Wild volume changes thru Home Theater System

Question

I have a Sunfire Theater Grand system hooked up by HDMI cable from DVR to HT. HDMI from HT to TV. Optical Audio from DVR to HT from HT to TV. For some reason I am getting large volume changes.  It seems to be switching from stereo to Dolby Digital would be my guess.  An easy example that really bugs me is that when i watch the local news the dolby digital comes through perfect then we go to national news and the audio I believe must go to stereo because the center channel is non existent. This also happens when watching shows and then a commericial comes on and blows you out of the house.  Is there any way to have the audio transmit the same for all reception?  I didnt have this problem with Dish Network. This is so frustrating.

Answer 1

Edvander wrote:
Acutally the audio is digital on all channels (not switching to stereo).  It just has huge volume changes between programing and commercials.  Pretty frustrating.  Does anyone else have this problem?
There could be two issues at work.  The first is how your receiver decodes and outputs DD2.0 vs DD5.1.  The second is relates to the audio levels on the channels themselves, including whether or not the content is encoded with dialogue normalization
It is very common for channels to insert commercials at higher volume levels.  Sometimes this is done on purpose, and other times it is a specific to the settings on the commercial insertion equipment and/or the encoded levels on the commercial source.  Verizon passes most video and audio as is, so many of the differences you hear are due to the source content.  On most channels, Verizon does not process and adjust the audio levels as DirecTV and Dish Network do.
You might check to see whether your processor has a dialogue normalization setting.  Most Dolby Digital 5.1 programs are encoded with a dialogue normalization value, which is meant to equalize volume between DD5.1 encoded content on a particular channel.  When this setting is enabled, it usually serves to reduce the volume levels on DD5.1 programs encoded with dialogue normalization, and then you may hear a volume spike when you are hit with commercials and other channels that are not encoded in that way.  If dialogue normalization is already enabled on your receiver, you might disable it add and observe the difference on your system.
Some newer receivers do have a built-in audio adjustment feature (ex: Audyssey Dynamic Volume, Dolby Volume).  This is meant to equalize the volume levels across different channels and sources, much like DirecTV does with their signals.
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