Low-volume channel list

[Walter L.]

I want to compile a list of channels suffering from the low volume sindrome. I'll post the list at the Yahoo group later so that Wilt can look into it. These are the ones I've noticed:

100 HDNews
412 Fox News

What other channels?

 

[lostcause]

All the music channels...on my home theater receiver I can listen to most channels at a volume level of between 55 and 60. Music channels need at least 70-75.

 

[Pete In Plano]

Comedy Central is very low.

 

[Walter L.]

Pete,
What channel number is Comedy Central?

 

[GabeNet]

THe History channel (613) is also very low.

 

[Indy]

MSNBC is also low. Seems like all the news channels and the weather channel too.

 

[jnardone]

Low Volume

Hi:
VOOM has already been told of the volume problem and they will not do anything about it. Don't try calling VOOM customer service because they will tell you that you are the first customer to report it. Don't insist on a service call or they will have the installer write it up as "Customer's home theater problem" and not a problem with VOOM. Your best bet is to memorize the channels with low volume so that you can adjust your sound before you change to a regular volume channel and thereby not wake up your family or neighbors.
Joseph

 

[Pete In Plano]

Comedy is 509. I must say that I had the same uneven audio on D*, the same channels. It may be that the feeds are uneven and the DBS companies don't bother to even them out. But running compression to even out the sound levels may make the sound squashed so that may be why they leave it alone.

 

[mdanderson]

This low volume on certain channels is probably my biggest complaint with Voom right now. It is really a pain to have to adjust the volume each time for different channels. If this does not get fixed by the end of the year then I will probably cancel Voom. By the way, my OTA channels have been out for 2 weeks now. I have a service call scheduled.

 

[DarrellP]

PlayboyHD is low (thankfully). Channel 701. I'd rather it be low since in the evenings I usually crack open the front door to let some cool air in, I'd hate to tune in this channel from a low volume channel to have it blare some orgasmic scream out to the kids playing outside.

BTW, channel volume variance is a problem with everyone, not just Voom. My local OTA digital channels vary by as much as 20 db and Dish has the same issues.

 

[slffl]

BTW, channel volume variance is a problem with everyone, not just Voom. My local OTA digital channels vary by as much as 20 db and Dish has the same issues.

Hmmm, well I never noticed it when I had E* and D*.

 

[Walter L.]

Hi:
VOOM has already been told of the volume problem and they will not do anything about it. Don't try calling VOOM customer service because they will tell you that you are the first customer to report it. Don't insist on a service call or they will have the installer write it up as "Customer's home theater problem" and not a problem with VOOM. Your best bet is to memorize the channels with low volume so that you can adjust your sound before you change to a regular volume channel and thereby not wake up your family or neighbors.
Joseph

Don't worry. This list is NOT going to VOOM through a CSR call. It's going directly to Wilt Hindenbrand (VOOM chief engineer) through the YAHOO group.

 

[bbtkd]

Don't worry. This list is NOT going to VOOM through a CSR call. It's going directly to Wilt Hindenbrand (VOOM chief engineer) through the YAHOO group.

Voom has stated previously that they are aware that some satellite sources have lower volume than others, and that they will do nothing about it - they only pass on the signal they get. They could certainly boost the volume, but if there is any distortion then they get blamed. Also - if they boost the volume and then later the source provider increases it, then we'll be complaining about too high of volume. Sounds like Dish and DirecTV just go ahead and correct it.

This is still a worthwhile exercise because hopefully Voom will either do something about it, or will pass complaints on to the source providers. But - I doubt that the source providers will do anything since they have to worry about impacting all of their customers. In the case Voom originated programming, there is no reason for them not to correct it.

 

[vurbano]

Voom has stated previously that they are aware that some satellite sources have lower volume than others, and that they will do nothing about it - they only pass on the signal they get. They could certainly boost the volume, but if there is any distortion then they get blamed. Also - if they boost the volume and then later the source provider increases it, then we'll be complaining about too high of volume. Sounds like Dish and DirecTV just go ahead and correct it.

This is still a worthwhile exercise because hopefully Voom will either do something about it, or will pass complaints on to the source providers. But - I doubt that the source providers will do anything since they have to worry about impacting all of their customers. In the case Voom originated programming, there is no reason for them not to correct it.

So correct it. Just like D* and E* who apparently monitor each channel for volume and PQ while voom apparently does not if we have to report it to them and make a list?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Walter L.]

So correct it. Just like D* and E* who apparently monitor each channel for volume and PQ while voom apparently does not if we have to report it to them and make a list?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Again, this company either has no clue or doesnt seem to care?

I don't think that this problem is unique to VOOM. Before VOOM, I was a Comcast customer and I had the same problem (low volume) with inHD 1 & 2. Even worst, those channels had a lot lot of pixelation. I called Comcast a couple of times to report it and their answer was always the same "we're currently expanding the capacity in your area to better serve you and unfortunatelly that is causing temporary problems"
Also, look at Darrell post (above):

BTW, channel volume variance is a problem with everyone, not just Voom. My local OTA digital channels vary by as much as 20 db and Dish has the same issues.

 

[DarrellP]

Walter, I know people will argue and say Dish does not have these problems but they do and the same arguments were posted about them, that they just pass through what they receive. I haven't watched anything on Dish except HD in the past year, so they may have fixed it since then.

 

[NOHDjunkie]

WhaT ABOUT THE "CENTER" Channel on the VOOM originals?

The Cinema 10 movies are horrible sounding. No center channel. It's spread acrross the front. I thought these were supposaed to be DD 5.1. My Yamaha HTR 5760 says its DD ES..... but the way voom is encoding it... it sounds like crap.

HBOHD, ShowHD etc. all sound great!

 

[DarrellP]

The Cinema 10 movies are horrible sounding. No center channel. It's spread acrross the front. I thought these were supposaed to be DD 5.1. My Yamaha HTR 5760 says its DD ES..... but the way voom is encoding it... it sounds like crap.

HBOHD, ShowHD etc. all sound great!

Most of these movies are pretty old and probably had a stereo or mono soundtrack to begin with. Some of the newer movies on MonstersHD are pretty decent. I have a Yammie HTR 5280, an older beast but it serves me well.

 

[DarrellP]

Walter, add MOOV to the low volume list, at least last night I switched from MOOV to DiscHD and got blasted pretty hard, I never checked back to see if it was that particular segment.

 

[DarrellP]

Walter, I sat down last night and started going through the channels one by one to check the volume levels and PQ and gave up by Cinema10, the volume was all over the place. One in particular seemed overly loud but now I don't remember which one it was.