Audio loudness issues..

[SE14man]

I find with a lot of video files that i watch, in particular dvd's i've ripped and that other people have ripped, that you have to turn the volume up loud to hear the people talking for example but when say, music is playing or there is an explosion on the movie it just deafens you and it's annoying because i keep having to turn the volume up and down all the time.
It does it on a number of video files.

How can i get round this issue?

Cheers..

[jagabo]

If you don't have a center channel speaker make sure your audio setup is set to downmix 5.1 AC3 to stereo or quad (or whatever you have).

[SE14man]

The speaker is the make 'Nicole' it has like a sub woofer. It's just basic pc speakers.
How would i set it up to downmix 5.1 AC3? cheers mate.

I should add that these are being played with VLC media player and there are no codecs on here at all apart from VLC.

Cheers.

[jagabo]

You may have to look in several places. Start with Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Volume tab -> Speaker Settings -> Advanced -> Desktop Stereo Speakers.

Your audio card may have speaker configuration settings. Use its setup applet to make sure it's not set up for a center channel.

The media player you are using may also have settings for speaker setup or downmixing.

In addition to speaker setup, there may be mixer settings that allow you to set the volume of each channel (before downmixing). Make sure the center channel isn't set to a low volume.

If you are using something like AC3 Filter make sure it's mixer is setup correctly too.

[SE14man]

Thanks mate,

To avoid this problem completely is the best option to go with 5.1 surround sound?
Would that stop all this quietness on videos?
But obviously in the meantime im going to have to stick with these speakers i got attached to the PC.

[jagabo]

Thanks mate,

To avoid this problem completely is the best option to go with 5.1 surround sound?
Would that stop all this quietness on videos?

Maybe. Or you just may move the problems somewhere else...

[SE14man]

Can you tell me exactly what id need to click and what to do?
I do have a sound thing with my sound card, like the software but i woudlnt know what to click i cant find an option on anything about downmixing or centre speakers....

Please help.

cheers.

[jagabo]

I probably don't have the same audio card as you so I can't give you explicit instructions because the software is different. Just go through the software and look for speaker setup. Make sure it's set to 2.0 or stereo everywhere you can find.

In VLC make sure you have Audio -> Audio Device -> Stereo selected.

[SE14man]

I think because my speakers have a subwoofer to them would that make them 2.1?
There fore what settings would i need to put into VLC and my speaker settings? Would AC3 Filter work with VLC?

Please let me know.

Cheers.

[jagabo]

2.1 speakers usually use their own internal crossover for the subwoofer. As far as the computer is concerned they are simple stereo, 2.0.

VLC has its own AC3 decoder built in. While a file is playing use Audio -> Audio Device -> Stereo. That will downmix the 5.1 channel audio to stereo.

[SE14man]

What confuses me is this:
In my room i have harman kardon speakers which has a sub and two speakers.
The ones in the lounge are nicole, also one sub, two speakers.
Same audio setup.
Stereo.
As they have a sub do they need to be 2.1 Stereo?
I have just downloaded ac3 filter and have descovered it doesnt work with VLC.
So i downloaded media player classic which it does work with.
Anyway i changed the settings in the lounge (which is where the nicole speakers are which is the onesi m having the quietness problems with) i changhed all settings as stereo.
No luck still the same. The only way i adjusted it was to go into the settings and got into this thing where i could tick boxes for front, centre middle, right, left etc... which did make a big difference, a good one!
This all seems too hectic to muck around with on every film i play.
The thing i was playing was ripped at AC3 5.1 so i dont know what id need to do? But on this pc (the one with the harman kardon speakers) it works fine and plays sound normal, i just dont understand why the lounge speakers the 'nicole' ones (also being stereo), play my movies really quiet and extra loud on the loud bits....
Would it be a soundcard or does it not matter what soundcard i have?
Both are Realtek AC'97..



Cheers.

[jagabo]

As I said, almost all 2.1 speaker systems take stereo input and have a built in crossover for separating out bass for the subwoofer.

Are both pairs of speakers connected to the same computer or are you talking about two computers? Are you using an S/PDIF connection or RCA stereo?

[SE14man]

Sorry, im on about 2 different computers here.
The one that is ok with sound is this one in my room with harman kardon speakers which connects to the pc with the stereo jack.
The one in the lounge does use a stereo jack but its wierd, because the cables that plug into the actual speakers look like those RCA ones..

Cheers mate.

[jagabo]

Did you check what I suggested earlier:

Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Volume tab -> Speaker Settings -> Advanced -> Desktop Stereo Speakers

[SE14man]

I did yep..

[SE14man]

Btw thanks for all your help mate..