View Full Version : Speech Volume too low with DTS audio
rimmi2002
2009-02-05, 06:04
I have SR-606 receiver with Polk 6750 speakers. I have it hooked up to my HTPC via SP/DIF.
When watching DTS encoded audio for example transformers.720p with 1.5Mbs DTS the speech volume is too low. I have to crank the audio up to 60's to get good audible sounds out of it. The problem with this is that this makes all the sound effects too loud. Any way I can adjust just the speech volume?
I am using AC3filter for audio and passing everything straight through to the receiver. Running XBMC windows XP. Thanks.
I have nearly the same setup (except with a Yamaha receiver).
I also noticed this, but XBMC has nothing to do with this, as it is just passing the audio through (someone correct me if I'm wrong).
Anyways, I found that the 'night' mode on the receiver helps a lot with this: it compresses the sound. You lose some dynamic range but you don't have to always be riding the volume then.
Check if your receiver is capable of this.
By the way this is my first post to these forums so I'll take the opportunity to say THANK YOU to the whole XBMC community, and especially the dev team, for making such amazing software available!
i have the 606 too and i think that sound effects in movies are to loud in general. what i did was just set my center speaker to +5-10db in the onkyo setup. works fine for me.
to bad you cant use AC3Filter with XBMC. there you can decode the audio stream, change the volume of each channel, then REencode it and send it out over SPDIF to you receiver
smcnally75
2009-02-05, 13:47
It actually has nothing to do with sound effects being too loud. Most people just don't realize that surround sound systems need to be calibrated. Every speaker should be calibrated so they are putting out the same sound pressure from the prime listening area. When you set it up that way you won't have this issue. To do this you will need an SPL Meter or would need to have someone come in and calibrate it for you.
Batemann
2009-02-05, 13:59
I Agree with SMCnally. I have the 606 as well, and I'm completely anal about my setup. I took my time and tested a lot with different sources. I love everything DTS, and I can say that I don't think the speech is too low. I'ts right on the spot, and it isn't louder or lower than when I play a normal Blu-ray or DVD.
rimmi2002
2009-02-06, 04:05
Can you give me your setup Batemann, I can try it out to see how well it works for me. I tried the audyssey setup prior to posting here. It did not resolve the issue.
I had the same issue with low speech, its all in how the receiver is setup, I had virtually every single setting wrong when i 1st starting to miss around. Needed dolby logic 5.1 turned on, matrix effect, calibrate each individual speaker for volume, etc,etc, its some work but in the end the sound is freakin awesome.
TC
rimmi2002
2009-02-06, 05:27
I ended up setting my Center to +2.0 db. It was previously at -10.0 db....actually all my speakers were in the -7.0 to -10.0 db range. I am not sure if the audyssey setup did its job right. But I amped it up to +2.0 db and voice sounds much better now.
Might try to run Audyssey again and see what happens.
thats something audyssey loves to do. havent figured out why it does that but it did for me to. what i did was setting everything back to 0 db and then adjusted the numbers in the same ratio they had before. plus i amped up my center alot.
Batemann
2009-02-06, 13:14
Can you give me your setup Batemann, I can try it out to see how well it works for me. I tried the audyssey setup prior to posting here. It did not resolve the issue.
If still needed, I will write down my setup for you tonight (I'm in Amsterdam) when I get home. I'm at the office now. If not needed anymore, can you let me know beforehand, so I won't have to write down everything? ;-)
rimmi2002
2009-02-07, 08:14
If you can write it down when you are free that'll be awesome...just to get an idea what ratio's SPL Meter gives. Thanks
althekiller
2009-02-07, 08:56
Erm...unless you guys live in identical apartments/factory homes with the rooms arranged EXACTLY the same those numbers are going to be completely useless to anyone but you. Hell, they're even useless to you if any peice of furniture in the room is moved. The only way to do this is to get a hold of an SPL meter and calibrate YOUR room. Last I was in RadioShack they had one for like $50.
rimmi2002
2009-02-07, 20:23
How good is the audessy system compared to SPL meter? Isn't that what was suppose to be the point of the audessy system to self-calibrate the system?
First of all, I congratulate XBMC and everyone for the fine app.
This is my first post, please let me know if am wrong in anyway.
I too have this problem, dialogue is less audible. But my setup is analog, using stereo receiver with realtek hd driver running on Windows 7. While the the same movies play fine with community codec pack, its not so with XBMC.
I think that it has something to do with down mixing the channels. May be am wrong, missed some settings in XBMC?!
svelc:
The windows audio subsystem was changed entirely in Windows 7. My guess is that you are correct and there is a problem with the mixdown in Windows. Be sure you have passthrough ac3 and dts turned off in XBMC. It is possible that Windows is handling the AC3/DTS decoding and your configuration is not properly lined up with your audio hardware.
All that said, I have no idea how XBMC will behave on Windows 7 and do not have/want it installed to test or develop on. Good luck.
-C
cold_realms
2009-03-02, 00:05
svelc:
All that said, I have no idea how XBMC will behave on Windows 7 and do not have/want it installed to test or develop on. Good luck.
-C
Too bad on that. It's a fantastic OS even in beta, and due to be released before the end of the year. You might want to just give it a try and see whats new, if for nothing else then to say you tried an OS thats relatively recent ;)
svelc:
The windows audio subsystem was changed entirely in Windows 7. My guess is that you are correct and there is a problem with the mixdown in Windows. Be sure you have passthrough ac3 and dts turned off in XBMC. It is possible that Windows is handling the AC3/DTS decoding and your configuration is not properly lined up with your audio hardware.
