Gain volume of audio in a video file

Even I face this weird issue. The action scenes and background score is decent. Dialogues are way way too low. All the content is played via AC Ryan POHD MINI to my Sony LED through HDMI.
 
My first thought would be to look for the equaliser on the player and push up the pre-amp gain. Check out if the TV itself also offers the same.

The problem with just bumping up the volume in a movie is it can saturate in other areas and you'd have no way of knowing.

The correct way would be to strip the audio out of the movie container. Then run it through some audio software that analyses the peaks and calculates the increase based on no saturation or clipping. Finally resync the audio back to the clip. This should entirely be a LOSSLESS operation.

Ideally if you could replay gain the video with the appropriate software that would be ideal, saving you the hassles of treating the audio seperately.

Those are the general ideas.
 
All these low sound problems arise in films because they are recorded to be viewed alongside 5.1 or a 7.1 surround system.
So if you change you sound setup i guess you can get better overall sound experience.
 
asingh said:
Even I face this weird issue. The action scenes and background score is decent. Dialogues are way way too low. All the content is played via AC Ryan POHD MINI to my Sony LED through HDMI.
Click to expand...

1. I opened .3gp/other file in MediaCoder.

2. In the Video tab, I checked "Copy Video" (to prevent re-encoding of video).

3. In the Sound tab, I pushed up Gain by 10.0 dB

4. Start.

5. After the transcoding got over, I transferred the new converted file to my Nokia 5230 and played it, and there I'm, enjoying the movie with top notch original .3gp file video quality at higher volume and 'clear' sound on my mobile. :)

Works great. :)
 
^^

Anyway I can do this for normal movies. Like I have an .MKV print, want to notch up the gain, but to again play on my POHD..? What software is available..free..?
 
^^ Yup. I tried opening a normal .mkv movie file in MediaCoder(freeware), and then I was presented with the same options in Video and Audio tab. Selected "Copy Video" and pushed Gain and then the transcoded file had higher volume. Moreover dialogues are not distorted at all..loud and clear.



Similarly convert your .mkv file and try playing it on your POHD. Should work.
 
There shouldn't be any transcoding of audio happening at all. Its just a volume setting in the audio file that gets tweaked.
 
asingh said:
Okay started the DL. Thanks to you guys. How long does a 2GB rip usually take. Just the audio enhancement..?
Click to expand...
If there is no analysis it should be instant. But this is risky as it can cause peaking.

Otherwise longer, depending on cpu.
 
asingh said:
Okay started the DL. Thanks to you guys. How long does a 2GB rip usually take. Just the audio enhancement..?
Click to expand...
A 250MB .3gp file took <1 mins on my PC. Transcoding should be fast.

Do post back with your results.
 
@XTechManiac

Thanks a lot for the details as i had used Virtual dub which did the same but many a times caused issues as in it had too many complex steps like selecting bitrate of audio (which should be same as original etc etc). This sounds more easier and user friendly. I will need to do this to all my files before playing on portable media player (if i intend to watch the movies on TV through audio out) since i get very low sound even at full volume in PMP and also in TV :(

This thing will surely help a lot. Will download when i return back home.
 
DL'ed it last night. Will give it a try, on some movie which for sure gave me issues. I think TRON 2 did that. Will post. Appreciate the insights guys..!

Update: 31/05/2011

XTechManiac said:
1. I opened .3gp/other file in MediaCoder.

2. In the Video tab, I checked "Copy Video" (to prevent re-encoding of video).

3. In the Sound tab, I pushed up Gain by 10.0 dB

4. Start.

5. After the transcoding got over, I transferred the new converted file to my Nokia 5230 and played it, and there I'm, enjoying the movie with top notch original .3gp file video quality at higher volume and 'clear' sound on my mobile. :)

Works great. :)
Click to expand...
Okay I did exactly the above on a 1.36 GB file. It started the db GAIN procedure, and showed elapsed time of 9 minutes. Was eating around 25% CPU cycles. After like 10 minutes, it kept running (but showed nothing in "remaining"), and showing statistics as 25% CPU usage. When I tried to close the application it said "transcoding" is still going on. Would this make another copy, or change the master. Now how do I know, what has happened..? The process never ended. The file is running, but I cannot tell any difference in audio quality.
 
^^ Sorry for such a delayed reply.

Anil, you can try opening the .mkv file in VirtualDub and then increasing the Volume. Drop MediaCoder. Even I faced random freeze with it.

1. In order to open .mkv file in VirtualDub, you need to get the Directshow Driver Plugin. Here it is, I uploaded it for you.

2. Place the files in the plugins32 folder under VirtualDub program directory.

3. Now shoot up VirtualDub > File > Open Video File.

4. Now in the File of type, select "DirectShow Input Driver".



5. Locate and select your .mkv file, and it will get loaded in VirtualDub.

Now, for gaining volume, copy-pasting instructions from the first page:-

1) Load the .MKV file into VirtualDub.

2) Under the "Video" dropdown, change setting to "Direct Stream Copying".

3) Under the "Audio" dropdown, change the setting to "Full Processing Mode". This will make the "Volume" line active.

4) Set the volume to your desired percentage of the original.

5) Under "Audio", select "Compression". Select the same compression as was use for the original .MKV. Put a checkmark in the box labeled "Show all formats". Select the same rate as was used for the original .MKV file.

6) Save as a new file name.

Done! :)
 
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