Sound is bad on a lot of movies

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bobotech
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Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by bobotech »

I'm running xbmc for xbox from about a year ago on my OG xbox. I am streaming all my movies from my xbmc computer in the living room. I have a bunch of downloaded movies. Now my bedroom tv is nothing more than an old tube SD tv with stereo rca inputs. The problem is that the sound is bad on a lot of movies during loud scenes.

It sounds like the sound is clipping badly. Like the tornado scene from Oz Great And Powerful, the wind and sound was distorted badly yet the dialog scenes are fairly soft. Even when there is just a quick loud music fanfare played, the low bass sounds are very distorted and ugly sounding.

Happens on a fair amount of movies.

Does anyone know what might be happening and how to fix it?
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BuZz
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

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bigkidoz
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by bigkidoz »

I have noticed this in most downloads so i dont think its a problem with your hardware.
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by Geeba »

Sounds like you're putting multi-channel audio through a stereo setup.... have you made sure the xbox is down mixing?
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by bobotech »

That is probably what is going on. I only have a cheap old SD tv with stereo speakers in the bedroom . I do not understand this downmixing, how do I do that?
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

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xman
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by xman »

You may want to check the pre amp sound isn't turned all the way up. While the movie is playing hit the small black button that brings up the on screen controller and then move it to it's upper symbol. This is the sound adjust. The top setting here is the normal volume, that one isn't an issue however the 2nd setting is the pre amp volume setting and this one is best left very low if on at all. Make sure it is turned right down and them move to the bottom of the list and hit, " Make the default for all movies". This pre amp sound adjust will cause bad sound on anything other than when it is set extremely low. This may be your problem.
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by bigkidoz »

I usually dont touch the audio settings but i will see if i have adjusted them while doing something else.
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by xman »

Yer, you may be lucky and find this is all it is. I find if you turn it up any more than about 1/6 the level it does sound shit. I prefer to max the T.V. volume out and the normal XBMC volume out rather than stuff with that pre amp setting, it doesn't distort as much. On a T.V. with decent speakers, I leave this pre amp level at 0 and just use the normal XBMC volume but on my farm T.V. which has 2 speakers about as big as a 5 cent pieces and is like earphones , I have to use this setting so I can hear anything and the sound really suks. Even the porn sounds like an orchestra. :shock: If only this setting was gone and replaced with a graphic equalizer so you could turn up the moans and turn down the groans aye. :lol:
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by NOTTHESAME »

Does this amp on xbmc work if a advanced settings code is implanted like applydrc?
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by xman »

The top level bar in XBMC's sound level adjustments, I usually max it out and that should be quite clear sound wise. I will usually set my TV volume so the top bar in XBMC's sound adjust at max would be about the loudest I would want the volume to ever be. From there I would usually drop the volume down in XBMC to be the desired level I actually want but I still have the ability to raise it if need be. The lower bar in XBMC's sound levels I really try not to move from off. Any raising of this lower bar adjust distorts the sound bad and to my knowledge always has. It seems to act as a pre amp adjust which could explain why it amps up all noise as well as volume. It may work a lot better using coax out or digital sound out but for stock sound output, no. I did use digital out for sound some time ago and wasn't very impressed with the LOW overall volume however coax sound out did work quite good. It was much clearer and cleaner sound with good volume but then you require a decoder for it to work, as you also need for digital sound output, and that was a pain like who wants to hook up decoders to every Xbox in the house. If I needed to do that I would go an amp myself and put it inside the Xbox itself so there isn't other equipment needed outside the Xbox itself.
So to sum this up, yes, you are right. Sound on XBMC4Xbox does sound crap if you use that lower level adjust however if you try not to use that lower level and only work with the upper bar, you can get quite good sound providing of coarse your TV has good sound which is becoming really hard to get these days. There is only so much you can get out of dime sized speakers modern TVs like to use because of space requirements. These sound dramas are also the case with KODI I have found. Trying to get good sound out of my tablets with KODI I use down the farm is near impossible. Tablets are shit sound to start with but trying to get any volume out of them requires using that lower bar and it distorts bad. My solution was to send the sound from the tablets to a blue tooth radio and that works perfect providing I don't use that low bar in KODI's sound adjustment of coarse. Unfortunately we cannot do this on the Xbox.
This answer is in response to your PM by the way. I figured an answer here could possibly help out more people. :D
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by NOTTHESAME »

Thanks xman I guess this answers my questions and got a great answers thank you, if blutooth could work on Xbox this would be great, I all mess with the bar this way, and this does sound family with the preamp, its if the Xbox master volume needs a limiter for release and hold, but I'm not a audio person for i this, I'm gonna try this later when I get home thanks. And happy xmas.
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Re: Sound is bad on a lot of movies

Post by NOTTHESAME »

I was checking what happens when headroom is on isn't headroom suppose to go above volume limits but with no clipping and distortion?? I get a lower level of sound when using 6db and lower using 12db its suppose to go to the peak with no issues??
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