Audio set up question. (1 Viewer)

[nzdreamer55]

Hello everyone,

I am running windows 8 with MP 1.4. I am using the LAV audio decoder 0.58.2. I have a sound system (5.1) that is connected to my HTPC via the motherboard Toslink. The issue that I have is that I have various things that are played through MP and thus am having various levels of audio quality. I would like to set the LAV decoder so that I get the best audio output given what is played through media portal. No all my audio is Dolby Digital and and I am not sure what to check within the proprieties.

Do I need to enable the mixing?
If an audio source already is 5.1 does the mixing level control what volume comes from the speakers?
Does a mixing level of 0 mean that no sound comes from the channel (e.g. if LFE is 0 does this mean nothing comes through the subwoofer)?
Do I want to Normalize Matrix?
Do I want Dolby Pro Logic Matrix Encoding?
Do I want to apply DRC? If so what level do I want to use?
Do I want to Bitstream? I am connecting to the speaker system with a toslink.
Do I want to convert Output to Standard Channel Layouts?

With so many different audio formats, (streamed over internet, torrent files, MP3) it is hard to know how to set this up.

I have tried so many things, but cannot figure out what some of these do.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks
-S

 

[kiwijunglist]

Check my guide, link in the sig.

Do I need to enable the mixing?
If you have 5.1 then, No it is not really needed, but it wont do any harm. It is more useful for users with stereo only.

If an audio source already is 5.1 does the mixing level control what volume comes from the speakers?
From what is written in doom9 forum it only effects downmix

Does a mixing level of 0 mean that no sound comes from the channel (e.g. if LFE is 0 does this mean nothing comes through the subwoofer)?
From my recollection of reading the doom9 thread - It's for down mixing, so if you had 2 channels then a level of 0 would mean no sound from the LFE channel would be mixed into the stereo channel.

Do I want to apply DRC? If so what level do I want to use?
Only if you want to boost audio in quiet scenes, eg. you watch a lot of late night tv and don't want to disturb others with variable audio levels.

Do I want to Bitstream? I am connecting to the speaker system with a toslink.
Yes, unless you want to use MPAR

Do I want to convert Output to Standard Channel Layouts?
Only needed for some audio devices that can't handle non standard layouts. No harm in clicking yes here.

 

[axlt2002]

Hi guys,

I'm attaching to this discussion since actually I'm also in the setup phase of MP...and having some questions related to the audio settings.

My speaker system is 4.0 (two front speakers and two rear speakers) where:

- The two front speakers encompass also a subwoofer (I'm using a Focal Little Bird system); therefore I'm just using the "analog output front speakers" of the mother board
- The two rear speakers are connected through an audio wireless sender to the "rear speakers analog output" of the mother board

I will then of course need the LAV Audio mixer to correctly listen the 5.1 movies audio on my 4.0 system. The settings I would try are the following:

- Center Mix Level = 0.71 (in order to have the center channel splitted on the two front speakers)
- Sorround Mix Level = 0 (having the two rear speakers, I suppose that I don't need to put any value here)
- LFE Mix Level = ?!?!? (if I will put e.g. 0.71, will be the LFE splitted ONLY on the two front channels OR between the 4 speakers?; the basic idea is to have the LFE channel sent to the front speaker only, having it amplified in the Focal Little Bird system, but I don't know how to achieve this...).

Instead of LAV Audio Filter I see that there is also the AC3 Filter that displays also the mixer in order to check easly where the different channels are mappend on the matrix...but...I've read somewhere that AC3 Filter is less stable than LAV Audio Filter...

Thanks in advance for any clarification!

 

[kiwijunglist]

If you set downmix to 4.0 in LAV then I assume LFE Mixing would mix LFE channel into the FL FR RL RR channels, however this is only a guess.[DOUBLEPOST=1382002916][/DOUBLEPOST]

the basic idea is to have the LFE channel sent to the front speaker only, having it amplified in the Focal Little Bird system, but I don't know how to achieve this...).

ffdshow audio (ffdshow tryouts version) might be able to do this.

The best solution is probably the default LAV settings, as the creators of LAV are the experts and have configured everything correctly by default.

 

[axlt2002]

Thanks for the answer!

Yes, I know that LAV is a great filters tool! I'm anyway a little bit curious how the mixing matrix is setup (especially for the 4.0 configuration)...is there any LAV official forum or simply a guide?

Having the LFE split over the four speaker will result anyway in having "something" on the FL and FR and then on the sub of the Focal...the issue is how much is this "something"...it would be nice to avoid any LFE volume boost...

 

[kiwijunglist]

From what I understand all the channels already include the bass so it's not needed to double up the bass by mixing the lfe channel into the side channels. This is why the default lfe mix level is zero. If the default level isn't zero then disregard what I've just said!

The documentation and official forum is the lav mega thread on the doom 9 forum.

 

[axlt2002]

From what I understand all the channels already include the bass

I think that the best way will be to try... ;-) I will let you know!!!