low sound level in DVD's?

I have a c-media 5.1 sound card. the volume level in windows and when playing mp3's etc is just fine. but when i play a dvd the volume is really low. everything is turned up in the control panel. any ideas on why this could be happening and how to fix it. thanks

Overload said:

I have a c-media 5.1 sound card. the volume level in windows and when playing mp3's etc is just fine. but when i play a dvd the volume is really low. everything is turned up in the control panel. any ideas on why this could be happening and how to fix it. thanks

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you say all the control panel controls are all the way up, well that is the same on my system. I just have to turn the speakers up a little more when i play a dvd and the problem is solved THe same thing is for every dvd i have ever played in my xbox and my stand alone dvd player.

yeah the talking in DVD is usually quiet compared to an mp3 or something but as soon as something blows up or a song starts you almost have to turn the speakers down...

check to see if the volume on your software dvd player is at its max but DVD are quieter.

ok, thanks. I thought it was probably something like that, but it is quite a bit quieter than everything else and if i forget to turn it down before playing a mp3 of something i disturb the people next door

DaddyB said:

yeah the talking in DVD is usually quiet compared to an mp3 or something but as soon as something blows up or a song starts you almost have to turn the speakers down...

check to see if the volume on your software dvd player is at its max but DVD are quieter.

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There is nothing wrong with your systems. It is a problem with the software encoding of the DVDs themselves.

It is kind of hard to explain but....

The dynamic range of a DVDis much higher that any other software. That is the explosions are louder and the range of frequencies is greater. Dolby Pro Logic and Dolby surround sound And DTS were all designed to be played on movie theater sound systems. With DVDs you get the same exact encoding which sounds great on a home theater system with 500 watts of power. But your computer can't put out that type of sound so what it does is take the loudest sound that the frequency can produce and sets it to the loudest frequency that your computer can produce and then resets all other sound to a lower level to match. So all your DVDs are quiet and you can barly hear them speak. But when a car crash or an explosion happens it is way to loud. Some software decoders deal with this through a process called normalization. I know MPEG Express is really bad for this. WinDVD is better but still noticible.

If you want to learn more you should try a site that is devoted to digital video. I believe there is a site called DVD digest out there somewhere. Been along time since I have been there but it is a great site.