Volume level issues on my 722, few questions?

[RollTide1017]

I'm trying to troubleshoot some volume level issues that I've just started noticing in the past few weeks, since new shows have started premiering. I'm trying to determine if it is my 722 or my A/V receiver. I'm 90% sure it is not my receiver because no other device have the problem (ie, Xbox, Apple TV, Blu-Ray player).

Here is the problem; During the past few weeks I've noticed that while watching a show the volume would noticeably drop during action scenes and then come back to normal once the action scene was over or a commercial break came up. Specifically noticed it the worst while watching the premier of Last Resort and Once Upon A Time. A second issue I'm having, which has been going on for about a month or so, is that every thing just seems to be at a lower volume, we have to turn our A/V receiver up a good bit more just to get to decent listening level, I notice it the most during football on ESPN, ABC and CBS. This only happens when watching Dish, all my other equipment is not effected. in fact we have to remember to turn the volume down if we switch from watching Dish to something else like Xbox or a BD movie. This hasn't always been the case, just started in the past month or so.

Last night I disable the volume leveling feature but the volume still dropped during action scenes but, the show was originally recorded with the volume leveling feature turned on; does leveling get baked into the recording?

My other audio settings are Dolby Digital/PCM and Line Mode hooked up to my receiver via an optical connection. What is the difference between RF mode and Line mode because I've tried them both and I don't hear any difference?

Any suggestions on things to try, settings to change? I'm not to worried about the overall volume being lower (although I'd like to correct it) but, this thing were the volume drops during louder scenes is annoying the you-know-what out of me, makes me not want to watch anything on Dish.

 

[boba]

Get used to it You've got DISH Notwerk they can't leave the software alone and keep ruining a smoothly operating system. It seems they create more problems than they cure.

 

[3HaloODST]

Leveling doesn't get recorded. It is done on-the-fly but IMO, keep it off as it is awful. If your audio is too quiet then setting it to line mode will make it even worse. Line mode is for increasing dynamic range in conjunction with Dolby Digital.

 

[RollTide1017]

Well, line mode is what I want then because I want full dynamic range. I didn't spend all my money on a good sound system just to compress the dynamic range of the audio. The receiver say under "help" that RF mode is for compressing the audio so that there is not much difference between soft and loud portions of a show, which is exactly what has been happening. Show sounds fine and then some action starts and it is like someone turned the volume knob down to the point where it is difficult to hear dialogue during action scenes. When the scene is over you can hear the volume raise back up to the point it was at before the loud scene. I hope it was the volume leveling feature, I'm leaving it off and we'll see.

Either way, that has got to be the worst dynamic range compression algorithm I've ever heard. The few times I've tried the one built into my AVR worked much better and you could hear the volume going up and down. End the end I do not like compressing the audio, I want to hear it as intended by the show creators. Which means, if I can't figure this out, I'll just have to find some other way to watch my shows because it annoys me to much with these volume changes.

 

[3HaloODST]

I believe you are mixing volume leveling with RF mode. The volume leveling is indeed horrible. You are correct in that if you have a DD-compatible receiver then you should use line mode. However RF mode is for those that do not have DD-capable hardware as it will indeed make things too quiet.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using SatelliteGuys

 

[Eric Seaberg]

I'm in the audio post-production biz and the line/RF settings are from Dolby Labs, relating to metadata within the Dolby Digital stream. These settings shouldn't really change anything as they are determined by either the producer (within the metadata) or the broadcasting network.

More and more networks are only taking programs with discrete multi-channel audio, usually encompassing minimum 8-channels, and sometimes 12. NBC, in particular, does this adding their own metadata and dialnorm settings.

There is a new law going into effect called the CALM act, which is meant to keep the volume between programming and commercials more consistent. A lot of broadcasters are freaking out about this and taking it to the extreme! I would expect things to improve as we get further into next year, seeing how the FCC responds.

 

[O'Shag]

Hey there folks. This is a question I've been wondering about for some time too. Its not very well explained in the dish user guide. Eric your explanation is the first I've heard that I actually can grasp. Thanks. I admit that I do listen to music sometimes on the Sirius channels although it must be said I don't think sound quality is that great on Sirius and certainly many of the stations are less than great for musical diversity with some just playing the same tunes too much. I have the VIP922 and it is different for Sirius than the VIP722 I used to have. Perhaps it shouldn't make a difference but I do find that the RF and Line settings sound different. Eric, my question is which of the two settings is closest to the native signal without processing? I'm assuming that Sirius is straight PCM and not DD, so then how is it that the RF and Line selections sound different. In my HT system the line setting does seem to have slightly extended fequency response on the higher fequencies and perhaps less noticably on the lower frequenies. The RF setting seems to slightly enhance the perception of a more solid center presence ie the singer will sound more forward or there. In other words the imaging seems slightly more formed - does this make any sense to you or anyone else here? By the way I may also add that I am not very impressed with Dish's music channels. I think they could do a little better for their customers that like to listen to music on their CD and audio channels (the audio channels suck eggs). A friend of mine has verizon Fios and his music channels sound way better....