Spottedfeather

I just got a blu-ray that has very low dialogue. If you have the sound effects at a proper level, you can't hear the voices. If you have the voice at the proper level, the effects are overwhelming. I'm thinking that a surround system would fix this, as I could raise the center channel.....right ?

orangerunner

I'm not sure what player you have or set-up you have but I had a similar problem with my Sony BDPS360 player hooked up to a 2.1 channel soundbar using a TOSlink audio cable.

When using TrueHD or DTS-Master HD audio I found these settings worked for me. Your player probably has similar audio options.

Audio Out Priority: Coaxial/optical
Audio (HDMI): 2 ch PCM
BD Audio Setting: Direct
Audio ATT: Off
Dolby Digital: Downmix
DTS: Downmix
48 Khz/16bit
Audio DRC: Standard
Downmix: Normal

Spottedfeather

I have a stereo setup. The audio is going from the player to the stereo. The problem is that the dialogue is too low when the effects are at a proper level.

orangerunner

It sounds like the same issue I had when trying to play the Blu-ray through a simple 2 channel stereo stystem. The dialogue was really low but the explosions, music and sound FX were perfect or the dialogue was right but everything else was too loud.

Does it sound fine when playing standard DVDs?

I just noticed it when playing the Blu-ray disc uncompressed TrueHD or DTS Master Audio selections.

Try setting up your Blu-ray player to the settings I mentioned above and it should generate a more even balance of sound between music & effects and dialogue.

Spiky

They set up blurays for surround systems, and some do not work well in stereo. So one option is to get surround. But if you get your player set right (as orangerunner has outlined), you should be able to achieve better sound with stereo, as well. And short term, that's certainly worth trying.

Spottedfeather

Normal dvds sound just fine. There's almost always a 2.0 option, and even if there isn't, the 5.1 always sounds just fine.

My player doesn't have any settings like what you said. I have...

BD Audio Mode - Mix Audio Output or HD audio output
HDMI Audio Out - Audio Mute/HDMI Multi(normal)/HDMI Multi(LPCM)
Downsampling - ON/OFF
DRC - ON/OFF
Virtual Surround - ON/OFF

Like I've said, getting a surround sound system would help, but is there anything that I can do until I get one to get better sound out of a stereo setup ?

emoxley

With 1,672 posts, you should know that it might help if you list the brand and model of your BD player.
In the Downsampling setting you mentioned, is it set to "ON"? Since you just have a stereo receiver, I'm taking it for granted you're using Red & White (or Black) RCA type connectors for audio? Do you go into the movie's audio menus and choose "Stereo" or 2.0 setting, since it's trying to play the HD audio tracks, and you don't have surround setup? (It's trying to send sound to speakers that aren't there)

List the brand and model of player, and someone may be able to help better.
Good luck!

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I know exactly what you're talking about. If you had a surround system, it would fix it. Asylum does, or at least did this with a bunch of their DVDs. You have to crank the volume because the dialogue is being fed to a non-existent center channel if you're watching it on a TV with no surround sound. Problem is that raises the volume of everything else.

Eddie W

You don't say what you have these settings set to, but I'm guessing you have the BD Audio Mode set to HD audio out. From reading your other post, it sounds like you have one of those BD players that have 5.1 analog audio outs.

By selecting HD audio out, the player is probably doing the 5.1 conversion of the BD audio tracks and you only have the left right outs sent to your TV. So it's completely missing any center channel & rear outputs. Try changing to mix audio output & see what happens.

Spottedfeather

My player is a Magnavox NB500MG9. My settings (I think) are
BD Audio Mode - Mix Audio Output
HDMI Audio Out - Mute
Downsampling - On (but never notice any difference when it's on
DRC - On (almost always on. Helps to hear it a little over my fans
Virtual Surround - Off (rarely ever turn on as it makes the audio sound funny)

And emoxley, I don't have a receiver. As I've said, the audio from my player goes into my stereo. And not all movies have different audio options. The movie that I'm having trouble with has the dialogue mixed way too low. The only audio it has is TrueHD 5.1.

emoxley

Your stereo isn't a stereo receiver? What is it? What movie is it that has only Dolby TrueHD? I've not heard of that before. But, since I listen to dtsHD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD, I've not been checking to see what different soundtracks are on the discs. I guess I'm learning something here too.

Spottedfeather

My stereo is just that ; an AIWA stereo. it has a 3 cd changer and a radio and two speakers. There are lots of movies that only have one audio choice. For instance...
Batman Gotham Knight
Bean The Ultimate Disaster Movie
Blazing Saddles
Carrie
Beauty And The Beast

and a bunch of others. These all have only either 5.1 Dolby, TrueHD, or some other surround mix. The only other choice of audio are foreign language tracks.

Spiky

Probably not completely missing, or there would likely be no dialog at all in large portions of the movie. It's a poor downmix, I'd say.

DVDs were actually more likely to have multiple soundtracks than BDs. I guess they expect people to have surround or for the players to work correctly when downmixing.

Spottedfeather,
It may be that player just isn't going to handle the audio properly with certain discs, as it doesn't seem burdened with an abundance of features. (like adjustable DRC, especially) But I'd sit down one night and troubleshoot with one of your problem discs. Find a too-quiet spot in the movie and replay it over and over trying different settings. See if you can figure something out. Maybe watch for extra settings to show up in the menu when you turn one of these things On.