[pike]

hi jpennell

I know exactly what you want, and I know why.
I tried to convince our eminent developer jmarshall that it's needed, but I haven't succeeded in my quest yet.

The dilemma:

Yes, we have DRC, it's not a 'boost'. Boost is something that amplifies everything. Our DRC could be paired with a boost, this would be the perfect solution IMO.

[jpennell]

Yes, DRC is useful for some things - like increasing the dialog's volume without bursting eardrums during special effects.

And... it's not my imagination is it, Pike? Such a facility DID exist in earlier releases of xbmc - I'm sure the setting was "audio amplification"?

J

[spiff]

if you want to rape your audio, get the proper gear (an amplifier) so you atleast can apply it at the end of the chain. the software filter we used earlier simply doesnt cut it (amping that early in the output chain is the big bad).

anyway, you can still enable it using mplayer.conf af=volume:gain iirc (see the mplayer man page / documentation).

[pike]

Yes, DRC is useful for some things - like increasing the dialog's volume without bursting eardrums during special effects.

And... it's not my imagination is it, Pike? Such a facility DID exist in earlier releases of xbmc - I'm sure the setting was "audio amplification"?

J

Yes it did exist, and it was replaced by DRC.
jmarshall feels DRC does everything we need, I feel quite differently

[jmarshall]

DRC simply applies a logarithmic curve to the audio levels. You can easily alter the curve so it boosts more before it curves (you can't go above 0dB ofcourse).

It's simply a matter of generating a different function to do it.

The old amplification was a simple multiplicative thing (out = clamp(in * factor)) so even that can be done with the new system. It involves modding the code ofcourse - see CAsyncDirectSound.cpp or whatever it is under xbmc/cores.

Any of these methods kinda suck though, given that you have a finite range, so clipping will almost certainly occur.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Gamester17]

Please also see the "DRC (Dynamic Range Compression) " and the "Normalization" suggestions/requests topic-threads as they are indirectly linked. Niether is the same as 'simple amplification' but each can have its own possitive use in different ways, so could be talked/discussed togther but should really be treated as three seperate features IMHO. How about three options that could be enabled/disabled seperatly (by the end-user in GUI) to complement each other if needed/wanted?

[tvdb-scott]

Simple amplification is probably what I need as well. When I play an Xbox game (or an emulator), I keep my receiver set at -50db. When I play a video in XBMC, I crank it up to -30db. If I forget to switch it back before playing a game I wake up the whole neighborhood (or just the wife, which is worse). I have the volume in XBMC turned all the way up to compensate a bit, but that also means I can't use XBMC's audio controls... I'm forced to use my receiver.

I'm going to try out DRC to see if it helps at all, but losing the full range due to clipping isn't that appealing to me. It seems that since the games are so much louder, XBMC should be able to make things just as loud. Somehow.

Just wanted to give another perspective on this.

[spiff]

games and music have about 1/10th the dynamic range a typical movie track is encoded at.

apply linear amping to that, you will clip your explosions. cause those are obv at the peak range already. no, its not "easily" fixable. unless you have non-linear filters (like those in a good amplifier), which would suck the cpu out of your xbox faster than a fluffer girl would suck stuff out of a 14 year old.

[pike]

Problem is, some audio is just recorded lower, this audio you can amplify without clipping or getting any issues, this case isn't covered with our now existing DRC

[swsr]

Please add a "simple audio boost" feature again! I really miss it, DRC is not what we need, that's a different feature.

[jmarshall]

Patch welcome.

[Dudulle360]

Please add a "simple audio boost" feature again! I really miss it, DRC is not what we need, that's a different feature.

I've just finished a script to do that. You can download it here (right click -> save as).
You'll have to insert those two lines AT THE TOP of mplayer.conf (Q:\system\players\mplayer\mplayer.conf) before using the script:

#Volume Amplification
af=volume=0

When you run the script, you'll see the keyboard with "af=volume=0" writen. Change 0 by the number of db you want, push start and this will boost the volume in mplayer.

[Dudulle360]

I've just finished a script to do that. You can download it here (right click -> save as).
You'll have to insert those two lines AT THE TOP of mplayer.conf (Q:\system\players\mplayer\mplayer.conf) before using the script:

When you run the script, you'll see the keyboard with "af=volume=0" writen. Change 0 by the number of db you want, push start and this will boost the volume in mplayer.

I've made a new version of the program. You can find it here.
With this version, you don't need to edit mplayer.conf before using the script for the first time. I also replaced the virtual keyboard by the numeric keypad which will show you the number of db you're already using (instead of "af=volume=xx" in the last version).
Screenshot here

[swsr]

Works great, thank you!