Looking for a real-time sound normalizer

[Quimbly]

Here's the deal...
I like to watch movies from my computer on my home entertainment system. Movies these days seem to have an increasingly wide volume range. Dialog is often very quiet in the films, so, I set the volume quite high. Then, all of a sudden, BOOM, there's an explosion or gunfire and all hell breaks loose: our windows shake, our good china falls off its stand, I choke on the soda I'm drinking and it squirts through my nose, the baby wakes up and starts wailing... This all could have been avoided if I had some real-time volume normalizing software on my computer.

Basically, I just want the software to readjust the system or output volume (low when the explosion happens and high when quet dialog is occurring) appropriately, so as to be audible during quiet scenes but not too loud when the car explodes.

I would rather NOT have to re-encode the movies and normalize the the audio track in a separate operation. I'd like to have software that pre-emptively and in real-time adjusts for the "BOOM" factor.

Anyone know of any tools that might help?

Thanks a million.

[guns1inger]

What software do you use for playback ?

PowerDVD 5 has a number of options un configuration->audio tab->Advanced->Miscellaneous tab

If you use your home theatre amp to decode digital audio then it is probably the best place to start. Many (most ?) have some form of DRC built-in. Some call it midnight listening mode, some call it loudness control, some call it dynamic range compression, bless 'em.

A little more information about your playback setup might help though.

[Quimbly]

Well, I run my computer's audio into the aux input on an old analog amplifier. It definitely doesn't have any DSP modes. Nothing special there. For playback, I use Windows Media Player, VLC Player or Media Player Classic.

Preferrably, I'd like to find a solution for one of those...

[gshelley61]

Windows Media Player has a digital compressor built in to the Enhancements section that regulates the difference between loud and soft sounds... it's called Quiet Mode. It has two settings you can try.