FZ180 built in mic

the mic volume is soooo low, even when i set the camera capture thing to max.. anyone know how to increase the volume more? =[

 

^I haven't tried mine yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's volume is low. It's hard to even find a good headset unless you spend $XX.

 

yeah, it's safe to assume that all built in mic's suck, but quality isnt the issue, i just want people to be able to hear me when i talk =[

 

I have an FZ190 so no doubt we have the same mic hardware, and mine seems to work great with skype etc i dont have to yell or really talk loud at all, just normal speech volume. have you tried control panel/sound/recording and checking the volume properties there?

 

In general I have heard that the volume at highest is not blasting loud in the FZ series. I have used the built in web camera and microphone in Skype while in public and my friend had no trouble hearing me. In the system tray there is the sound icon and a "mixer" when you click on the icon. Maybe try increasing the volume of all the options to max on there.

 

That icon has NO effect on the microphone level at all. It only controls the speaker level and the amplifier inputs allowing you to adjust the relative levels of the various things that are going into the amplifier circuit. The left most slider sets the output level of the amp. The ones on the right represent the various things feeding into the amp and allow you to control each one of them individually (you will have one or more depending on the apps you have running).

To set the MIC level, got to Control Panel | Sound | Recording and click on the MIC and select Properties. Then select the Levels tab. You will find two sliders one for the MIC level and another for a MIC boost. Too bad they labeled it boost, in audio terms it is really a GAIN control. It is designed to allow you to match the output from an external mic to the input requirements of the internal recording circuit. It DOES function with the internal MIC too. I made a call to the skype test number and tried the four settings of +0db, +10db, +20db and +30db. The first is the normal setting. There was a noticeable "boost" at the other settings. The +30db setting though totally overloaded the recording circuit and distorted badly. You should keep this setting at +0db unless you use an external MIC or need some additional headroom to record something that is very quite. Note that ANYTIME you boost the gain like this your will ALSO boost background noise as well. Test things first before you commit some really important recording to disk only to find out latter it was distorted or noisy. And don't forget to reset the boost/aka GAIN latter!

Gary

 

strange, my mic volume is at max and its still really low.. =[ and the boost distorts my speech too much.. is there a driver of some sort i should install?

 

well, first things first, try reinstalling sony's drivers.
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNFZ180E&UpdateType=Everything

i'm gonna guess its the SigmaTel Audio download? not too sure

 

At which boost setting does the distortion start? 10db, 20db or 30 db?

Gary