Volume Varies

[dkrom]

I have a Dish receiver for pay channels and an HDHOMERUN for OTA HD. When I watch a show the volume for the OTA is significantly lower than the Dish. It’s not an issue with the HDHOMERUN - I had a different OTA connection and it did the same thing. Does anyone know how make the default volume on OTA is louder?

[Space]

There is an option within WMC called "auto volume" which I believe is supposed to help with that problem. I have no idea if it works or not. Also, if you enable it, it disabled surround sound, so if you use that then this is probably not the correct solution for you. There may be other solutions.

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[joelkirzner]

The auto volume never really did much to help with this problem. And, like previously mentioned, it can mess up your Dolby Surround Sound.
I just think it's an issue with the individual broadcaster on that specific channel.

[dmagerl]

So I'll be the first to admit i dont know what i'm talking about but cant you just go into the volume control on the taskbar, find the control for Media Center and just max it out? Or does it not remember its setting between uses?

And if its already maxed out try see if any of the controls are not maxed out and then boost those.

[Space]

So I'll be the first to admit i dont know what i'm talking about but cant you just go into the volume control on the taskbar, find the control for Media Center and just max it out? Or does it not remember its setting between uses?

And if its already maxed out try see if any of the controls are not maxed out and then boost those.

OP is talking about different channels having different volume levels, so there is no setting to adjust the volume for different channels (or in this case channels on different tuners) as far as I know. Adjusting the volume of WMC as a whole will not help with the difference in volume between channels (it will just make some channels too loud while others are OK, or some channels too low while others are OK.)

So with the OPs current problem, playing back recordings (or viewing live) from one tuner may sound perfectly fine, but then moving to one of the channels on the other tuner may have the volume too low or too high, so they constantly have to adjust the volume based on which tuner the video was from.

[dkrom]

So I'll be the first to admit i dont know what i'm talking about but cant you just go into the volume control on the taskbar, find the control for Media Center and just max it out? Or does it not remember its setting between uses?

And if its already maxed out try see if any of the controls are not maxed out and then boost those.

OP is talking about different channels having different volume levels, so there is no setting to adjust the volume for different channels (or in this case channels on different tuners) as far as I know. Adjusting the volume of WMC as a whole will not help with the difference in volume between channels (it will just make some channels too loud while others are OK, or some channels too low while others are OK.)

So with the OPs current problem, playing back recordings (or viewing live) from one tuner may sound perfectly fine, but then moving to one of the channels on the other tuner may have the volume too low or too high, so they constantly have to adjust the volume based on which tuner the video was from.

^^Exactly - the auto volume didn’t work. Interestingly changing the language to Spanish does bring the volume up quite a bit to match the Dish box channels volume, but I don’t think my wife would care for it to change languages suddenly (it was still in English, just louder, but I know eventually a channel will do a SAP in Spanish and that won’t go over well with WAF).

[Space]

Switching from the main audio channel to Spanish probably also means you are switching from Dolby/surround sound to 2-channel audio.

Dolby/surround sound has a larger dynamic range, so often results in lower overall average volume. Perhaps you can see if there is any audio setting on your audio device (TV) that turns off Dolby/surround sound (assuming you don't care about it) or otherwise modifies the audio (such as compressing the audio to increase the average volume).

[dmagerl]

I interpreted it to mean the DISH tuners are somehow not part of WMC but are using either an optical or HDMI connection to the TV. Then changing TV inputs would change from DISH to OTA.

I'm not sure its a dynamic range issue. Its a WMC issue. The Fox network, years ago, could only do 2.1 on locally originated programming but was 5.1 on all network programming. This resulted in network programming being significantly lower in volume than local programs. The problem was particularly acute with commercials with network commercials being softer than locally inserted commercials and the volume jumping up and down with each commercial. It was really annoying. This only affected WMC not the TV's own internal tuner which implied WMC was creating the problem.

[prsa01]

Some/most sources also have volume controls to control the volume being passed along with the video to the pc. Try adjusting the volume using your dish remote and/or your hdhomerun controls screen to even out your volumes.

Similar to how you have volume control (source) coming from your pc and ultimate volume control of whatever is actually playing the sound (TV, sound bar, receiver, whatever).

[Space]

Yeah, I'm not familiar with how the Dish is hooked up to WMC, but if it has separate volume controls on the receiver, then you can just lower the volume there so that it matches the volume of the OTA channels, then raise the overall volume on the TV to your liking.

[dkrom]

Appreciate all the ideas. I did change a volume equalizer setting on the tv itself and it helped quite a bit.