2250 and 500 volume difference

[bigo93bronco]

I know this has been discussed before, but i've tried the methods that worked for people in old threads without success. I have a HVR 2250 that provides 2 ATSC sources, and a MCE 500 that has 2 Dish Network 301's feeding into it via svideo. I also have 2 MCE 150's that are currently only being used for FM radio. The 500 card is way louder for both boxes than the 2250. From what i've read this is nothing new. I have tried using the registry hack discussed in previous threads to raise the volume of the 2250, but it doesn't work. If I go into the registry I can see that the values have been added, but it doesn't get any louder. I have restarted the server multiple times.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by bigo93bronco

I have tried using the registry hack discussed in previous threads to raise the volume of the 2250, but it doesn't work. If I go into the registry I can see that the values have been added, but it doesn't get any louder. I have restarted the server multiple times.

I'm not sure if you can make changes to the recording stream on a digital tuner. Have you tried to find a way to lower the volume on the analog tuner?

Long ago I used a small mixer in line between the STB and the recorder card input (two of them in fact) to trim the volume.

EDIT: You could use an inline stereo headphone volume control on the analog line as well.

[bigo93bronco]

Does anyone know how to adjust the volume on the MCE 500 line in inputs? I've given up on raising the volume on the 2250. All the info I can find on the 500 is old and not applicable to the new drivers (2.0.48.25037).

[robogeek]

Originally Posted by bigo93bronco

Does anyone know how to adjust the volume on the MCE 500 line in inputs? I've given up on raising the volume on the 2250. All the info I can find on the 500 is old and not applicable to the new drivers (2.0.48.25037).

As far as I know, HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\Common\MSPAudio\Scart1Volume is the key\value that adjusts SageTV recording volume on the Hauppauge PVR-150/250/350/500 cards. Not sure what other cards it works for, or even if this key still works. If the MSPAudio key doesn't exist, create it, and create a Scart1Volume DWORD value in that key. I'm not sure what the default value is, but mine is set at hexadecimal 7f01. The last two characters of the value should be 01 and the first two characters will adjust the volume up or down as you adjust that hex value (7f) up or down. After setting this new key/value, you may have to reboot for it to take effect. Since the key is for SageTV and not for the Hauppauge driver, you should be able to just shutdown and restart SageTV for the value to take effect. After rebooting or restarting SageTV, if the volume of your PVR500 recordings are higher than the digital tuners, adjust the 7f part of the key value lower. If the volume of the recordings is lower, than adjust the 7f higher. Restart SageTV or reboot after making the change and test again. Rinse and repeat as needed until the volumes are close enough.

[bigo93bronco]

I've never really messed with hexadecimal before, how do I raise and lower the value? I know its the first 2 digits, but do I just go down/up a letter/number toghether or what?

[robogeek]

If you start out with 7f01 and want to give the recordings a volume increase, you would change the 7f to something like 8f. Hexadecimal is 0-9 and a-f, so if you wanted to change 7f higher by 1 increment at a time, the sequence would be 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 8e, 8f, 90, 91, etc. To go lower...7e, 7d, 7c, 7b, 7a, 79, 78, 77, etc. Going by 1 at a time probably won't be very noticable, so start with the first digit (7) and go up or down with that unil you get close to the correct volume, then fine tune it from there if needed. If you get to 9f and need the volume higher, you can go to af, bf, cf, df, ef, or ff if needed.

[bigo93bronco]

Well i've gone down to 1a01 and the 500 is still way louder than the 2250. Sage or hauppuage needs to come up with a reasonably easy way to correct for this. Should be part of the tuner setup process.

[bigo93bronco]

Does anyone have any other suggestions besides in-line attenuation (i really don't want anymore external devices crammed around my server)?

[Fuzzy]

External balancing is probably the best option. I'm not sure of any adjustments in the capture filters for volume level. The other option is to adjust levels at playback by using normalization in either AC3Filter or ffdshow. This is what I use, and have been happy with it.

[bigo93bronco]

I've looked at several products out there such as this http://www.htd.com/speaker-cables-ac...boosters/LGB-1 but they seem to be designed to raise the level not lower it......

[ke6guj]

AFAIK, the reason the volume is louder on the 500 is that the audio is recorded as MP3 audio, and on the 2250, it is just capturing the digital stream, which includes AC3 audio. The 2250 has no encoding options, per say, it just dumps the incoming stream to the disk.

So, any normalization would need to be done on the 500, but if the regedits didn't work, then do like Fuzzy mentioned and use AC3Filter to normalize the output of the 2250 recordings to be louder. With AC3filter, you can increase the db gain of AC3 recordings to get them to closely match the MP3 recordings.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by bigo93bronco

I've looked at several products out there such as this http://www.htd.com/speaker-cables-ac...boosters/LGB-1 but they seem to be designed to raise the level not lower it......

