[quixote23]

Sorry to revive an old thread but I just wanted to say thanks, axbmcuser - this is actually a really perfect solution for my current setup and needs, and solved a number of problems I was having. I'm glad I finally came across it (after hours of searching for a solution).

At least for right now, I need to have some kind of DRC enabled 100% of the time and the compression built into my AVR just isn't cutting it. So this has been perfect.

EXCEPT

Even when I select "apply as default for all videos", Kodi resets the volume to 100% after every reset, which means I then have to start a video, pause it right away so it doesn't blast out my eardrums, and manually reduce the volume whenever I restart Kodi. I've searched high and low for a solution to this - someone recommended an autoexec.py script to set the volume to 80% on start-up, but for some reason that only seems to apply about half of the time. Same with changes to advancedsettings.xml, which don't appear to have any effect at all.

Can anyone recommend a solution? I just want Kodi to reliably start at 80% playback volume every single time.

[killthewiseone]

Sorry to revive an old thread again but, I am looking for exactly this, to have Kodi transcode ac3->ac3 without using passthrough. Did anyone find a solution without adding external hardware?

[axbmcuser]

An option to force Kodi transcoding ac3->ac3 without simply passing through the untouched ac3 hasn't been added as far as i know.

The ugly way to solve this would be to extract the ac3 of the ac3-only media, transcode them to another format and remux them again into the original file.
I did this back in the days for ac3-only media but since i switched to a HDMI capable AVR i just use uncompressed LPCM and be done with it.

I still think for some cases it would be a great option/feature, but it's not that likely it will be added at this point.

[killthewiseone]

Thanks for the reply. I used to use PCM but recently upgraded my TV to 4k and my AVR cant passthrough 4k. It's a pity, I think I may have to add a splitter when bitstream works well with all other formats and devices.

[andreaslev]

Thank you very much for this good elaboration.

Also works in Kodi 20.2 with all of the audio tracks mentioned above.

I, too, have been looking for this option for a long time because my JBL 9.1 soundbar does not offer a night mode setting option. By now it had become almost impossible to watch a film in a relaxed manner without waking the neighbors ;-)

Thanks to this setting, I can finally watch a film in a relaxed manner again and when the neighbors are on vacation, the system can also flex its muscles...

Thank you :-)

[andreaslev]

Hey there,

although there is not much talk about it, the simple "Volume Amplification" (DRC) feature in KODI works really great to reduce the insane volume difference between dialogues and explosions in most movie HD audio soundtracks. (Even for big home cinema setups, the difference is just too big in many cases.)

Over time, i got to love the following setup:


Hardware is an AVR with larger 5.1 Surround cinema speakers. KODI is running on a i5 4-core Intel NUC.


KODI Setup:

Number of channels: 2.0 (Which does NOT mean you only got 2.0 audio for Multichannel audio. You still get your 5.1!)

Resample Quality: High (It may not be relevant for transcoding (KODI Team members maybe can answer that?) - but since the hardware can handle it, i preffered High.)

_CHECK_ Enable passthrough
_CHECK_ Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver
_CHECK_ - Enable Dolby Digital transcoding (So every other (HD) audio format gets transcoded back to simple and nice 5.1 Dolby Digital after Volume Amplification (DRC) has been done)
_ DISABLED_ Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) capable receiver
_ DISABLED_ DTS capable receiver
_ DISABLED_ TrueHD capable receiver
_ DISABLED_ DTS-HD capable receiver

KODI Audio Main Volume: -10.2db
KODI Audio Volume Amplification: +10db

Result:

Almost every movie audio gets decoded, Volume Amplification +10db is applied, Main Volume -10.2db gets the volume back to a normal state and with transcoding back to simple Dolby Digital AC3 you wind up with a nice DD 5.1 Signal without insane volume differences between dialouges and explosions.

It works very very well and gets the job done for almost all situations!
Only if the source audio is DD AC3, it doesn't work, because this audio gets passed through untouched and therefore no Volume Amplification (DRC) is applied.


Feature request would be an (really optional) option, that allows you to force decoding and transcoding even if the source audio i already simple DD 5.1 AC3.


So this could be done:

- The new option "- Allow/Force Dolby Digital transcoding even if source is already simple Dolby Digital AC3" is _CHECKED_
- Movie audio is "old" simple Dolby Digital AC3, but still gets decoded
- Volume Amplification is applied
- Transcoding back to Dolby Digital AC3
- Larger volume differences between dialouges and explosions are reduced for simple DD AC3, which was not possible before in that way




Thanks for reading!