View Full Version : [LINUX/MAC/WINDOWS] Dynamic Audio Compression (DRC) - why is it Xbox only today?
Hi, All.
I was watching a video today and boy did it flip between
"What did they say? I can't hear the dialogue..."
to
"HOLY CR*P, THAT EXPLOSION WAS LOUD!"
Before I switched to (the excellent) XBMC I used Windows Media Center (boooo!) with the AC3 filter which compressed (and upmixed) all my audio to a nice, level 5.1 DTS output. Mmmm. :)
If only XBMC could do this it would be, quite frankly, perfect.
I noticed that this feature is present on the Xbox build, which prompts a few questions...
1) Why isn't it available on the Windows & Linux builds?
2) Is anyone working on porting it over?
3) If so, what's the ETA? (Rough extimates accepted - I won't hold you to anyting!)
Thanks,
Dan
jmarshall
2009-07-02, 09:47
1. Because noone has done it yet.
2. It's waiting on phi to finish off the initial stages of the Master Audio branch primarily.
3. A couple of months or so.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Taken from Dolby website:
Dynamic range control (Night mode) enables you to customize audio playback to reduce peak volume levels (no loud surprises) while experiencing all the details in the soundtrack, enabling late-night viewing of high-energy surround sound without disturbing others.
This is something that in Windows you can achieve by using a certified Dolby decoder (but that's limited to Dolby, so no effect on DTS) or by using AC3filter or (I believe) FFDshow.
Considering that the best results one gets with Smoothvideo (thx bobo1on1) are when allowing to resample, hence analog only, on many receivers you anyway lose the ability do digitally process the sound.
Would it be possible to create, with the new sound subsystem phi2039 is working on, a "Night mode" with some options (it could be as simple as Off, Quiet, Quietest) and apply the Dynamic range control to all audio output?
jmarshall
2009-07-10, 12:17
Yes - we had dynamic range compression in the xbox build, so all it's waiting for is the filter system to be finalized and the rest of masteraudio finished off. The filter will be easy.
For AC3 in particular, we can use the codec to do the compression, which I suspect will give the best results, but I believe it's a bit of a mess at the moment.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Thanks Jonathan for the "state of things" report. If XBMC could handle at least a couple of levels of compression, as AC3 offers, on all audio content, I think it would be great!
Thanks again.
Yup. This is part of the plan. All that is left in masteraudio phase I is to complete the filter/transform API and clean up a bit. Once that is done, I will shift focus to implementing transforms and filters like DRC.
jamieyg3
2009-07-12, 23:41
Yes - we had dynamic range compression in the xbox build, so all it's waiting for is the filter system to be finalized and the rest of masteraudio finished off. The filter will be easy.
For AC3 in particular, we can use the codec to do the compression, which I suspect will give the best results, but I believe it's a bit of a mess at the moment.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Hi
I am using the xbox version and cannot find this dynamic range compression option even though it says it should be there on the website here http://www.xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Stacking but it doesn't show up for me.
Where is this feature thanks. I downloaded the latest xbmc and put it on my xbox already.
jmarshall
2009-07-13, 00:47
See the Audio settings menu from the Video OSD.
jamieyg3
2009-07-13, 00:59
See the Audio settings menu from the Video OSD.
Hi thanks for the quick reply
I dont have dynamic range compression in the audio settings.
I have:
Volume
Volume amplification
Audio offset
Audio stream
Enable subtitles
Subtitle offset
Subtitle
Browse for subtitle...
Set as default for all movies
I also just updated my xbmc to the June 27th release.
jmarshall
2009-07-13, 01:05
Volume Amplification == Dynamic Range compression.
You cannot amplify audio more than 100%, so the only way to amplify further is to compress.
Cheers,
Jonathan
nekrosoft13
2009-07-14, 10:20
sounds great!! keep up the good work
I rarelly use XBMC after 11pm, because without the nightmode makes things a bit hard to watch
i just make sure i have noisy things (like air conditioners) turned off ;)
but ya... i'm super excited to see some drc happening.