DVD audio too low
DVD audio too low
Author
Discussion

Jukebag

Original Poster:

1,463 posts

162 months

Monday 3rd August 2020
quotequote all
Anyone know why some of the DVD's (films and TV shows) I have very low audio?. They are all retail copies I have bought, but the majority of them (particularly the films) the sound is so low that you have turn the volume right up to max so that you can hear it clearly, and if then it's often hard to hear. Anyone with hearing problems would be really struggling to hear it. It's not down the speaker of the TV as my other TVs have the same issue, and when it's switched back to antenna the sound is loud and audible. I never used to get this with commercial home video releases on VHS.


dudleybloke

20,553 posts

209 months

Monday 3rd August 2020
quotequote all
Any audio options on the dvd player?
How is it connected to the TV?
Are the quiet discs in 5.1 or stereo?

TonyRPH

13,472 posts

191 months

Monday 3rd August 2020
quotequote all
I bet the DVD is configured to output 5.1 audio into a stereo receiver - so most of the primary audio information is missing.

But without vital information like:

How is the DVD player connected to the amp / receiver?

Is it connected to a stereo amp or multi channel receiver?

If connected to a multi channel receiver, how many channels are configured with speakers?

If connected to a stereo receiver, has the DVD player been configured to output a stereo signal?

If connected to a TV, does the TV support multi channel audio or stereo only? And has the DVD player been configured to output stereo only?

'Don't know' is not a valid answer to any of the above. smile


VEX

5,259 posts

269 months

Monday 3rd August 2020
quotequote all
How is it connected and what too?

Can’t answer otherwise.

V.

Zirconia

36,010 posts

307 months

Tuesday 4th August 2020
quotequote all
Mentions "some" not all? Is the source audio on the disk stereo or surround? Checked audio option on player?

Sometimes an incorrect downmix for a stereo only TV can be in the authoring metadata. I have had a few over the years that are difficult without a surround sound system.

There are many other versions for surround and basic audio.

Jukebag

Original Poster:

1,463 posts

162 months

Tuesday 4th August 2020
quotequote all
One of the players is a Sony model, a very compact DVD player that I got from Asda (I think) with just a scart socket on the back, so no composite or component connections for hooking up to speakers. The TV its connected to has a scart connection, and that's about it.

I've often wondered if it's down to the audio mix of the DVD that's playing, but most of the DVD films and TV series I play are a mix of stereo, 5.1 etc, some are probably mono. As you say, maybe the audio mix needs adjusting for the TV it's playing through. As I say it's not down to the fault of the TV speaker, as once you switch back to TV the sound is loud.

normalbloke

8,500 posts

242 months

Tuesday 4th August 2020
quotequote all
Scart? Scart you say??

Zirconia

36,010 posts

307 months

Tuesday 4th August 2020
quotequote all
I bet there are still a lot of SCART devices in use, you can still buy the cables and connectors as well. I found it a hateful connector to work with but fully loaded. Biggest gripe was no locking clips for certain applications. But explains in part perhaps why audio could be an issue.

I have found them useful to make adopters for wifi headphones for hard of hearing without messing up the main audio for the other people in the house.

Jukebag

Original Poster:

1,463 posts

162 months

Tuesday 4th August 2020
quotequote all
I noticed the scart connection wasn't pushed into the player, so once I did I noticed a slight improvement in the audio, but even so it was still quite low compared to the TV signal. The DVD I tried was just a kids cartoon in 2.0 (either stereo or mono) so wasn't any surround mix. Some of the DVDs are better than others.

TonyRPH

13,472 posts

191 months

Tuesday 4th August 2020
quotequote all
I would check in the DVD player settings, and ensure that any audio options are set to "Stereo" and "PCM".

It might also be worthwhile checking the TV audio settings to ensure the digital input is set to "PCM" or "PCM Stereo" as well.

Some DVD players try to be clever by reading the audio format on the disk and overriding any preset formats so that could be an issue too.

Zirconia

36,010 posts

307 months

Wednesday 5th August 2020
quotequote all
What is the player and what is the TV?

Tony Starks

2,363 posts

235 months

Thursday 6th August 2020
quotequote all
Could be the way the audio is recorded, speed racer is notoriously quiet on the BR version. Something to do with the recording being a compressed format.