CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[greg_mitch]

It has been slightly annoying for a few years when I go from an SD channel to an HD channel the audio goes really loud because the Dolby Digital stream ignores the master volume of the computer and it forces me to use the volume on the receiver.

It really isn't a problem because we usually volume match so that the receiver is at the correct volume for the DD audio and then just turn the master volume up so the SD shows are easily heard.

Just wondering if there was a way to control both audio streams with the master volume on my MCE remote.

I looked into this when I put my first HTPC together (7-8 years ago?) and I don't think there was a solution.

Any ways to get around this now through some settings in Windows 7 or Media Center?

[ecrabb]

Greg, I assume you have the htpc connected via spdif... The master volume works on PCM, but not on ac-3, yes?

If you're using spdif, you can't adjust the volume of the ac-3 stream without decoding it, changing the volume, then re-encoding it. Yuck. So, there are really only two solutions:

1) Treat the htpc as the source that it is, use a universal remote, and use the avr to adjust volume.
2) Decode all audio in the htpc to multichannel analog outs, that way everything can be adjusted there.

SC

[greg_mitch]