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?

eidairaman1 · Sep 11, 2018

Asus and Realtek should have equalizer software to make such adjustments

_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.

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.

R00kie · Sep 11, 2018

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

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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 ?

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.

TheLostSwede · Sep 15, 2018

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

Bruci · Sep 16, 2018

Many thanks,
I will try it next week.

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.
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.

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

CityCultivator · Sep 18, 2018

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

What are the file names?

Bruci · Sep 19, 2018

CityCultivator said:
What are the file names?

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

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.

Bruci · Sep 20, 2018

Thanks

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

DeathtoGnomes · Sep 23, 2018

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

VLC does.

Bruci · Sep 23, 2018

DeathtoGnomes said:
VLC does.

What do you mean?
VLC does.

DeathtoGnomes · Sep 23, 2018

Bruci said:
What do you mean?
VLC does.

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

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?

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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Movie sound normalization

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