DVD Sound Requires Increased Sound Level

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Rickles

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#315212 23-Jun-2024 17:46

A friend recently reported that whilst viewing normal TV (terrestrial and streaming) sound levels are fine, but when playing a DVD the sound has to be turned up significantly.

Examples he gave me are between 18 and 22 on the sound level scale for ordinary TV, but a DVD requires sound to be up to the 60 mark for easy listening ... apparently some 'copied' videos from his son also require the higher volume setting.

I'm guessing that this is all to do with MP4 sound compression, but wonder if a soundbar would alleviate the situation?

Fiddling with the TV sound settings do nothing.

Oblivian

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#3252235 23-Jun-2024 18:55

Well it's 2 different input sources for a start. So no normalising is a given.

Ths rest may be down to Wrongly setup audio settings/downmixing. Not a 5.1 system? It'll need to be told that.

DVDs will almost always be 5.1AC3 audio. The centre channel takes care of vocal. The left and right the rest.

Unless you specify in the player the output speakers are not 5.1, only 2/2.1 you could end up increasing the overall to get anything out of it unless it's mixing to stereo.

In sony world, everything needs to say 'stereo'. Not 'surround'.

xpd

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#3252296 24-Jun-2024 07:23

As above, most likely the source sound format. I've always had that issue, and last year was "enough!!" and picked up a basic sound bar with sub that supports Dolby Digital, which has improved things.

When playing a DVD, check the menu for sound settings as some will offer different options.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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Behodar

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#3252322 24-Jun-2024 09:05

xpd:

When playing a DVD, check the menu for sound settings as some will offer different options.

Just for clarity: there are two different menus, one on the player itself and then often a separate one provided by the disc. Configuring the player correctly is the most important, with the discs being secondary.

If the player is set to 5.1 then even 2.0 DVDs may sound wrong: the player may say "since you're using a 5.1 system I'll mess with the 2.0 signal to expand it to 5.1 stereo", and then you're back at square one. So make sure that the player itself is set to 2.0.

Rickles

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#3252347 24-Jun-2024 10:36

Thanks all ... the TV has just a couple of settings (TV Speakers and Amplify), so will check the DVD player settings and see what there is there.

ARIKIP

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#3252486 24-Jun-2024 13:06

If you are just listening to the TVs built in speakers a move to a decent sound bar will be a revelation. Especially with the centre/Vocal Clarity a Bar will provide. Also a DVD has a far Greater Dynamic range than free to air TV,so the difference from the quietest to the loudest sound will be larger. Your Typical TV will not be able to do too well audio wise with it. Go the soundbar route. You can get some pretty decent Bars second hand on Trademe for a decent price if you have a look. Eg i picked up a former flagship Samsung N950 Soundbar with sub and rear speakers for $450. Prefereably run it via HDMI so hopefully the TV has the eARC/ARC HDMI function which it should if its not more than say 12-15ish or so years old.

Sony 77" A80J OLED, Integra 60.7, Panasonic UB820, Toshiba HD-XE1, Apple TV 4K, JBL L100T,JBL 18Ti, JBL L20T, Velodyne HGS15

richms

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#3252487 24-Jun-2024 13:09

DVD/blurays and webrips of movies will have better dynamic range as they are mixed to be played at reference levels. If the player has a night mode, turn it on and it will compress the audio to be more background music levels without the dynamics that the director intended.

TV broadcasters compress the hell out of their content just like radio stations do so that its a constant level and you lose the dynamics.

Richard rich.ms

xpd

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#3252501 24-Jun-2024 13:37

Paid around $140 for my basic JBL sound bar/sub system. Like it if it was a bit louder but def helped overall.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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