HD Channels (esp films) VERY quiet (1 Viewer)

[JDWestoby]

Shiny new install of MP 1.3 Beta, using TBS FreeView/FreeSat cards.

It's not a huge issue in some ways, but sometimes (NOT always) the recording on HD channels are very quiet, too quiet to even hear.

I recorded one and the ambient noise was there but not the main speaking parts (Die Hard, if yu must know).

It isn't the recording as I pulled it onto another PC and played it using PowerDVD and the levels were fine.

I'm especially confused as, well, it's digital so how can it be wrong?

Really weird as it doesn't happen on every HD recording, or limited to a partivcular channel either.

I'm not worried, but just wondered if anyone else had seen this...?

 

[porky996t]

Hi JD,

Sorry I can't be of much help on this; it is more of a post to let you know that you are not alone in experiencing the volume issue. I get this on some HD channels now and again, there seems to be a slight crackle or pop and the volume goes down a bit. It does come back though. This certainly isn't a regular thing and the GF hasn't noticed it, and believe me, she is great at highlighting problems / shortcomings on anything.

I did get it a lot on DVB-S2 channels such as BBC HD, where I had to change to audio stream from the 'described' one to the AC3 (I think) one. After changing the stream there was a noticeable drop in audio volume. I don't seem to get this now as my DVB-T/T2 tuners are higher up priority list than the DVB-S/S2 tuners. I never resolved it, I just turned the volume up a bit more on the surround receiver to compensate. I did think about installing the Volume plugin that remembers the volume settings for every channel, but never got around to it - I was going through a phase of "if it ain't massively broken, don't fix it"

 

[AtTimesPerplexed]

I had that problem with 5.1 channel audio being significantly quieter than 2 channel. I fixed it by using the mixer in LAV audio.

Start menu>LAV Filters>LAV audio config>mixing>ouput speaker config>stereo.

 

[Mew]

I find that the HD channels using Dolby Digital (5.1 and 2.0) are quieter on my Humax Foxsat Freesat box as well as in MediaPortal so I am guessing it is in the way they are broadcast. My sound does go through an HD AV receiver but I find for SD TV a volume of 20 is OK whereas I have to up it to 30 for BBC1 HD / BBC HD / ITV1 HD or Channel 4 HD to achieve the same loudness. In fact I sometimes need to increase the volume less for MediaPortal recordings than I do for watching live TV on the Humax.

Mew

 

[Owlsroost]

Shiny new install of MP 1.3 Beta, using TBS FreeView/FreeSat cards.

It's not a huge issue in some ways, but sometimes (NOT always) the recording on HD channels are very quiet, too quiet to even hear.

I recorded one and the ambient noise was there but not the main speaking parts (Die Hard, if yu must know).

It's probably a 5.1 downmixing issue (so the centre channel - which carries most of the dialogue - is being dropped instead of mixed into the L/R channels) - as AtTimesPerplexed suggested.

What is your speaker setup ?

Tony

 

[JDWestoby]

Hi Tony, yup it's the dialog that goes walkies.

My speaker setup is through the [same] HDMI lead to the plasma.

I don't think (and I'm almost guessing here) that there are any mixing options on the PC and the TV is "only" stereo.

My motherboard is ASUS M3N-HT and I'm using the on board sound for this PC. The TV is a Panasonic plasma VT20, I think.

I'll have to investigate some more but all ideas welcome!

And before I forget, thank you for the reply. Much appreciated, it is probably something really stupid.

(The Achilles heel of MP - different PC configurations...)

 

[Owlsroost]

If you are using LAV audio decoder for TV, then as AtTimesPerplexed suggested:

Start menu>LAV Filters>LAV audio config>mixing>output speaker config>stereo.

...should fix it (see below).

Can't remember what speaker config options XP has, but make sure that any you can find are set to 'stereo'.

Tony

View attachment 118508View attachment 118508

 

[JDWestoby]

Tony, I love you! (Don't tell my wife <grin>.)

Took, ooooh, 20 seconds, and it's up and running.


Thank you very much, it wasn't even close to a deal-breaker for my MP usage but it is soooo nice to have the option.

I'm a developer but there is FAR too much to know about everything so I hadn't 'poked under the bonnet', so thank you, the absolute BEST support.

Someone who knows about some aspect that is otherwise not known about.

Brilliant.