How do I make the dialogue louder in MPC-HC?

[cns00]

Laptop aaa is connected to my TV. I started using PotPlayer on aaa last year. The audio normalizer of PotPlayer was enabled and it looked like https://i.imgur.com/0eXN3Ia.jpeg. The boost level is 75% and it properly boosted the audio of my movies and I was able to properly hear the dialogue of the movies when the TV volume was 9 to 11. My movies have 6 channel audio and the TV speakers are stereo.

I was happy with the audio but unfortunately I had to stop using PotPlayer on aaa because it caused the laptop to freeze while I was watching a movie so I uninstalled PotPlayer and I put MPC-HC which I got from https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases instead of PotPlayer. I enabled the audio normalizer of MPC-HC and it looks like https://i.imgur.com/9c5871E.jpeg.

The problem is the the audio normalizer of MPC-HC is not like the audio normalizer of PotPlayer. I have to set the boost level to 150% and I have to set the TV volume to between 15 and 19 so I can properly hear the dialogue but it's making the music\sound effects really loud and it's louder than the dialogue. I don't want the audio normalizer to make the music\sound effects to be much louder and I just want the dialogue to be louder. Is that possible by modifying the sound settings in MPC-HC?

Also will it help if I buy a soundbar and I connect it to my TV? My TV speakers have become bad and they started to resonate and make static sounds in some parts of the movie and that happened in multiple movies. I think that's because the TV speakers can't handle the audio frequencies of those parts. That happened when I was using PotPlayer and the boost level is 75% and the TV volume was around 15 and I had to set the TV volume to under 10 so that the TV speakers don't resonate and make static sounds. However, the weird thing is that the same parts in the movies which caused the TV speakers to resonate are not causing the TV speakers to resonate and make static sounds when I switched to using MPC-HC and the boost level is 150% and the TV volume is around 15. Why is that?

[Gus.Ghanem]

MPC-HC Internal Filters, Audio decoder, Mixing tab:
Enable Normalize Matrix and Clipping Protection

Mixer, Enable Mixing, change levels of Center (dialogue), and Surround channels.

Potplayer also has Normalize Matrix and Mixer Level for Center etc.

Boosting audio levels beyond the limitations of the sound chip and speakers will cause clipping distortion.

[cns00]

Mixer, Enable Mixing, change levels of Center (dialogue), and Surround channels.

What value do I put for Center and Surround? Now they are both 0.71.

[Gus.Ghanem]

I don't think there are specific values, the sliders are meant for adjusting to your setup or liking, lower surround values might reduce music loudness, and center increases dialogue loudness. I just don't have any experience with surround audio, you have to experiment. First try with Normlaize Matrix alone, if that doesn't fix the sound, then try the levels.

[Cornucopia]

Understand that dialogue is PRIMARILY in the center channel, but mixes vary, so it is not necessarily the only position used. Rarely would it be in the surround channels, though, and should almost never be in LFE. Adjust accordingly. Ymmv.
Music, otoh, while primarily in the L & R main channels, are more spread out anyway so could appear in C or surrounds, and occasionally LFE.

Also understand that these methods of channel adjustment for improving dialogue balance over musix & FX really only work, when they do work, with multichannel streams. But I bet you already know that. Just mentioning in case you don't, or for others reading this.


Scott

[zing269]

Personally I like the Robert Collier downmix. https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=168267
For some movies I reduce it even more.