All that said, I have no idea how XBMC will behave on Windows 7 and do not have/want it installed to test or develop on. Good luck.
-C
Thanks Phi2039 for the reply.
Well like i said, audio is fine with other players like media classic and zoom. And even with windows mediaplayer using ffdshow audio decoders. That means windows is not doing the AC3/DTS decoding, right?
Then again, my settings in XBMC audio configuration is set as Analog (not digital). So i was in the impression that XBMC is handling the decode. Is it not so?
For windows 7, the video looks awesome. Kind of glossy feel which improves movie watching experience. 1080p plays very well without video acceleration.
Ofcourse i do not want to lock down myself with Windows. Wishing for the VDPAU to arrive soon and will move to that :)
Edit:
I was using 18197 build. Reverted to 18004 and everything works great. Dialogues are as they should be.
Something might have changed in the recent revisions. Any one else having these issues?
Thanks Phi2039 for the reply.
Well like i said, audio is fine with other players like media classic and zoom. And even with windows mediaplayer using ffdshow audio decoders. That means windows is not doing the AC3/DTS decoding, right?
Then again, my settings in XBMC audio configuration is set as Analog (not digital). So i was in the impression that XBMC is handling the decode. Is it not so?
For windows 7, the video looks awesome. Kind of glossy feel which improves movie watching experience. 1080p plays very well without video acceleration.
Ofcourse i do not want to lock down myself with Windows. Wishing for the VDPAU to arrive soon and will move to that :)
Edit:
I was using 18197 build. Reverted to 18004 and everything works great. Dialogues are as they should be.
Something might have changed in the recent revisions. Any one else having these issues?
The "analogmultichannel" Advanced Setting was changed to a standard setting: audiooutput.downmixmultichannel. Perhaps you need to check your configuration in the new version. Other than that, there were lots of adjacent changes in the DTS area between those 2 revisions that may have had an impact. Can't say which is to blame for sure...
The "analogmultichannel" Advanced Setting was changed to a standard setting: audiooutput.downmixmultichannel. Perhaps you need to check your configuration in the new version. Other than that, there were lots of adjacent changes in the DTS area between those 2 revisions that may have had an impact. Can't say which is to blame for sure...
Hi phi2039 i noticed in my logs i get
DEBUG: Error: Requested setting (audiooutput.downmixmultichannel) was not found. It must be case-sensitive
is there somewhere where this settings must be in ? i tried to add it in guisettings in audiooutput. you can see my post here http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=46062
It should be in the GUI now with latest SVN.
tslayer i have Rev18262 installed.
The "analogmultichannel" Advanced Setting was changed to a standard setting: audiooutput.downmixmultichannel. Perhaps you need to check your configuration in the new version. Other than that, there were lots of adjacent changes in the DTS area between those 2 revisions that may have had an impact. Can't say which is to blame for sure...
I will get latest version and look for this settings.
Will update how this went.
tslayer i have Rev18262 installed.
Then you should have that option. Did you look through GUI settings for it?
i still get the same debug error that its trying to find it but its missing.
<audiooutput>
<ac3passthrough>true</ac3passthrough>
<audiodevice>NVIDIA High Definition Audio Wave</audiodevice>
<dtspassthrough>true</dtspassthrough>
<mode>1</mode>
</audiooutput>
if i try to add downmixmultichannel xbmc starts then crashes to desktop and when i check the guisettings the downmixmultichannel gets erased.
Then you should have that option. Did you look through GUI settings for it?
Downmixmultichannel option is not in the GUI settings. Atleast not in the audio hardware section.
Edit:
Tested with Rev18257.
this is so strange, does no one else get this problem?
The option is there for me. You must not have updated your build properly.
It is called: "Downmix multichannel audio to stereo"
question downmixmultichannel should be in guisettings. file? and if i deleted it and reopen xbmc it will make a new one with all the settings to default shouldn't it show up then?
Not my build install. I just took Rev18262 and installed on my computer that had no previous installs of XBMC and it still does not have this option.
It should show up. Unless you did not properly update your build (as I mentioned earlier).
Hmm.. I just looked at 18029 and it looks like it is just on linux.
thanks for checking Tslayer
tslayer will this be fixed for windows or do u mean that this is only for linux ?
No idea about windows. For now it is just in linux. There is an ifdef meaning it was on purpose.
It has not been implemented on windows it seems.
I assume this is need for the windows as well because from what i understand some things where updated but with out this the audio is broken. I just wanted to know if this was forgotten about or its gonna be worked on later. Without this i don't get any dialogue while in analog setting.
I have the same Problem, I'm using Rev18324 (Windows) and I have a 2.1 Teufel System (analog connected), and I cant hear any voices.
Every *.mkv with an DTS or 6 Channels AC3 I have has a Problem in XBMC, but every other Player is able to play the file correctly.
here an xbmc log
http://nopaste.org/p/aMsZ3hzER
OK...I'm tired of this issue. It has been resolved in SVN r18346. See Trac 5990 (http://xbmc.org/trac/ticket/5990). Be sure to DISABLE AC3/DTS passthrough, as the player will not honor the downmix setting when opening the audio device.