Volume leveling doesn't work

[JEFFinINDY]

Has anone else noticed that the volume leveling feature of the 722k doesn't work very well? I was watching MSNBC HD last night WHEN A COMMERCIAL FOR MAGIC JACK CAME ON AT WHAT SEEMED TO BE 2X VOLUME and then the show started again and things were back to normal.

The feature was enabled in the receiver. GET MAGIC JACK FOR JUST $19.95! THAT'S RIGHT, JUST 19.95!!!

 

[SAT COOL]

It works fine for me!!

It has been working fine for me. I have been waiting for this for a long time. We no longer have to keep the remote in our hand to turn the volume up or down. Maybe you can reset your 722k.

 

[whatchel1]

Stinks

I couldn't stand it I disabled it w/in an hr of the time that it downloaded. My brother called me to ask what was wrong w/the sound & I had to walk him thru how to disable it. :rant: Was talking w/ my bro today and think it may be the fact that thy may have had to do the "FIX" in the digital domain and it doesn't follow the analog nature of the audio. Work is still needed on it to make it sound right. I'm not holding my breathe on that one though. :rantver.

 

[cditty]

I couldn't stand it I disabled it w/in an hr of the time that it downloaded. My brother called me to ask what was wrong w/the sound & I had to walk him thru how to disable it. :rant: Was talking w/ my bro today and think it may be the fact that thy may have had to do the "FIX" in the digital domain and it doesn't follow the analog nature of the audio. Work is still needed on it to make it sound right. I'm not holding my breathe on that one though. :rantver.

Any manipulation to audio is best done in the digital domain. It is far more accurate. That is a big reason that all of our radio stations moved to digital processors. They can manipulate gain much better, as well as have a much more aggressive compressor/limiter with much less perceived distortion.

 

[whatchel1]

Then they did a bad write

Any manipulation to audio is best done in the digital domain. It is far more accurate. That is a big reason that all of our radio stations moved to digital processors. They can manipulate gain much better, as well as have a much more aggressive compressor/limiter with much less perceived distortion.

Then they did a bad write for triggers. It's a very fast acting slow release that sounds about like a 50 to 1 compression ratio. To me it sounds like a bicycle pump. It's in & out In & out over & over. As far as distortion it is distorting it in as much as it is doing a bad job of following. I know it is possible to do it all in the digital domain but they didn't do a good job. If I can I'm going to see if I can borrow a spectrum analyzer and put on the audio output to see what it looks like when working. BTW I started out as a touring sound eng. so I understand how things work and even analog compression is done in digital by converting it 1st processing and returning it to analog. That's almost always how it's been done. Cause other wise you have to use to many devices to make for a smooth sound transition. That then induces timing problems which can be a really problem to fix when you have to work w/ audio and video in combination. You will see it causing lip sync problems on shows occasionally.

 

[cditty]

Then they did a bad write for triggers. It's a very fast acting slow release that sounds about like a 50 to 1 compression ratio. To me it sounds like a bicycle pump. It's in & out In & out over & over. As far as distortion it is distorting it in as much as it is doing a bad job of following. I know it is possible to do it all in the digital domain but they didn't do a good job. If I can I'm going to see if I can borrow a spectrum analyzer and put on the audio output to see what it looks like when working. BTW I started out as a touring sound eng. so I understand how things work and even analog compression is done in digital by converting it 1st processing and returning it to analog. That's almost always how it's been done. Cause other wise you have to use to many devices to make for a smooth sound transition. That then induces timing problems which can be a really problem to fix when you have to work w/ audio and video in combination. You will see it causing lip sync problems on shows occasionally.

Touring sound engineer? That sounds like a fun job. Why'd you stop? Too much travel?

Nice to meet someone with good ears. I am one of those folks that can hear bitrate reduction way before others. I have had people play mixdowns of projects for me that I could pick out the tracks they saved as mp3 instead of wav, etc...

Unfortunately, I am just as gifted at seeing compression as well. So blocking, etc... sticks out to me like a sore thumb.

I turned my sound leveling on tonight, as I turned it off to watch some 5.1 content the day I got the download. You are very correct that they did a poor job with it. I turned it right back off.

 

[whatchel1]

1 of the best & 1 of the worse jobs

Touring sound engineer? That sounds like a fun job. Why'd you stop? Too much ?

Nice to meet someone with good ears. I am one of those folks that can hear bitrate reduction way before others. I have had people play mixdowns of projects for me that I could pick out the tracks they saved as mp3 instead of wav, etc...

Unfortunately, I am just as gifted at seeing compression as well. So blocking, etc... sticks out to me like a sore thumb.

I turned my sound leveling on tonight, as I turned it off to watch some 5.1 content the day I got the download. You are very correct that they did a poor job with it. I turned it right back off.

