Volume issues.

[myjunkmalebox 6]

I have Emby setup on a Windows server 2016 box, emby was version 4.4 something but it recently updated to 4.5, both are showing the same issue.

Recently videos have been playing with very low volume.  On my TV I'm having to add 50 or more 'points' to the volume to get the same level of audio.  On my phone the 'google home' app and emby app both report max volume.  I'm seeing this with several different videos.  I haven't found one that doesn't do it (checked 5 different).  Unfortunately I don't play video in a browser enough to tell if browser playback is affected.  I will say that chrome browser play back on my laptop with max volume in the player and in the OS is just ok.  It doesn't seem loud, just comfortable listening level.

[Carlo 4478]

Hi,

When you play these files back are they direct playing, direct streaming or transcoding?

[myjunkmalebox 6]

All of them are Transcoding, with audio boost set to 3

[Carlo 4478]

That's exactly what I was wondering.  For a test try setting that to 0 as well as a higher number and see if it does anything.

[Luke 38812]

You could try that but can we also please look at an example? Thanks.

[myjunkmalebox 6]

The audio boost was originally set to 2, I changed it to 3.  No discernable affect.  I just changed it again to 0.5 (minimum allowed) and it had no discernable effect.  

Logs and screen shot of the transcoding in dash board attached.

Just a note: it's not the TV or chromecast,  you tube from my phone has expected volume.

 

logs.zip

[Carlo 4478]

Do you hear any difference between 0.5 and 4?

[Carlo 4478]

Also as I've got a hunch about something, so please try setting the boost to 1.

[myjunkmalebox 6]

It won't let me set to 4.  3 is max allowed value.  There was no noticeable difference between .5 and 3.

1 sounded the same as the others settings.

Edited September 23, 2020 by myjunkmalebox

[Carlo 4478]

46 minutes ago, myjunkmalebox said:

The audio boost was originally set to 2, I changed it to 3.  No discernable affect.  I just changed it again to 0.5 (minimum allowed) and it had no discernable effect.  

 

11 minutes ago, myjunkmalebox said:

It won't let me set to 4.  3 is max allowed value.  There was noticeable difference between .5 and 3.

1 sounded the same as the others settings.

Sorry about that, couldn't remember the max value.

I'm a bit confused.  First message above seems to indicate there is no difference between 0.5, 2 or 3.

Second message says 1 sounds same as others.

But then you say there was a noticeable difference between 0.5 and 3.

Those are conflicting results. 

[myjunkmalebox 6]

Sorry, that was a typo, missed a very important 'no' in there.  I have edited the post to add it in.

[Carlo 4478]

So to sum up changing the boost made little to no difference correct?

[myjunkmalebox 6]

4 hours ago, cayars said:

So to sum up changing the boost made little to no difference correct?

Correct.

[ebr 15430]

Hi.  Can you please provide the one single ffmpeg log from the playback with the issue?  If audio isn't being converted, then no boost will occur.  That is my hunch of what is happening here.

[myjunkmalebox 6]

Attached

ffmpeg-transcode-fa768203-4f4a-4d83-b2cd-9b46a73f7403_1.txt

[Carlo 4478]

What was the volume boost setting on your system at the time of this transcode?

[ebr 15430]

1 minute ago, cayars said:

What was the volume boost setting on your system at the time of this transcode?

Doesn't matter.  The audio is being passed untouched.

23:01:35.047   Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)

 

[Carlo 4478]

I guess the question is why?

If we are transcoding and the setting is anything but 1 (default) shouldn't we transcode the audio and change it?  That's what the option would imply.

[ebr 15430]

6 minutes ago, cayars said:

If we are transcoding and the setting is anything but 1 (default) shouldn't we transcode the audio and change it?  That's what the option would imply.

No.  That would defeat all pass-thru audio everywhere.  The option is specifically labeled "when downmixing".  The point of the option is to correct for volume issues when mixing down certain codecs.

[myjunkmalebox 6]

1 hour ago, cayars said:

What was the volume boost setting on your system at the time of this transcode?

I've been changing it so much to test I'm not even sure.

Here's an older one, the setting was at 2 for this one.

ffmpeg-transcode-6b0d2d07-1bfa-4c9b-af7b-690b8494a4f4_1.txt

[Carlo 4478]

26 minutes ago, ebr said:

No.  That would defeat all pass-thru audio everywhere.  The option is specifically labeled "when downmixing".  The point of the option is to correct for volume issues when mixing down certain codecs.

OK, yes that makes sense.

[Happy2Play 9140]

3 hours ago, myjunkmalebox said:

I've been changing it so much to test I'm not even sure.

Here's an older one, the setting was at 2 for this one.

ffmpeg-transcode-6b0d2d07-1bfa-4c9b-af7b-690b8494a4f4_1.txt 17.73 kB · 0 downloads

As mentioned above the audio is untouched.

Only video is converted here

21:09:05.003 Stream mapping:
21:09:05.004   Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> h264 (libx264))
21:09:05.004   Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)

There is no way to force convert audio when supported that I know of.  Downmixing only happens when there is a unsupported audio track that requires conversion.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Happy2Play

[myjunkmalebox 6]

Is there anything I can do to 'turn up the volume'?  A week ago it was just fine.  I haven't change anything on my setup.  Shows I used to watch at 25-30 (tv volume) now need to be at 80-90.  This across 4 different shows. YouTube on the same TV and CC works just fine.

[Carlo 4478]

If you think this volume change has something to do with the 4.5 rollout you could rollback and try the previous version.  If you do this play the same media and safe the ffmpeg log. Then update back to 4.5, play the same media and again save the ffmpeg log file.

Upload both here if there is a sound difference.

[myjunkmalebox 6]

The system is definitely on 4.4 when I noticed this.  Telling it to reboot, so it could got to 4.5 was one thing I did to see if it would help.  So unless 4.5 somehow goes into affect before the reboot I doubt that's the issue.