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+---- Thread: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) (/showthread.php?tid=139659)
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Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - yanathin - 2012-09-03
Hey guys, I'm running both audio and video through my HDMI port on my GTX 670 hooked up to a Denon receiver. I have all the latest drivers for the 670 and uninstalled all the drivers for my motherboard's built in audio. I'm noticing that my rear speakers are about twice as loud as they should be, and my center speaker is extremely quiet. The front left and front right are kind of in between. Has anybody else experienced this? My speakers are apart of a set and there shouldn't be any difference in power from each of them. When I switch to my blu-ray player, the speakers sound perfectly balanced. It's definitely something that Windows or the 670 drivers are doing to the output that it definitely shouldn't be doing. For the speaker config I have it set to 5.1, and "full range" is unchecked for all of them since I have a subwoofer (and also the Denon receiver handles the low pass filtering to the sub anyway). I also have all of those enhancements turned off. Oh, and I'm on Windows 7 x64. Please help! Thank you!
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - DDDamian - 2012-09-03
Just one thing at first read: check full range, that way Windows doesn't do any low-pass filtering. Your Denon will do that.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - yanathin - 2012-09-03
Ah, really? I thought it would have been the other way around. Well, either way I'm having the same problem with full-range both checked and unchecked. But that's good to know.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - Glen M - 2012-09-03
Try one of the new nightly builds and set the audio to pass through then your amp will control all volumes as it will be decoding the bit stream. I have to admit the HD audio makes all the difference to XBMC.
Either that or manually adjust your speaker volumes in your amps settings so they sound right for you.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - DDDamian - 2012-09-03
Some other points then:
1) are you comparing apples to apples? For example, if you play a disc via your bluray player using say a core DTS track, then play the same ripped disc with the same core DTS track in XBMC, does it sound the same or different?
2) are you seeing this using a passthrough format (AC3, DTS, etc) and does the receiver show that format? or are you decoding to LPCM and the receiver shows MultiChannel In?
3) XBMC doesn't currently have any channel level customization, but your Denon does. You can set different channel levels based on the input source. See the manual. You should be able to set the levels how you like them, and the receiver remembers the settings between input sources.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - yanathin - 2012-09-03
Going to try that build of XBMC 11 + HD Audio and see what happens when bit streaming is used. I set up my Denon's speaker levels by using the calibration mic that came with it, so the levels according to that should be very consistent. Blu-ray movies sound just fine. I haven't tried apples-to-apples comparison yet, but I definitely notice a difference in the speaker levels between my blu-ray player and my HTPC. And these audio formats are passthrough - when I play a movie with DTS audio, it shows DTS on the receiver.
And it's not just XBMC, either. Games with 5.1 playback are also very unbalanced. I tried adjusting the levels of each speaker using the Windows control panel and that seemed to help with the games, but it didn't help at all with XBMC. Does DTS playback through XBMC ignore those balance settings from the Windows control panel?
I suppose if all else fails I could adjust the levels on the actual Denon receiver. But it bugs me knowing that Windows is totally screwing up the levels beforehand, and I'd love to fix it at the source.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - bluray - 2012-09-03
Check in Windows 7 control panel Sound > Properties>Levels>Balance....just to make sure that Balance is properly set.....
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - DDDamian - 2012-09-03
If you are passing thru formats like DTS then XBMC doesn't alter them at all, and if you're using the Wasapi driver in exclusive mode (not DirectSound or Wasapi shared modes) then Windows shouldn't touch it either, providing all enhancements are off and the Windows volume level is set to 100%. Since you are seeing DTS on the Denon this *should* be the case - undoctored audio straight to the receiver.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - yanathin - 2012-09-03
Hey bluray, I've messed with those balance levels a lot, and they helped with games, but I haven't noticed a difference in XBMC. Does XBMC ignore those settings?
By the way, just tried the bitstreaming build (HD Audio + 11.0 Final) and am having the same issues still
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - DDDamian - 2012-09-03
Hmmm balance is left/right, not front/back. You want *no* enhancements or other adjustments on in the Win control panel.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - yanathin - 2012-09-03
Well, since I have 5.1 selected in the Windows control panel, I have balance settings for all speakers. That way I can decrease the rears and increase the center as needed. I've read that setting the Windows settings to stereo might help, but I've tried that and just run into more problems. Games would then only output in stereo... And I made sure that all enhancements are disabled.
But that would make sense if DTS is just passing through the audio and ignoring the Windows settings. Since games use PCM 5.1 and would then abide by the level settings set in Windows, they sound fine after those adjustments. But DTS movies don't seem to be affected by these settings and are therefore still unbalanced.
I'm just a bit annoyed as to why this problem is happening in the first place. But it sounds like setting all the speaker levels to 100 in Windows and then adjusting the volume for each level on my receiver for this particular input is the only solution at this point...
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - DDDamian - 2012-09-03
Yes, as mentioned avoid all settings via Control Panel. The only way they can be applied is by decoding passthru formats to PCM.
If you are indeed getting DTS on the Denon display, then there is no level adjustment happening in either XBMC or Windows. You're getting what you should be getting, in other words that's what the soundtrack was mixed at. There's no setting in XBMC that will alter that, nor should it.
That's what your receiver is for. Not sure what model of Denon you have, but one of the most common comments about the Audessey algorithms is that they boost the side/back channels way too much. Google it.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - Glen M - 2012-09-03
Very long shot but maybe worth a look...
If its a brand new receiver and speaker package it could mean you need to run the auto setup on your amp again. I built a new setup about 2 months ago and have now run the setup 3 times. First time it run all the new speakers in the setup (centre, sub rears) were turned up, next time a couple of weeks in they turned down a bit then a further few weeks they seem to have settled all be it turned down a bit more. Not that I'm any audio expert but from what I read new sound equipment needs to run for about 100hrs use.
Doesn't explain why your bluray player sounds OK when compared to the PC but then again when comparing the PCs ability to decode and reproduce audio against my PS3s ability to decode and reproduce audio (from blurays, games, mkv, mp3s etc etc) the difference is night and day. The sound clarity out of my GTX680 blows the PS3 out of the water. The distinction between channels is unbelievable clear when compared so maybe your PC is doing a better job of transmitting the audio to the receiver than the bluray player does. Of course that could be complete load of rubbish waffle but thats my experience anyway.
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - DDDamian - 2012-09-03
Glen's experience makes sense when (as he says) the audio is decoded. But with the exception of things like clock jitter encoded audio passed thru as such should sound identical no matter what the source. It's just a stream of bits - even the volume levels aren't changed in any way until decoded, let alone actual frequency data.
Are the Audessey settings applied on both your bluray input and PC input? Are you comparing apples-to-apples on the audio track itself?
RE: Very unbalanced 5.1 speaker levels (GTX 670 HDMI Audio) - bluray - 2012-09-03
If you continue to have problem, I'm suggesting to give Realtek a try- High Definition Audio Codecs....
To me- since the same problem occur when bitstreaming as he stated in post #9, it is more of driver issue.....