It's a great job & a terrible one all rolled into one. More clubs suck than are good. I don't know how many places I wound up working on the equipment before could even do a sound check. Then there is the $$. It's feast or famine while on the road the pay is good but when you get off the road it may be a month of no $$. Road food is know as "gut balm" because you wind up hit burger joints Denny's etc and after a while it starts to all seem like road kill. If you young & unmarried it could be a great thing to do. There are very few older touring engs. Just not a life for anyone that gets past their 40's. The Smokey bars get old real fast. I'm working on a book of the pix that I took of all the bands I worked with that I have publisher for already. Will send U a PM so we can talk.

 

[Hall]

I turned it off on our receiver. My (obsolete to many, Toshiba rear-projection HDTV) already has a volume-leveling function that worked incredibly well. In all the years we've had it (so long as it didn't get turned off by mistake), loud commercials have never been a problem for us. When Dish added this function, I noticed that things got too quiet during certain times. It was as if both the TV's function and the receiver's function kicked in at the same time.

 

[bnewt]

Would someone post the steps to disable it?

 

[Pepper]

Ah hah!

I was watching "America: The Story of Us" last night, thought it was a problem at the source. The program would be normal volume but every few minutes the narrator would just START SHOUTING FOR NO GOOD REASON then go back to his normal voice. This was during the program, I zapped thru the commercials. If this is the best they can do I will be turning it off.

 

[whatchel1]

menu 6 7

Would someone post the steps to disable it?

Menu 6 7 has the screen that has the volume leveling disable, enable.

 

[Pepper]

Menu 6 7 has the screen that has the volume leveling disable, enable.

Not on my ViP622.

This is getting very annoying. Volume level unacceptably adjusts itself during programs. Of course the commercials are still TOO LOUD.

 

[whatchel1]

722k

Not on my ViP622.

This is getting very annoying. Volume level unacceptably adjusts itself during programs. Of course the commercials are still TOO LOUD.

Don't know what it will be on 622's. Not even sure when they will be getting it either. I don't think it has rolled out to all the 722k's yet.

 

[KKlare]

The volume-leveling software is only on the 722k--not 622/722--and only after after update.
-Ken

 

[Pepper]

Sorry, I thought I read in a thread here somewhere that volume leveling was included in L627 which I have on my 622. Never mind then, it's probably the source.

 

[old corps]

Something HAS changed re. volume on both my 622 & 722. The volume appears to be the same on both HD and SD programming. Previously when changing from a HD channel to a SD the volume would blast you. Not so as of late. I first noticed that I didn't need to turn the volume up to the same level on my TVs as I had on HD. JMHO.

Ed

BTW-Volume for commercials remains the same though--usually louder.

 

[dvrexpander]

Something HAS changed re. volume on both my 622 & 722. The volume appears to be the same on both HD and SD programming. Previously when changing from a HD channel to a SD the volume would blast you. Not so as of late. I first noticed that I didn't need to turn the volume up to the same level on my TVs as I had on HD. JMHO.

Ed

BTW-Volume for commercials remains the same though--usually louder.

My 622 has the feature now but I was hoping for better volume with the leveling feature but it doesn't get any clearer or more defined.

 

[KKlare]

What menu item controls it? Without a control, it might be your imagination, sorry. The only thing I usually notice is that the OTA stations, especially news programs, are louder--but then again my hearing ain't what it used to be, nor never was.
-Ken

 

[old corps]

What menu item controls it? Without a control, it might be your imagination, sorry. The only thing I usually notice is that the OTA stations, especially news programs, are louder--but then again my hearing ain't what it used to be, nor never was.
-Ken

No, there isn't anything in my menus. I'm just saying that the volume between HD channels and SD ones appears to be the same now. Actually, I first noticed that the volume on HD programming was louder at a given "spot" on my TVs. Used to be if I had the volume at a comfortable spot on HD and switched to SD it would BLAST you--much louder. Not so now.
Ain't nuttin' of mine what it used to be............

Ed

 

[TheForce]

For years now, I have been monitoring the sound level between DD5.1 and DD2.0 sources. The trouble for me was when a station or channel broke to commercials and the sound meta data would switch from DD5.1 to DD2.0. The DD2.0 commercials would be 2-3 times as loud as the DD5.1. This was not just some or most of the time it was 100% of the time.

I spoke with Dolby engineers about this and they were well aware of the volume level differences between the two formats but said it was the fault of the program source for not adjusting output levels to match the two sources. Dolby makes an accessory to do this but it is not cheap considering they would need one inserted on each channel at every source. Meaning that Not only would Dish Network need many of these but also each TV station would need one for their channel as well. It had to be inserted at the mux point to work. I can see why that solution was not economically feasible. So when I asked a good friend at Echostar about this he said they were looking into a way to achieve it at the receiver level with a software solution. The bottom line would be cheaper and if it worked it would be a surefire way that prevents any single source from sneaking a non leveled program through.

I haven't been watching much this past week due to a family crises but I will check out the new feature on my 722K and report back what I observe. I sure hope it works.

I empathize with the person who sighted Magic Jack. Had to laugh because I do recall that one knocking me out of my chair at times. Then I hear my wife yelling from the other side of the house- "Will you turn that volume down!"