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Sound quality different with Closed Captions on


Murf

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Murf

Started a movie today, captions were on by default, when I turned them off, the movie reloaded and I can tell the quality is now different, like flatter sounding I guess?  Maybe not in Surround sound?  Not sure how else to describe it but i can definitely hear the sound quality go down when I turn off closed captions.

 

TIA

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hi @@Murf, most likely you selected a subtitle format that the Roku does not support natively, and this required us to burn them into the video on the fly using a process called transcoding. If you can please attach the emby server and ffmpeg log, then we can use that to confirm whether or not this is true.

 

You can learn how to do that here:

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/739-how-to-report-a-problem/

 

Thanks !

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Are you sure it just wasn't a bit quieter?  There are settings that will raise the volume on transcoded audio and yours may be set to do that.

 

Another possibility is that the source was actually 2 channel but, when we transcoded due to the subtitles, we converted that to another format.

 

The logs Luke requested should give us clues to all of that.  Thanks.

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Murf

Also, I did not choose any subtitle, it was with the movie file and it was just enabled by default.  Kind of glad it was though because I would not have known the sound could be better with them on.

 

 

It was def quieter with them off, but a lot quieter, had to put tv up to almost 60 where as with the CC on, kept it around 30.  Sound just did not seem as full as with CC on.

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Yes I see some direct play in your logs, so my suspicions are correct. Once the subtitles were enabled they had to be burned in and that required converting the video on the fly.

 

What you can do to avoid this is either turn off the subtitles, or consider acquiring external text based subtitles that won't need to be burned in. Our open subtitles downloading feature can help with that. Let us know if this helps. Thanks !

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Murf

Oh, I do not think I explained my issue correctly.  i do not want the subtitles at all. what I want is the same sound quality with the subtitles on or off.  as it stands now it sounds MUCH better with the subtitles on.  All I want is that same sound qaulity, volume level, whatever else to be the same when i turn the subtitles off.

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@@Murf what firmware is your roku on? The roku does not automatically update firmwares. On the old 7.5.x I had same problem on my ultra, either had to turn TV volume up to 90 or turn on auto sound leveling on the TV. But now, with the new 7.6.x firmware its fixed, no more changing things on the TV side. The decibel levels of the roku are all normalized when playing all codecs on the device. More than likely, all you need to do is just need to run a system update check.

Edited by speechles
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Murf

I just realized as well that the samsung tv app is not roku it was just on it's own appstore.. so not sure what version it is.

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I just realized as well that the samsung tv app is not roku it was just on it's own appstore.. so not sure what version it is.

 

https://support.roku.com/article/208755668-how-to-update-the-software-on-your-roku-streaming-device

 

https://support.roku.com/article/212361468-how-to-update-the-software-on-your-roku-tv-

 

It can be bit more laborious with the rokuTV platform if it isnt given internet. Hopefully you can get the firmware up to 7,6.x. :)

Edited by speechles
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Ok, sorry, my mistake. The same explanation applies though in this case. We don't currently have a setting for what you're looking for though. The vast majority of people want their files direct played, which means you hear the audio as-is from the original file. You're asking for us to convert the video just for the purpose of improving the audio quality. We don't currently have an option to do that I'm afraid.

 

Does this answer your question?

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Murf

So, in order to get the better audio quality I will need to make sure subtitles are enabled for all my movies?

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The items you are playing have DTS audio tracks.  So, if those are direct playing, then your TV probably is converting that DTS track to something it can handle and it is doing a bad job at it.

 

On the other hand, when we transcode, we are converting the audio to DD which your TV plays better.

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FrostByte

All Samsung SmartTVs since at least 2013 support DTS 5.1 and his TV is a newer Tizen according to the logs so it shouldn't have to do any converting.  The new 2017 premium Samsung's even have a DTS-HD processor.  A model number would help though to confirm

 

Is the TV hooked up to a Samsung sound bar maybe?  They usually only support DTS 2.0, if at all, and it can sound pretty flat when down converted from 5.1 (worse than DD in my opinion).

 

Edit:  Also, might want to check to see if you have the latest firmware.  It seems like every update I get for my TVs is to improve picture and sound quality according to Samsung's release notes

Edited by FrostByte
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Murf

Here is the model:  un49ku650dfxza

 

No sound bar.   and the firmware is up to date.  

 

I am still not clear on why the sound is better with the subtitles on.  I really don't want to have to keep the subtitles on just to get better sound

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Because as Ebr said, it sounds better when Emby Server handles the audio conversion as opposed to when the sound bar handles it.

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FrostByte

I think the OP came back and said he doesn't have a sound bar.  That was just a WAG on my part since all Samsung TVs support DTS 5.1

 

OPs tv with DTS 5.1 support, so no converting should be necessary

http://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/4k-uhd-tvs/49-class-ku650d-6-series-curved-4k-uhd-tv-2016-model-un49ku650dfxza/

 

Try going into your TVs audio settings and set to DTS before hitting play with a source that contains DTS.  For some reason you may need to set the audio correctly with Tizen TVs unlike the old Orsay sets which can auto switch the output audio codec based on source.  If that works then what Ebr said is probably happening and your TV is converting the sound even though it supports DTS 5.1  Thanks to @@SamES who taught me that trick

 

I bought an audio system hooked up to the ARC port on my KS9500 because I'm too lazy to keep doing that :)

Edited by FrostByte
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Murf

Everything is set to DTS already.

 

Right now I'm watching a movie that emby doesnt have to convert I guess, no subtitles,     and the tv volume is at 85 so its at a normal volume I can hear it.

 

This cannot be normal.

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FrostByte

Have you tried playing the movie on your TV using DLNA, or some other method, without converting to AC3?  What were the results?  It doesn't help much, but DTS sounds good on my TV even without the audio system and no transcoding to AC3

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Murf

Have you tried playing the movie on your TV using DLNA, or some other method, without converting to AC3?  What were the results?  It doesn't help much, but DTS sounds good on my TV even without the audio system and no transcoding to AC3

 

I do not see any option on emby server or my tv to choose DLNA?   I am not choosing to convert anything to AC3. I simply have the movies on my emby server and playing them on my Samsung TV

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FrostByte

I am not choosing to convert anything to AC3. I simply have the movies on my emby server and playing them on my Samsung TV

 

Emby is converting them to AC3 when you allow subtitles which you say sounds much better though and the transcode logs showed you were playing a file which contained DTS so I thought maybe DTS was the issue.  Or, do files that contain AC3 playback bad also when not using subtitles?

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