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Low HD Sound Levels on Fox T2 |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 18
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Low HD Sound Levels on Fox T2
All the HD channels on my HDR Fox T2 have low sound levels which has always been a bit annoying. However I was going through the menus and found the setting to correct this. I am posting this in case anyone else has the same issue and wants to do something about it.
Go into the Menu - Settings - Audio - Digital Audio Output - select Stereo (the default is Multi-channel) - exit. Job done. |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,903
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That doesn't necessarily correct the "fault". Which isn't actually a fault as such but a characteristic of the way the audio is broadcast.
If you compare the HD and SD equivalent channels you notice that the HD channels tend to use less processing on the audio channels. In particular dynamic range compression. This means the HD channels can sound subjectively quieter as the average volume of the audio is lower than the SD equivalent. Setting the audio out to PCM Stereo is unlikely to affect this. If the original audio track is 5.1 surround it may give a perceived boost depending on how the 5.1 is mixed down to 2.0. But if the audio track is plain stereo to begin with I would suspect it makes no difference at all. It's not just the Humax either (I've got a HDR-FOX T2 myself) but just about everything that can receive the HD channels. I get exactly the same effect on my TV. One thing I have noticed on my Humax is the volume control only affects the SD channels. So you could use that to drop the SD volume to match the HD volume and simply turn up the wick a nats on the TV or whatever you are listening to the audio on. Bit crude but it works!
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,197
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I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I set the digital audio output of my Fox to stereo as soon as I got it and haven't had any problems with it: audio is the same for SD and HD and is controlled by the Humax volume on both resolutions.
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,903
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Hmmmm.
Had a chance to play last night. I was certain that in years gone by setting the output to Stereo or Multi channel had no real impact on audio level and that the volume control only worked on the SD channels regardless. Seems that switching to stereo does boost the audio level closer to SD levels. And in Stereo mode the volume control works on HD channels as well. Though not in Multi Channel mode where it only affects the SD channels. Maybe some firmware update has changed what I thought it did, or, more likely, senility is creeping on and destroying what few remaining functioning brain cells I still possess ![]() Though it's not really a solution if you have a full surround sound system and want to take full advantage of any broadcasts in surround. In that instance having it set to multi channel and setting the volume control on the Humax so that the SD channels are reduced in volume to more closely match the HD channels is a compromise solution. |
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,738
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Quote:
Seems that switching to stereo does boost the audio level closer to SD levels. And in Stereo mode the volume control works on HD channels as well. Though not in Multi Channel mode where it only affects the SD channels.
Maybe some firmware update has changed what I thought it did, or, more likely, senility is creeping on and destroying what few remaining functioning brain cells I still possess ![]() Quote:
Though not in Multi Channel mode where it only affects the SD channels.
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,903
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Quote:
There was a change prior to July 2012 that did help balance the apparent volume on SD v HD by adjusting the HD audio. It was definitely before 1.02.20. I remember it because they forgot to do the same to AD and when they did (in 1.02.20) they introduced a new AD bug, (which they have since ported to the HDR-2000T/1800T).
Quote:
There have been a few reports that the volume control does work on multi-channel output. It has been put down to a rare compatibility between some amps and the volume control that can accompany the audio signal on multi-channel.
Wonder if it could be HDMI control or something like that? So it's sending commands to the attached amp rather than actually changing the levels of the audio signal itself? I've got HDMI control turned off on my Onkyo amp as it is a royal pain in the neck thinking it knows better than I do what I want to happen. Maybe as an experiment I'll turn it back on and see what happens. |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,289
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Quote:
Hmmmm.
Had a chance to play last night. I was certain that in years gone by setting the output to Stereo or Multi channel had no real impact on audio level and that the volume control only worked on the SD channels regardless. Seems that switching to stereo does boost the audio level closer to SD levels. And in Stereo mode the volume control works on HD channels as well. Though not in Multi Channel mode where it only affects the SD channels. Maybe some firmware update has changed what I thought it did, or, more likely, senility is creeping on and destroying what few remaining functioning brain cells I still possess ![]() Switching to stereo recodes the ac3 output from the box to lpcm stereo which is the same as you get from SD channels using MP2 audio. Though it's not really a solution if you have a full surround sound system and want to take full advantage of any broadcasts in surround. In that instance having it set to multi channel and setting the volume control on the Humax so that the SD channels are reduced in volume to more closely match the HD channels is a compromise solution. On my amp SD volume is near max to match the HD output so no need to turn it down. |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Easternmost England
Posts: 1,120
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AFAIK The same issue occurs on both Freeview and Freesat.
Humax receivers can alter the levels of the digital output stream of MPEG2 and decoded DD 2.0 sound as a PCM stream (in 'stereo' mode). But they can't do that when the digital output is set to 'bitstream' (aka 'surround') to another device where the sound decoding takes place in that device instead {albeit that, for Freeview HD, it needs transcoding from HE-AAC to Dolby Digital 2.0/5.1} Having CEC on (RIHD in Onkyo terms) does not change this limitation (on my Foxsat-HDR Onkyo 515 combo at least). |
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