WMC Sound Output Level issue

[sgbroimp]

I know volume related issues have been around for a while but I am having maybe a different one and maybe someone can solve. Let me say at the outset that this is not any sort of emergency; I can even live with the situation, but it’s a bit inconvenient/annoying.

I run WMC on Win7 HomePro 64. Output via HDMI to my Prepro. The PrePro sends signal to the TV via HDMI. The sound output from the TV is via Toslink (optical) as I have no ARC feature on the Pre-Pro. I run two zones on the Pre-Pro. Zone A is for the output to the power amps and on to the speakers. Zone B is for late night listening via headphones, wife in bed, etc. Zone B is analog only, gets signal from the TV via the analog headphone output to PrePro Zone B in then out to a headphone amplifier.

Using my Sony 49XBR850 TV, all worked perfectly. The source volume level between watching something on WMC and switching over to watching a TV app brought no sound level difference at all on either Zone A or Zone B. Then I switch TV’s, moving to a Sony XBRA9G set this past weekend. Again, zone A is fine, good match on the output balance for Zone A, but for Zone B, there is a good 50% volume difference in favor of the TV-APPS over the WMC. Yes, I have places I can adjust for that; Volume level on the headset, volume level on Zone B of the PrePro and the TV volume level, but adjust I must and it can be almost ear shattering if I switch over and forget to do so. And none of these level controls can compensate for the fact that the WMC needs to output more as the TV’s headphone output handles both its native signals and those it gets from the Pre-Pro via the HDMI.

I have been an audiophile for about 60 years now and this one has me stumped.

[Space]

You have a lot of equipment that I know nothing about, but perhaps there is a way to adjust relative volume levels in the Windows "Volume Mixer"?

[unclebun]

We encounter something similar with our Smart TV (an LG). The solution would seem to be an output level control for the optical output on the TV to our speaker system, but such a control doesn't exist in the TV menus. So we just have to remember to turn the speaker system down before switching over.

[sgbroimp]

You have a lot of equipment that I know nothing about, but perhaps there is a way to adjust relative volume levels in the Windows "Volume Mixer"?

As near as I can determine, these are pegged to 100% already, but thanks for your suggestion anyway.

[dmagerl]

I'm not familiar with your equipment so I can only give a guess. Zone A is 5.1 audio, yes? Zone B is stereo, yes? WMC has a well known bug where Stereo audio is output at twice the volume as 5.1 audio over HDMI.

But I would guess that your equipment is doing the channel combining and not WMC so I doubt thats the problem, but its something to be aware of anyway.

[Space]

You have a lot of equipment that I know nothing about, but perhaps there is a way to adjust relative volume levels in the Windows "Volume Mixer"?

As near as I can determine, these are pegged to 100% already, but thanks for your suggestion anyway.

The idea was that you can adjust the different outputs so that one is not louder than the other. Having them all at 100% would not be the goal, instead, reduce the volume of the louder one to make it sound like it is at the same volume level as the other output.

[sgbroimp]

Using the old NFL slogan "After further review..." I discovered two things: One was that the difference is actually between the TV apps and the live TV signal (tuner) so it must be dealt with inside the TV itself. Second, late last night while I was in Apps I went into the settings sound menu and there was something that does not appear in the TV's master menu under sound. It is called "volume offset" between the inputs themselves and Apps is considered to be its own input, apparently. There is a zero scale in the middle and right is a + slider and left a - slider. Was bedtime so I did not experiment with it but chances are this will fix the issue, hopefully both on the analog as well as digital side of things, output-wise. If this is what I think it is, then Sony saw this issue and dealt with it, though it is strange that in the centered (zero) position apps would be generating so much more output than the tuner section does.

Will report my findings but in the meantime thanks to all who "tuned in"!

[sgbroimp]

That worked! Pinned the + on TV tuner and full minus on the apps, but they are now pretty much equal output. Had to bump up the HDMI1 (WMC via HTPC) to a +3 (+5 is max), but now all pretty much aligned, subject to a bit of fine tuning, maybe. No more ringing ears from my headphone!