Inconsistent Volume Levels

madFive

metal[H]ead
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Messages
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TL;DR / Cliffs version: Having trouble w/ my X-Fi Titanium (DDL, S/PDIF 5.1) audio settings when watching movies in Netflix-Streaming and PowerDVD (v10 Ultra).

Anyone know what audio config I should use to get louder audio in movies? It is too quiet!


The problem I'm having isn't exactly a show-stopper, but I've been screwing with this for a few weeks now, and still haven't figured it out, so I figured I'd see if [H] can help out. I started typing out an explanation of the problems I'm having, and it got really long... read on if you want to kill some time. (or if you know a lot about X-Fi, PowerDVD, or NetFlix) :p
 
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Here are the components I'm working with, besides my rig in sig that I'm using as HTPC now.

- X-Fi Titanium, Optical-Out, using DDL-encoder and Entertainment mode
- Yamaha 5.1 Receiver (100w/ch) + Polk speakers + Infinity Sub/bass-amp (converted car sub)

Ok, I recently upgraded to Win7, and finally got all the drivers for the X-fi Titanium installed, so I can send 5.1 optical using DDL or DTS. There are tons and tons of settings available to tweak the audio quality from this card, and I'm still trying to figure out the best combination for my setup.

The problem I'm having is that the volume-levels I'm getting from the X-Fi to the receiver are very inconsistent depending on what kind of media I'm listening to. During gaming, listening to MP3's, and most online video like Youtube and Hulu, the volume is nice and loud, and I can set the receiver volume around -30 to -25 to get nice loud audio. The problem I'm having is mostly when watching movies. When watching DVDs or BRs (Power-DVD 10 Ultra) and in NetFlix streaming, the audio level is very quiet, and I have to crank the receiver up to around -18 to -12 to get it loud enough! Afraid of damaging my components if some other sound gets played in background at full-blast!

I've been going through all the settings I could find and have turned up all the volume levels to the max in PC to try and get better volume-levels to the receiver, but still haven't been able to figure out why the volume is so quiet in certain applications...

I'm pretty sure the problem is with the programs I'm using to play the media. So... I guess I have two basic questions here, one for each of the applications I'm having the most trouble with:

1 - PowerDVD: Does anyone know this program well enough to tell me how to set it up with my X-Fi titanium to get louder volume-output?

2 - NetFlix - is there any way to change the audio settings for NetFlix Streaming? I know it "detects" the quality settings before it starts playing, but is there any way to get it to use 5.1 or to adjust the volume it sends? The volume-slider in the play-back window is set to max, but the volume it is sending is still very quiet most of the time. I realized a few days ago that NetFlix is just sending 2-chanel audio and that it isn't sending anything to my sub despite the fact that I have 5.1 enabled and the sub works just fine when I run test-speakers in audio control panel. Is there a way to get into the SilverLight settings to verify the audio-encoder it's using etc?

I'm sure I missed some important information in here, but I'm guessing if you made it this far in reading, you might already have some idea of the settings I should be looking for. Ask away if you need to know anything else.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
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It's windows thats the problem. Microsoft won't even admit there is a issues with sound stuck at -80%(i know about the COMM TAB, thats what is broken) or no sound at all. I built 3 computers and all three have the issue in some form.

The sound problems started after the install of SP1 for win7.
 
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