Dialog Quiet, then loud other sounds - AAC Stereo, Shield TV, Samsung 5.1.4 Soundbar

[arrbee99 1561]

I tried this ages ago and it at least had some effect -

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=aac+stereo+boost+dialog+kodi&ia=web

Disadvantages - its for Kodi...and when I was trying it out it might not even have been with AAC stereo.

Just a suggestion.

[Luke 37151]

Are you still running into this?

[vaise 307]

Yep.

Even last night wife complained.

She wanted to go to bed and finish the show there that is just a TV.

Always only AAC Stereo formats.

The sound formats on the Samsung are :

standard, smart and surround.  

Surround makes it a bit better, but not good enough really.  

[Luke 37151]

Can you try the standard Emby android app on the same device and see how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

[vaise 307]

Um.  That is not in the google play store for me in shieldTV is it?

[Carlo 4330]

No, to install this on Android TV you need to download the APK then install it manually.

[vaise 307]

Ok, I will google that and get to it when I have time.

[vaise 307]

Stuck under a car at the moment……..

[Ponyo 22]

Isn't this mostly because of the poor sound mixing on a lot of shows/movies these days that seem to assume everybody has a 10 grand dolby atmos setup at home?

On my LG C9 I have this with almost all content I watch, regardless whether I use Emby on my Shield TV, the built in Netflix app etc. Depending on the sound track and TV sound mode I can get some improvement but generally a lot of content has the volume of speech and for example explosions way out of whack so you are constantly playing volume jockey with the remote.

[Carlo 4330]

13 hours ago, vaise said:

Stuck under a car at the moment……..

Sounds painful. LOL

[crusher11 856]

Explosions are supposed to be significantly louder than conversations. I have no idea why you would be surprised by this. 

[vaise 307]

@crusher11 - You have to turn volume up to hear speech, then the explosions are way too loud.  As in neighbour complaint level.  It’s not by design.  If the soundtrack is native 5.1, or native Atmos, this is not an issue at all.  It’s just on stereo AAC soundtracks.

[rbjtech 4303]

Are these AAC soundtracks authored by somebody else in addition to the normal AC3 or DTS tracks ?

I'm curious, as I add a Stereo AAC soundtrack to all my media for compatibility reasons and make it the primary track - and I do not have any issues at all - dialogue is very clear.

-c:a:0 aac -ac 2 -filter:a:0 "volume=1.4"

With ffmpeg, you can actually boost individual channels if you wish - but all I do is boost all channels by 40% to get it to the same dB level as the original AC3 or DTS soundtrack.

Edited August 1, 2021 by rbjtech

[vaise 307]

I mean I have some media that are ac3 stereo, others 5.1, others atmos, others dts, 7.1 etc etc.  it’s only files that are showing as AAC Stereo that have this issue.  I am not authoring them.

[rbjtech 4303]

Sure I get that - but that is my point - whoever created the Stereo AAC in the first place, may not have correctly muxed the centre (and maybe rear) channel(s) - thus you effectively only have the left/right front channels as 'Stereo' - and thus your centre dialogue is effectively missing.

You may be able to correct them by using some sound utilities to 'boost' dialogue levels - but it will also boost other sounds in these frequencies - so it may not be result you desire.

[vaise 307]

I guess the answer to this is 'it is what it is' then.  I had hoped maybe this was a samsung soundbar issue and that another soundbar would be better.

When played from a TV this is not such a big deal.  When the wife comes across one that she cant stand to watch, she just goes to bed and watches it on the 'normal TV' as she says.

I have figured out the sideload thing, got the apk, just need to get it to the shield now.  Will report back if it is different on the android app.

[Luke 37151]

15 hours ago, vaise said:

 

I have figured out the sideload thing, got the apk, just need to get it to the shield now.  Will report back if it is different on the android app.

Let us know how you get on. Thanks.

[vaise 307]

I have both apps there now on the screen and the wife will use the android one.

I did play one show and she said it sounds better for her - but that is not really scientific.

She will use the android app from now on and will report back.

[vaise 307]

The wife  reports the android app is no better that the GoogleTV native app for the shield.

I will leave it there in the background for any future testing.....

In summary, I guess the quality of the AAC stereo mix is to blame.

I have created a release profile and added a custom Surround-Priority profile that adds ratings for Atmos (50), 7.1 (40), 5.1 (20), DTS (20), Surround (10) and to ignore anything that has 'stereo' - this may help for the future.

[Luke 37151]

Thanks for the update.