# Movie sound normalization



## Bruci (Sep 11, 2018)

Hello,
I have a problem with the sound playback of movies and I think a lot of other people also.
In the current HD-action movies the sound is extremely different between spoken text and action scenes.
When the spoken text is silent, I have to increase the volume.
If after that, an action scene follows, my ears fly away, I have to decrease the volume.
And so on.
I have a HTPC with ASUS board and one with Intel board (current Windows 10 version).
Is there a tool available , to normalize the sound output, for HDMI and loudspeaker output?


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 11, 2018)

Asus and Realtek should have equalizer software to make such adjustments


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## _UV_ (Sep 11, 2018)

At least in W7 you can turn on Loudness Equalization (Sound/Playbak/*your speaker device*) some sort of compression of artificial movies high dynamic range. Also there are some browser plugins for equalization.


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## CityCultivator (Sep 11, 2018)

I wouldd recommend you to install any dolby audio effects (Home Theater v4, Digital Plus, Atmos). These softwares have a good volume leveller. You can use it together with the dialogue enhancer to enhance spoken content.
Check the Making Audio Enhancers Work on Windows thread for how to install and use.


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## R00kie (Sep 11, 2018)

MPC-HC has a normalisation option in sound settings, that does just that, normalises differences in volume.


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## hat (Sep 12, 2018)

To get down to the nitty gritty, this is likely happening because you are playing a 5.1 or higher track through stereo speakers. A lot of dialogue usually comes through the center speaker in such tracks. There are a few ways to go about remedying this...

1. get a 5.1 speaker set
2. find some option for audio normalization, or better yet downmixing to stereo in your end device (it would help to know exactly what you're using to play these files)
3. check if there are any alternate audio tracks available, sometimes there are alternate tracks available for stereo audio
4. transcode the file yourself in Handbrake or something, downmixing the audio to Stereo

Welcome to the world of multimedia... it's quite the rabbit hole.


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## Mussels (Sep 12, 2018)

most of the time people have this issue, they've set their speakers to 5.1 and have no working center speaker (where the voices come from)

make sure your sound settings match your speaker setup, and you have nothing enabled in your sound card settings that could screw with that (no upmixing crap)


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## Bruci (Sep 12, 2018)

Thanks,
I will try the software solutions.
Can I use the  software solutions (Home Theater v4, Digital Plus, Atmos, MPC-HC ) also for the HDMI output?
My HTPC's are connected via HDMI to the TV.


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## R00kie (Sep 12, 2018)

Bruci said:


> Thanks,
> I will try the software solutions.
> Can I use the  software solutions (Home Theater v4, Digital Plus, Atmos, MPC-HC ) also for the HDMI output?
> My HTPC's are connected via HDMI to the TV.


I know MPC-HC definitely does, not sure about the other ones.


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## CityCultivator (Sep 12, 2018)

Bruci said:


> Thanks,
> I will try the software solutions.
> Can I use the  software solutions (Home Theater v4, Digital Plus, Atmos, MPC-HC ) also for the HDMI output?
> My HTPC's are connected via HDMI to the TV.



MPC-HC will usually output to your default device.
All dolby software solutions (Home Theater v4, Digital Plus, Atmos) can be used on HDMI endpoints.


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## Bruci (Sep 14, 2018)

Sorry and thanks,
I was on a business trip.
Where can I download the (Home Theater v4, Digital Plus, Atmos) software tools ?


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## CityCultivator (Sep 15, 2018)

Bruci said:


> Sorry and thanks,
> I was on a business trip.
> Where can I download the (Home Theater v4, Digital Plus, Atmos) software tools ?


https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/making-audio-enhancers-work-on-windows.244309/
Follow instructions on that page for setting up any of the software solutions.
I would recommend you to use Dolby Digital Plus, as setup seem to be one of the easiest.
1. Download APO driver from alanfox's page.
2. Install it with the Dolby Digital Plus option selected.
3. Open Fxconfigurator, click on Product Config Tool and select Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater.
4. Got to the sound enhancer page and download
Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater, install it.


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## TheLostSwede (Sep 15, 2018)

Or you know, you could enable Loudness Equalization in the Realtek control pane to start with?


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## Bruci (Sep 16, 2018)

Many thanks,
I will try it next week.


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## Bruci (Sep 18, 2018)

CityCultivator said:


> https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/making-audio-enhancers-work-on-windows.244309/
> Follow instructions on that page for setting up any of the software solutions.
> I would recommend you to use Dolby Digital Plus, as setup seem to be one of the easiest.
> 1. Download APO driver from alanfox's page.
> ...



There are 3 files, in which order should I install this files ?


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## CityCultivator (Sep 18, 2018)

Bruci said:


> There are 3 files, in which order should I install this files ?


What are the file names?


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## Bruci (Sep 19, 2018)

CityCultivator said:


> What are the file names?


DDPlusAA.msi
DDPlusHT.msi
DS1_driver_zip(4* .dll files)


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## CityCultivator (Sep 20, 2018)

Bruci said:


> DDPlusAA.msi
> DDPlusHT.msi
> DS1_driver_zip(4* .dll files)



After you have done step 3, install only  DDPlusHT.msi .

