LG BP330 sound quiet on MKV files

[zunah]

Hi,
A friend of mine just purchased this player to go with her LG plasma tv. When playing MKV files the sound is very low and she has to turn it up to 30+ to get decent volume levels. For tv she usually has volume at 8 to get the same level volume. Don't think it's a problem with the cable or anything like that because when watching Netflix through the bluray player the volume is fine - it's just with the MKV files. Any idea why or suggestions to help with this?
Thanks very much!

[Baldrick]

Alls mkvs? what is the audio codec in the mkv. Identify with mediainfo.

[zunah]

Pretty much all MKVs - at least the ones that I tried out. Some of them played a little louder than the others, but the volume on all of them needed to be turned up quite a bit more than when watching regular TV or Netflix through the bluray player.
I also have an LG bluray player and LG TV (different models than my friend's) and when I play the same MKV files on my set up the volume levels remain consistent so I expected the same on her's. I was thinking that maybe there's a default audio setting on her TV or bluray player that is causing this but didn't check...

I will check the audio codec when I get home from work.

Thanks for your reply!

[jman98]

It's probably just a bug. My limited experience is that BluRay players often have bugs related to MKV playback. It's just how it is if you want to play MKV files on a BluRay player instead of a dedicated media player like a Western Digital type player.

[zunah]

Here's the audio from one of the files:
ID :2
Format : DTS
Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems
Mode : 16
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_DTS
Duration : 2h 44mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 509 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 1.73 GiB (14%)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

[yoda313]

@zunah - I know its probably not what you want to hear but I'd suggest just playing those files through a proper surround amp. That should decode them properly at the correct levels.

That is assuming this friend of yours has a surround amp.

If not jman98 may be right and this is some bug. Getting a dedicated media player would be a more permanent fix.

Also try to check if the player has a firmware upgrade if your friend is currently connected to the net (that particular player that is, it should notify you of firmware updates if you are connected to the net I believe, otherwise download it from the manufacturers website and install it per their instructions from either a cd/dvdr or a usb thumbdrive - or whatever the instructions specify).

Good luck.

Of course you could demux the audio and run them through audacity and boost the volume on them and remux them.

However since this is dts you run into a problem as there is no freeware dts encoder that I"m aware of. YOu'd have to reencode to ac3 and take a marginal quality hit with the downconverting.

You have a few choices to consider now.

[zunah]

Thanks very much! The Bluray player has the latest firmware. I'll let them know that if it bugs them in the future they will need to purchase a surround amp - probably would suit them best anyways.
I just found it odd because I have a similar setup - LG TV and Bluray (but different older model bluray) and mine always plays these files fine. I guess there are some differences model to model...

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions!

[yoda313]

I'll let them know that if it bugs them in the future they will need to purchase a surround amp

Fyi I don't know if its cheaper or not but if they don't want to go all the way they could get one of those sound bars. That way it would be amplified and probably better than the tv speakers. But it would be a step short of a full blown surround sound setup if they aren't ready to go that far.

Also did they just buy the player? Is there any chance they could still return it?

[fritzi93]

Try changing the audio output settings on the Blu-Ray player.

You'll likely have options like:

Primary Passthrough
PCM Stereo
PCM Multichannel
DTS Re-encode