing a speaker, eardrum or both when there's an explosion".
As for Roku... I have the Roku Ultra hooked up to the same... but, since Plex released an ATV app, I don't really need it...
However, you’re in luck. The center channel is reserved almost exclusively for the dialogue track in film and TV, so you should be able to turn it up and hear it more clearly without affecting anything else.
Well of course, it's nothing indeed -- they're simply passing through the audio as it was originally mastered, as they're meant to.
All your equipment is doing it right, assuming it's all configured correctly. And I assume it's not that the Roku "doesn't do much better", but does it exactly and precisely the same.
If you have an issue, it's presumably with the mastering standards, not with any of your equipment. Which is a whole other conversation around relative decibel levels in mixing, but it has nothing to do with technology.
Just curious: Is this comparing the same codec? x264 vs AV1 will have a massively different bitrate. So, if a service is using AV1, that could actually be better for the consumer.
Netflix 4K subscription will get you high bitrates, even for 1080p. I'm surprised MAX is that high; it used to be the worst.