WinDVD BD Volume on Playback Low...

So I'm testing out my Blu-Ray drive and I notice that the volume on the playback in WinDVD is very low. I have to max out the volume in Win 7 just to be able to hear the audio through the notebook speakers.

The movie I'm testing is Ice Age 3. I have the DVD and the blu-ray version. The DVD plays very loud via WMP. The blu-ray volume leaves a lot to be desired.

Any suggestions?

 

I have an FW490, and reported the same problem several months ago. There were several interesting comments, but the bottom line is that I was never able to obtain the same volume level when playing a blu ray dvd, compared to regular dvd's or just listening to itunes etc. Here is a link to the thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=401657

I finally ended up buying an inexpensive pair of Logitech V20 notebook speakers which I use when watching movies. I purchased them at Amazon for 29.00 (Tech for Less). They are quite good for general listening.

 

Thank you so much for that link. After reading the suggestions in that thread, I located the properties for the Realtek sound driver and found the HD volume setting at 50%. Increased it and the volume changed in a snap!

Thanks again!

 

Whoops, turns out that the volume setting just changes the main volume for the system.

 

Ok, I applied the "Loudness Equalization" enhancement and that seems like it did the job.

 

But does it now play at loud as when playing a regular dvd?

 

I tested it out using just the laptop speakers (I have external Harmon Kardon soundsticks, but preferred to run the test with the built in speakers).

I left the system volume at around 50%. Ran both the DVD and Blu-Ray of the movie through WinDVD BD for Vaio. The volume level seemed very similar.

Before I applied the sound enhancement, you could barely hear the blu-ray movie from the laptop speakers with system volume at 50%. Now, I can.

On all tests, I left the volume in WinDVD at the max setting.

By the way, I applied all the software updates for the blu-ray drive and WinDVD last night (downloaded from sony support). So I am running the latest software.

 

Thanks. The sound enhancement setting defintely seemed to increase the volume when watching Blu Ray dvds.

 

The only thing is system sounds such as alerts are noticeably louder. I just reduced the system sounds from the mixer control.

 

One other caveat about using equalization: music seems to play at a constant volume. For instance a song might normally start off at a low volume and then gets louder when the drums kick in, etc. When you apply equalization, the beginning of the song is amplified and the "loud" part of the song is less loud, sort of like how they play songs on the radio.

 

That's not equalization, that's normalization.

Equalization is adjusting individual frequency ranges up or down to compensate for deficiencies in hardware or listening environment. (Or, more commonly, to pump up the bass and treble, i.e. sacrifice fidelity for umph)

Normalization, or "loudness", is expanding the entire waveform to make it sound louder (or, rarely, softer). Often, clipping is a result, which is especially noticable in the higher frequency ranges. Details disappear, but as long as buyers think that louder is better, that's a cheap way of achieving louder without actually providing more amps.

Google for "loudness war" for some more interesting info.

 

I wish that there was more information available the effect of these sound options . Blu-Ray is definitely louder when I chose the "loudness equalization" option. I also notice that system sounds are much louder. If this option reduces overall quality, I think I will turn it off and just use my separate notebook speakers when watching a Blu-Ray DVD. But its not a bad solution when I don't have access to separate speakers.

 

Use the default Windows 7 audio driver for more speaker volume.

 

"Loudness EQ" was first introduced on consumer stereo systems in the 70s. It's an analogue circuit that dampens the midrange (usually by 15 dB) which allows the bass and treble to be played louder. It's the hardcoded equivalent of placing the knobs of an equalizer in a V or seagull shape, or pumping up bass and treble on a system without an equalizer. It doesn't in itself cause an information loss like normalization does, but it does distort what you hear, and can make spoken words really hard to hear in movies.

Music and movie aficionados tend to want as flat a sound as possible, because the sound technician who produced the album (or DVD) has already boosted the bass and treble as much as it should be boosted. The equalizer is used to compensate for hardware deficiencies and speaker placements (a bass element right in front of a wall will cause reflections, and the bass should usually be reduced accordingly).

That said, there are "loudness" equivalent filters that work better, including Dolby Prologic IIx "Movie Mode". You get the bass and treble boost and midrange attenuation, and thus a perceived volume boost. But only when the sound is in only one of the channels (which is the case for most special effects). Spoken word is usually in the middle, i.e. in both speakers, and thus won't be dampened.
The net result is that the sound field sounds both wider and louder.
The drawback is that it doesn't always sound natural. Someone speaking softly from the side, for example, may be hard to hear, and moving bass sounds (like a chopper or jet) may sound unnatural as the volume rises and falls depending on where it is. But for most movies, it usually beats "Loudness EQ".

TANSTAAFL, indeed.

 

Thanks for the explanation.