Sound volume too low for 5.1 Audio track output to Stereo speakers

[frankmb 27]

I have aTCL Roku TV. The volume range is 0-100.

With the Emby Roku app, when I watch an episode or movie with a 5.1 audio track the volume is way too low. I often raise the volume to between 90-100 and sometimes I still have trouble understanding dialogue at max volume.

With the Emby Roku app, when I watch something with a Stereo track, I can put the volume at around 50 and that is plenty loud.  

With Youtube Roku app, when I watch a video, volume of 50 is fine. So the Youtube app and the Emby app with a Stereo audio track have similar volume.

The problem appears with a 5.1 audio track. Volume is too low when I use the Roku TV built in Speakers and it is the same when I output the sound in a 2.0 Soundbar connected with HDMI ARC. 

This is not a new problem and has been like this for years I think.

Other discussion of the same problem:

 

 

[speechles 1917]

https://support.roku.com/article/226802507

You can enable "Volume Mode" on the Roku. There are 3 settings: Off, Leveling, and Night. The leveling will equalize all the volumes of quiet and loud sounds. The Night will just quiet the loud sounds and doesn't raise the volume of quiet one since it is night.

You enable this by pressing * during video playback. After you change this setting you may need to stop and then restart what you are playing for it to have an effect.

When using Volume Mode the Roku will only output Stereo sound. The change will not take effect until you stop and restart the media. When volume mode (leveling/night) is used will cause Emby to transcode surround codecs rather than see them as compatible. Everything is sent to the Roku as Stereo so it can do the Volume Mode magic.

Edited February 29 by speechles

[frankmb 27]

Thanks for the response. However I don't see the Volume Mode feature in the Roku settings following the steps in the link you provided. My Roku TV is a TCL 50S423 with Roku built in. I don't see any Roku TV in the list of supported devices for the Volume Mode feature.

I looked everywhere in the app settings to force a transcode to Stereo and could not find any way to do this.

 

[speechles 1917]

Okay. In that case you need to manually change this In the Roku settings under Audio. Then choose Digital Output Format. You can change it here to Stereo and it should have a similar effect. Emby will no longer believe it can play surround sound codecs and will transcode the audio stream. How you set the audio in the Roku settings is how Emby determines how to best handle the audio on your device. There is no way to override this because Roku has strict certification requirements and wants all apps to use the same methods. But doing this should allow you to then have a better experience with AC3 and E-AC3 since they will become Stereo AAC afterwards.

Edited February 29 by speechles

[frankmb 27]

This is something I had tried previously without success.

I tried it again just now. I set Digital Output Format to Stereo in the main Roku Audio settings menu. Nothing changes when I play an episode in Emby with a 5.1 audio track. I looked at the Stats for Nerds and audio just Direct Plays the original 5.1 audio. I tried both with audio output to TV speakers and to 2.0 Soundbar connected to HDMI ARC with the same result. Audio track is not transcoded and I need to watch at max volume.

[Luke 37066]

Hi, can you please attach the server log from when you played? Thanks.

[frankmb 27]

Here is the server l og where I played an episode with 5.1 audio.  Digital Output Format set to Stereo in the main Roku Audio settings menu.

embyserver (1).txt

[speechles 1917]

@frankmbYou may need to restart the RokuTV after changing the Audio settings for it to actually have an effect. Because of the way the HDMI handshaking works. The Roku builds this information when first turned on and whatever is connected to it at that point. It really doesn't do it after. So to change Audio on the Roku afterwards you have to choose Restart from the settings menu ( settings > system > power > system restart ).

It still may not work properly since Roku has omitted RokuTV devices from having Volume Mode with the new firmware updates unless it uses their Roku bluetooth soundbar stuff. You should be able to use the TV speakers as output. Then use the headphone jack to output to RCA jacks and send audio to speakers through that. I've done that and the headphone jack on my Roku TV model 50S425 works this way. Maybe it will for you too?

 

Edited March 3 by speechles

[frankmb 27]

Thanks for replying. I unplugged the sound bar and power cycled the TV. Audio track continued to play in 5.1 without transcoding through the TV speakers. I plugged headphones in the 3.5mm audio jack and power cycled the TV again and got the same result.

I still have Digital Output Format set to Stereo

Are you saying that Emby should be transcoding to Stereo in this circumstance?

[Luke 37066]

On 3/3/2024 at 5:23 PM, frankmb said:

 

Are you saying that Emby should be transcoding to Stereo in this circumstance?

No I think he's saying that will help get better output out of the Roku.

Obviously we can always add a force to stereo with transcoding option, but as this is the least desirable approach we'd like to exhaust all others first.