You could use an inline stereo headphone volume control on the analog line as well. They have no amplification - just trim, and require no power supply. They are 1/8" stereo plug to 1/8" stereo jack so you might need rca to 1/8" adapters depending in your tv card / STB.

[bigo93bronco]

With AC3filter, you can increase the db gain of AC3 recordings to get them to closely match the MP3 recordings.[/QUOTE]

Is this the AC3 settings found in C/programfiles/sagetv/sagetv? I tried maxing out the boost in there and it didn't make any difference. I have AC3 filter set as the audio decoder.

[Fuzzy]

That probably because AC3 passthrough is enabled in the decoder. This will bypass any processing and send the unmodified bitstream out the digital output.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by bigo93bronco

Is this the AC3 settings found in C/programfiles/sagetv/sagetv? I tried maxing out the boost in there and it didn't make any difference. I have AC3 filter set as the audio decoder.

Nyle posted a good setup in another thread that I just cut-paste when needed.

Originally Posted by nyle

Just to try and clarrify for anyone else that's new to using sage or external decoders. I'll try and do a quick summary of what they are saying here.

1.) Download the latest AC3Filter from the official site.
2.) Install the AC3filter(The current version 111 will open a tray icon when it's in use for adjustments or you can use the offline configuration utility which is placed in a folder on the start menu under AC3filter.)
3.) Under Setup->Detailed Setup->Video/Adio select the Audio decoder for MPEG2 to be AC3filter.
4.) Now you would modify the AC3filters settings using the tray icon when something is playing or with the offline config.

5.)
a.)If you have 2 speakers turn off the Normalize Matrix option under Equalizer which may be enough. If not boost the gain a little as well.
b.)If you have multiple speakers, If you look under the different options there is a Master Gain - try raising this to your liking during playback.

More info here, http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...ac3filter+gain and you can do searches for AC3filter gain for more even more threads on the issue.

[MavRic]

wow..i've been reading through this thread and am thoroughly confused...

In my case i have a HD-PVR connected to a Comcast HD STB and a 2250 which tunes s-video coming from a SD Comcast STB.

The audio on the 2250 is obviously much lower than it should be. I can tell by comparing to the PVR-500 i had before (also analog) and the HD-PVR at the same TV volume settings.

Hacking the registry can't be the solution, there has to be a better way.

Anybody have any suggestion? In my case if i can't raise the volume on the 2250 i would have to reduce the volume on the HD-PVR by putting inline volume controllers on the RCA audio connectors (a ridiculous proposition to begin with)...then crank the TV all the way up...then if i ever switch the the wii I'll probably blow the speakers or at least wake up the whole house..

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by MavRic

wow..i've been reading through this thread and am thoroughly confused...

In my case i have a HD-PVR connected to a Comcast HD STB and a 2250 which tunes s-video coming from a SD Comcast STB.

The audio on the 2250 is obviously much lower than it should be. I can tell by comparing to the PVR-500 i had before (also analog) and the HD-PVR at the same TV volume settings.

Hacking the registry can't be the solution, there has to be a better way.

Anybody have any suggestion? In my case if i can't raise the volume on the 2250 i would have to reduce the volume on the HD-PVR by putting inline volume controllers on the RCA audio connectors (a ridiculous proposition to begin with)...then crank the TV all the way up...then if i ever switch the the wii I'll probably blow the speakers or at least wake up the whole house..

You probably have to raise the volume on your STB. The SD one may be turned down quite a bit lower than your HD box.

[MavRic]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

You probably have to raise the volume on your STB. The SD one may be turned down quite a bit lower than your HD box.

How would i do this? The registry key does not exist, in fact i cannot find 'Frey Technologies' in the registry at all (win7 64bit).

The 2250's volume output is clearly to low compared to the other sources...i don't want to lower everything else to compensate for something that isn't right to begin with.

When i had the 2250 tuning a digital channel the volume seemed fine, when it tunes s-video the volume seems to be too low....

The audio output from the STB hasn't been an issue before...i had a PVR-500 tune the S-video before without any issue..so to me it's clearly the 2250 not doing something right when tuning the s-video...

[Fuzzy]

No, I mean the actual volume control on the STB (with the cable co's remote control).

[MavRic]

Didn't know that was possible..when i use volume controls on the remote is adjusts the actual TV...

I checked the STB settings for 'audio setup'... i can be set to 'stereo' or 'tv speakers'..

when set to tv speaker there is a button for 'optimize'..when i press that a volume control indicator shows on the screen for a few seconds and it doesn't show all the way up..but i don't know how to adjust it..

I would think it should be setup for 'stereo' but then there doesn't seem to be a way to adjust the level...