Anyway settings to increase voices during movies on a 2.0 system?

[.:SAmSuNG:.]

So currently only able to run 2.0 but im finding the voices in movies are alittle hard to follow unless I turn it up quite loud in which case the bass is too much and starts to shake the house.

I cant find any options in my amp (Onkyo 606) so im guessing I have to try tune it on windows sound panel or XBMC (Connected via onboard output hdmi Gotham).

Any ideas on it?

 

[cokecan]

I think this usually happens when you play content that has 5.1 or similar via an AV amp that only has 2 speakers connected. You essentially miss out the center channel (and rear channels).

On my Denon if I set the input to stereo rather than direct it feels like it down-mixes the input to 2 channel and voices sound much louder/clearer compared to the background noise of the film.

How do you have your Onkyo setup?

 

[Minstadave]

Late night mode will reduce bass too.

 

[.:SAmSuNG:.]

Well ive read late night mode might help a lot but i cant seem to figure out how to enable it. It mentions it in the manual but not how to turn it on or off.

I've tried it on Stereo/Direct and pure Stereo and all sound pretty similar but I get some static noise which stops when using Pure stereo.

Even with bass and treble adjusted in tone control its too bassy for living in a flat and having it loud enough to be able to hear the centre. Ive got to a point that ive set fronts to small and have them cut off at 80Hz. Silly thing is I have a sub arriving any day in the post which I really shouldnt have bought without listening to these speakers first, a centre would have been a much better buy first.

 

[( |-| |2 ][ $]

Make sure you're windows setup is only outputting Stereo and after that just turn the bass down using the equaliser on your amp.

 

[jh30uk]

Used to come in the mega codec packs years back, can raise the centre speaker a touch to get it louder.

I had same issue with 5.1 speakers in that some movies were low in dialogue but boomed when action took place with explosions etc.

http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/02/control-spdif-volume-with-ac3filter.html

Not sure if you can user this with your set up but as Windows no doubt can.

 

[lucid]

Well ive read late night mode might help a lot but i cant seem to figure out how to enable it. It mentions it in the manual but not how to turn it on or off.

Late Night mode only works with Dolby Digital and Dolby True HD source material. i.e. it doesn't work when using stereo, Pro-Logic or any DTS mode.

Setting the feature on or off is done from the OSD. Receiver > Audio - then nav Up/Down/L/R with the cursor buttons and select the appropriate item from the menu. Note: you might have to be running a DD/D TrueHD source signal to change certain settings.

Check your speaker set-up. Make sure it's just set to stereo L&R 'Yes' - Centre 'No' - Surrounds 'No' - Subwoofer 'No'. Use the EQ feature on the amp to then trim the tonal characteristics if needed.

Set your disc player/source(s) to output (down mix) in stereo rather multi-channel or Bitstream.

 

[Lartyconshayo]

not a fix in a global sense but might be of interest

http://lifehacker.com/5920290/how-to-fix-movies-that-are-really-quiet-then-really-loud

 

[Lethagized]

I was going to suggest you adjust the dynamic range (volume amplification slider in xbmc), but this doesn't work when using HDMI (well, it's greyed out on mine when using HDMI and pass-through is selected) There is a night mode (cinema filter / CINE FLTR button) on the onkyo amp & remote, but iirc, it only works with Dolby True HD. I have the same problem though and still looking for a solution. Too quiet in the dialogue, way to loud in the action. Move makers do it on purpose. It's a well known complaint.

 

[.:SAmSuNG:.]

Thanks. Messed with the settings some more and seem to have got it to a point that its watchable. Hopefully get a centre hooked up next month to make it 3.1 which is the simple enough to increase the volume of.

Thanks for all the replies.