Reduce Bass in BD rips

[Mattevansc3]

I've been ripping my Blu-Ray movies to my PC for purposes of setting up a media centre but all my files have extremely loud, booming bass while extremely quiet dialogue irrespective of the playback device. On my TV for example I'd have to set the volume to 40-50 to hear them speak but drop it down to 20 when action scenes start due to the bass.

I use SlyDVD for my rips and RipBot for my converts. What is the best way to reduce the bass level for my existing mkvs/mp4s as well for any further converts I do down the road. Thanks

[transporterfan]

Check the TV or sound system for bass control first. Modern TVs have bass, treble, (etc) controls under MENU somewhere. Which software player are you using on the PC?

[Mattevansc3]

Check the TV or sound system for bass control first. Modern TVs have bass, treble, (etc) controls under MENU somewhere.

Thanks but I didn't want to fiddle with TV settings as my Xbox, movie streaming, TV channels and everything else plays fine, its just the BD rips that have the exceptionally loud bass. I don't have a BD player in the living room just in the PC so unable to say if its the BluRays themselves or just the converts giving the problem.

On the PC I generally use PowerDVD11 Ultra and when I went over to Windows 8 I also tried them with the built in video player, Windows Media Player, Zune and VLC.

[jagabo]

I don't have a BD player in the living room just in the PC so unable to say if its the BluRays themselves or just the converts giving the problem.

It's not the Blu-ray discs or your conversions. It's a problem with the way your system is set up. It sounds like you have the sub woofer (or at least the ".1" decoding) cranked up too high.

It would be foolhardy to adjust the audio in your rips to compensate for an error in your current system setup. One day you'll get the system set up properly and wonder why all your rips have no bass.

[Mattevansc3]

I don't have a BD player in the living room just in the PC so unable to say if its the BluRays themselves or just the converts giving the problem.

It's not the Blu-ray discs or your conversions. It's a problem with the way your system is set up. It sounds like you have the sub woofer (or at least the ".1" decoding) cranked up too high.

It would be foolhardy to adjust the audio in your rips to compensate for an error in your current system setup. One day you'll get the system set up properly and wonder why all your rips have no bass.

I'm using the stereo speakers on the TV and 2.1 speakers with no independent channel controls on the PC and the issue is on both setups.

[transporterfan]

Pot Player for PC the has a really nice equalizer function (second icon button, bottom right). Video controls too. Think you will like it.

As for the bass problem, I agree with jagabo, in that you don't want to change bass levels within the audio. Because you have a stereo system you probably have poor center channel performance. If you alter the audio and you invest in a new sound system it might sound equally unbalanced in the future.

You can alter the audio. It depends your patience. You will have to demux the file, load the audio into a program like Audacity and reduce the bass...NOT by reducing the actual bass but by normalising the center channels (raising them by 1 or 2db probably). Effectively, what you are looking to do is increase quiet sounds. When you have done that, you have to normalize the entire file so that it has similar levels to those output by your current speakers/system (trial and error and probably easier in Xmedia Recode). Then remux everything. This works best on a file with multiple audio channels. If everything is compressed to an MP3...it's different again.

Now, I don't know your level of expertise in this field but, to put it bluntly, it's a pain in the a*se and you couldn't pay enough for me to do it on a regular basis.

When you consider you may have to do this with every disc you back up (some people agree with your impression that the latest releases do go overboard with the sound levels during SFX scenes...explosions, gunfire etc), it really is much easier to tweak the bass level on the TV when you play a blue-ray.

[Mattevansc3]

Thanks for that, it does sound like far too much hassle so I'll give that PotPlayer a go instead.

[jagabo]

Another typical problem is that people have the software set up for 5.1 or 3.1 speakers but don't have a center channel speaker. So the center channel with most of the dialog is going nowhere. The usual complaint here is that the dialog is too quiet compared to the music and sound effects. As noted, this can be a problem in the sound device's settings, the player settings, or the audio codec settings.

[rickydavao]

If the audio is being encoded, couldn't dynamic range compression be used during the encoding process to bring the volume level of the dialogue up to the range/volume of the music/bass?

[Hoser Rob]

Any decent player (not just potplayer) has an equalizer, and volume normalization (ie. compression) as well.

I use different software players for music and video largely because movie soundtracks are really overcooked in the low end.

[netmask56]

If you compress the total audio track just the opposite occurs, background music and fx come up in level during quieter passages so the intelligibility of dialog is compromised even more. The problem appears to be his TV/Audio setup rather than rips of original discs.

If you could manipulate the centre channel independently on the AV setup the problem would be solved. Processing all your rips as others have commented is a disaster in the making.

A gently downward expander operating between words may help in a genuine bad mix but that's all too complicated for this exercise methinks...

[jagabo]

Here's an AC3 file you can use for testing:

[DarrellS]

Thanks for the tips! I 've been disappointed with my PC's 5.1 surround for a long time. I found the equalizer in the Realtek sound manager and now I'm finally getting good sound out of all 6 speakers. I need to take the time and set my Sony receiver up right. I've got the same issue as the OP. Action movies are bad and when I'm watching a game on ESPN, I can hardly hear the announcers but the crowd and the PA announcer are super loud.

My receiver has a device that I can plug into the front and it's supposed to automatically adjust the speakers to how they're supposed to sound for your seating arraignment but it doesn't get it right. I need to dig through the manual and find out how to manually adjust each speaker. My friend could do it on his older Sony but he's a real audiophile. I wish they'd do away with all the presets that are just confusing and don't do much for the quality of the sound. They just need one preset that plays all 6 (or 8) speakers. I miss all the knobs on the old receivers where you could adjust everything with the turn of a knob.