We all know the modern complaint: movie sound sucks now unless you have a high-end sound system. Frantically turning down the volume after turning it up to hear the dialogue only to need to turn it up again can be frustrating. Now, this doesn’t solve the underlying problem, but why not have a “Volume A” and “Volume B” you can easily set and toggle between with the simple press of a button?
This would be possible to DIY if ‘smart’ TVs weren’t DRM’d pieces of shit.
Here is my preferred solution that will never happen:
Divide all media audio into separate tracks for dialogue, music, sfx, etc., and let the users control the volume of each separately. To avoid having an easily ripped pure music track, perhaps premix the other tracks in at 10% or so (in a logarithmic scale) and make that the minimum volume of any track other than music.
Many shows broadcast in surround sound. This includes a center channel where most voices are. Unfortunately if you don’t have a system to support this, audio is “down mixed” to stereo, and the center channel gets merged into left and right. When this merge happens, you lose definition between the streams.
It would be nice if you could boost the center channel, like you would in a home theater, but before the down mix occurs.
My Peloton can do this, how come my TV can’t? This technology exists and would not be that difficult to implement for digital media.
You underestimate big tech. Judging by the headache inducing track record of AV technology, this would end up as yet another garbled mess of eleventeen different competing codecs with bad implementations, inconsistent specifications, misleading marketing, horrible licensing, and predatory DRM.
Does a high end sound system actually solve the problem? Or does having a high end sound system just mean you no longer give a shit about annoying other people. Like the people who rev their engine so all their neighbours know how much they spend on their car.
I have a 7.2 stereo plugged into my computer. Sound levels are entirely dependent on what service the sound is coming from and what format(mono/stereo/surround). Netflix tends to be quieter than the others. I should say netflix dialog tends to be too quiet and explosions and other loud noises are too fucking loud.
There is a hardware device, called a compressor that would solve the problem. Basically it reduces the loudest parts of audio on a gradual curve, which allows you turn up the overall volume.
Affordable ones range $100-$250, which should get the job done. Personally, I wouldn’t go either direction out of that range, more expensive ones will be overkill and cheap ones could sound bad or lack the controls to set it up right)
If you can get analog audio out of the TV in to a speaker/sound bar, it’s easy to setup.
So with a cheaper sound bar and a compressor, you could accomplish this for about $250-$400 depending on how much money you can to throw at the problem,
(Edit, some else pointed out if you use a PC for all your content, you can have software compressor on the PC instead of extra hardware)
I run a software compressor on my sff PC that I use as a media player. No expensive sound system required.
Am I the only psycho that just uses the TV as a monitor and my phone as the remote to the PC? After that, you can pretty much macro or script whatever you want.
That’s what I do, and I installed an audio compressor to level out the audio volume. Now I don’t have to stress about disturbing the neighbours with TV explosions.
You’re probably one of the few people that has heard the dialog from Tenet then. Christopher Nolan films are some of my favorites, but wow, was that audio messed up. I had to create an equalizer profile just for that.
I just used subtitles
Subtitles are great. I almost always have them on to aid comprehension. I find that I pick up on more subtleties that way. I feel like I still want to be able to process almost all of the dialog with audio alone so that the subtitles add an extra layer of understanding.
Every time I see a thread like this I feel the same way.
Sure I have to admit there are downsides to it but oh my goodness the number of benefits from running something like Kodi is huge. If you are willing to take a hit to dynamic range of your audio you can fix all but the most extreme cases of audio level problems. I’m sure there are a bunch of other ways to handle it as well.
Control from a phone app once you have Kodi open works great.
Windows or Linux at your preference.
Only ever used old free hardware too so the complaints about the cost of a PC never made sense to me either.
Are we talking about downmixing? If that is the case, Jellyfin has built in downmixing. Kodi might have something too.
Nope although it has that as an option as well. There are two options I use. The first is to boost the center channel on surround mixes since the voice is almost always on that channel.
Then more specifically in Kodi there is both a main volume option and a separate volume boot option that if you look into the documentation says that it is able to increase volume differently by moving up the middle of the audio while reducing the dynamic range. In other words reducing the difference between the lowest and highest sounds so it can increase it without clipping.
I basically change the main volume to what I want and then since both main and boost use the same numbers I reduce it by the exact same number I increase the boost level. End result is moving the bottom and middle of the audio volume closer.
In an ideal setup like a literal quiet audience in a full IMAX or with studio monitor grade headphones etc. the dynamic range is nice. Let’s you hear talking normally and then get blown away by the action right at the top of the safe listening range. Or for classical orchestra music the quiet solot small instrument then a full booming with the entire band going.
But in reality I have five kids running around. Even in stuff like Pixar I still like having a fairly aggressive setting for the boost. It lets me set a default fairly aggressive one and then only occasionally need to edit it manually from the default for particular movies.
Also a self reply to add that I don’t use the downmix because I got lucky and in addition to free old PC hardware which most people in the USA at least can also get free or cheap if you are creative with old business hardware. The addition is I got an AV Receiver just barely new enough to support HDMI so I do have the full range of channels on very cheap speakers.
Having used Kodi elsewhere the downmix seems to work just fine and a lot of current and still fairly cheap sound bars can interpret surround mixes directly.
Its
20042026. They could quite literally have dynamic volume control that would adjust the volume based on a set limit. You could easily have lead-in curves based on the abruptness for smooth transitions.This and the channel recall function would be amazing, or a macro button that ran the last set of actions so you can switch between one thing and another.
Wait, the recall button isn’t a thing anymore? Guess I never noticed because I don’t have cable
Kids these days don’t know about staying alert to change Cinemax to Nickelodeon when their parents walk into the room
I’ve had that thought for decades, like they do (or used to) do a button to switch between the last channel. So you’d go to each channel and flip at a commercial. Then forget to switch back so you saw two half episodes but that’s not really an issue with a volume setting.
My samsung has a nice remote
Theres two horizontal “pads” you can use, for volume up/down and the other side is channel up/down
And you can also press the volume flipper down to mute, as if it was a button
I dont recall what the channel buttons do…
Why do these high tech devices not have a single set volume output? instead we get 8K and “smart” bullshit.
There is absolutely a standard volume max. Unfortunately loudness isn’t that simple.
You can have something that peaks in decibels that you can barely hear and sounds that are the same decibels as talking, but sounds ear-piercingly loud.
Your TV can only set and perceive level, or “decibels” of the input signal. Sometimes they can have smarter tools like compression, but these are rare and when they are there, usually poorly implemented.
They’d probably implement it very poorly, like the AI “image enhancement” that makes things look worse
I have this for Kodi as a shortcut for iOS. You can connect via ssh if you allow ssh in settings.
My command is:
curl -u login:password —header “Content-Type: application/json” —request POST —data ‘{“jsonrpc”: “2.0”, “method”: “Application.SetVolume”, “params”: {“volume”: Rounded Number}, “id”: 1}’ http://localhost:8080/jsonrpcMy exact command is a bit different, it takes the current volume of my iPhone / iPad multiplies that by 100 (as iOS volume is between 0 and 1, while Kodi’s from 0 to 100) and sends that volume to the HTPC. But it’s a nice idea, and there are various options to make it. I think I’d just do two buttons.
So you can take that code and change
Rounded Numberto actual volume you need.Remotes need to stop being wobbly little things with slick matte surfaces. Flat bottoms, glossy grips. I’m not trying to do a full claw game simulation
