Decrease dynamic range?

[Almost Human]

I don't believe this topic has ever come up before.

I wear hearing aids, yet all video/DVD sound tracks are difficult to tolerate. Even though I can turn the volume up or down to hear conversation comfortably, soon some action in the track will shake my windows. My perfect hearing wife sometimes needs earplugs to keep the pain level down.

What program or method could I use to re-author my DVD/video collection and compress the dynamic range to under 50db?

Getting another set of $4000. hearing aids is not an option!

[steveryan]

Could you not use heaphones from your DVD player, TV or amp? Be a lot easier than having to convert your DVD collection.

[MachineMan]

Some recievers have this option to reduce the dynamic range. My Sony STR-DE995 has 3 settings. Are you playing the DVD's through a reciever?

[Almost Human]

MachineMan

No, usually just use the side-firing built-in speakers of the TV. I do have the capability of also using my Sony STR-D390 receiver, and use headphones for me (with my own remote) as was suggested. My wife would be able to use the TV remote separately.

Is there a program that will compress dynamic range?

[Soopafresh]

Quite a few audio editor programs can do that for you, from the Free Audacity to the inexpensive Goldwave, to the more expensive SoundForge and Wavelab. There are loads of DirectX compressor and limiter plugins out there - this one is REALLY nice for the dough:

http://www.db-audioware.com/dbm.htm

[guns1inger]

However, doing so is not straight forward, and some sacrifices may have to be made. To do this properly, you will have to

a. rip the DVD to your HDD (DVD Decrypter)
b. demux the audio and video
c. Seperate the (up to) 6 audio channels to mono wav files
d. Load each wav file seperately and compress the dynamic range
e. re-combine the mono tracks back to a single, multi-channel audio track
f. remux with your video
g. burn the results to a blank DVD

Multi-channel software that is 100% compliant and certified by either Dolby or DTS is not cheap, as licensing fees must be paid. Ultimately, you may find it cheaper, and less hassle, to replace you current amp with a multi-channel amp that can do the work for you. As mentioned, most amps now have this feature, sometimes called midnight mode, or midnight listening mode or similar.

It ca certainly be done, but it is not straight forward or quick.

[johns0]

Check to see if your dvd player has the built in option in the menu to choose the compression of the dynamic range of the audio,my cheapo genexxa dvd player has this option.

[greymalkin]

If you are planning on playing the movies off your computer then the SB Audigy 2 cards can compress (dynamic range, not file size) the DD5.1 stream.

If you are playing them off a set top player, you can get receivers with built in compressors. My dad has an onkyo with that feature and I'm glad it has it because my mom can't stand anything loud. :P

[Almost Human]

Many thanks to johns0 and greymalkin for the simple solution of using the dynamic range adjuster on my JVC XV-N44 - it works beautifly! I had not read far enough into manual. This saves tons of wasted time converting my DVD collection.

For my CD collection, I tried Audacity as Soopafresh suggested, but could not get it to do what I wanted. I finally was able to use Nero Wave Editor that came with the Nero package. Under Tools, Dynamic Processor, I raised the floor from -90db to -55db. This worked great, and my wife had no objections.

Ultimately, I will replace my receiver with one that has the "midnight mode". Then I can let hardware do what it does best, and use my computer for more constructive things.

Thanks to all.