DDPlusAA.msi : a lesser featured version of the app, don't bother with it.
DS1_driver_zip: already included in the APO driver, don't bother with it.


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## Bruci (Sep 20, 2018)

Thanks


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## Bruci (Sep 23, 2018)

I try to install the driver ( dotNetAppx_x86_x64_v1.zip + VisualCppAppx_x86_x64_v1.zip) 
according to the installation instruction from the alanfox's page,
but my virus scanner blocked all with the threat:  Atc4.Detection


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## DeathtoGnomes (Sep 23, 2018)

gdallsk said:


> I know MPC-HC definitely does, not sure about the other ones.


VLC does.


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## Bruci (Sep 23, 2018)

DeathtoGnomes said:


> VLC does.


What do you mean?
VLC does.


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## DeathtoGnomes (Sep 23, 2018)

Bruci said:


> What do you mean?
> VLC does.


VLC  is actually better than MPC-HC and has normalization.


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## Bruci (Sep 23, 2018)

DeathtoGnomes said:


> VLC  is actually better than MPC-HC and has normalization.


Can I use VLC for HDMI output.
Where can i download the VLC Sound enhancer?


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## DeathtoGnomes (Sep 23, 2018)

HDMI output is done thru your sound card. 

Google VLC sound  enhancer there are several.

https://www.videolan.org/


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## Bruci (Oct 3, 2018)

Bruci said:


> There are 3 files, in which order should I install this files ?


Hello,
1. Download APO driver from alanfox's page.
2. Download the  driver (dotNetApp and  VisualCppAppx) from the folder Runtime
3. I installed the driver ( dotNetAppx_x86_x64_v1.zip + VisualCppAppx_x86_x64_v1.zip)
4. I installed the APO driver 2.2.5
5. I selected the driver component Dolby DS1 7.6.5.1 ( for Dolby Digital Plus)
6. I opened the Fxconfigurator, selected the endpoints [active] loudspeakers
7. I clicked on Product Config Tool and select Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater
8. But in the Product Config Tool is no possibility to store the settings
9. I installed DDPlusHT.msi 
10. I started Dolby Digital PLUS Home Setting
11. I see nothing in the equalizer ( I can turn the button ON and OFF, but there are no sound changes).

What can I do?


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## CityCultivator (Oct 3, 2018)

Bruci said:


> Hello,
> 1. Download APO driver from alanfox's page.
> 2. Download the  driver (dotNetApp and  VisualCppAppx) from the folder Runtime
> 3. I installed the driver ( dotNetAppx_x86_x64_v1.zip + VisualCppAppx_x86_x64_v1.zip)
> ...








Did you click the apply button / does the button appear as in the above picture?


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## Bruci (Oct 3, 2018)

Yes, I click the button, it's the same picture.


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## CityCultivator (Oct 3, 2018)

Bruci said:


> Yes, I click the button, it's the same picture.



Click on the endpoints list and print screeen so that I can see all your available endpoints on your system.


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## Bruci (Oct 4, 2018)




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## CityCultivator (Oct 4, 2018)

Bruci said:


> View attachment 108042View attachment 108043


If I'm guessing properly
lautsprecher - 8fcbb28c -is your onboard speaker out?
You are using onboard out or any other out (HDMI/realtek 2.0 usb/SPDIF)?


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## Bruci (Oct 5, 2018)

Hello.
I'm using only the lautsprecher:


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## CityCultivator (Oct 5, 2018)

Bruci said:


> View attachment 108042View attachment 108043



If Fx configurator has lautsprecher selected in these pictures, it seem that Dolby Digital Plus are not loaded, as Dolby Digital Plus are loaded like this:



You will notice that:
1. In the Effects Configuration window, only the LFX APO and Property page has contents.
2.In the Processing Mode Configuration window, only LFX APO Processing Modes have contents.
*Any endpoint with Dolby Digital Plus must have these same contents.* Thus it seem that Dolby Digital Plus is not loaded.
Actions:
Select your endpoint and use the product config tool again. It must be the same as above, with same numbers.


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## Bruci (Oct 6, 2018)

Hello,
1. I selected my endpoint
2. I used product config tool
All fiels hace the same number.
Then I start the tool Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater.
But I can not change any sound settings. I turned the button On/Off, changed movie/music etc.


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## CityCultivator (Oct 6, 2018)

Bruci said:


> Hello,
> 1. I selected my endpoint
> 2. I used product config tool
> All fiels hace the same number.
> ...


At this point I have no further idea. I can only recommend you to try some other enhancers, such as DTS Digital Entertainment. It also has voice enhancement, audio normalization and audio boosting.
Just select the option for DTS in maintenance driver and do product config tool again with DTS Digital Entertainment. You can config the enhancer in sound control panel, with an additional option of DTS.



In this example, there is a dolby tab, but if DTS is selected, a DTS tab should be present.
In my example, Dolby Home Theater v3 is used, but does not have voice enhancement or normalization.
Note: If DTS cannot be installed properly, check that Visual c++ 2008 x64 run-time is installed.


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## Bruci (Dec 25, 2018)

Hello,
I tried to install the DTS Digital Entertainment as above explained. But I've got no DTS/Dolby-Tab in the Microsoft High Definition Audio Device.
What can I do?


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