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[1966 Triumph]

Hi all, I did a search and did not quite find an answer/solution to why this occurs...

When I play stereo music via JRiver MC 19 the volume is loud enough with just a small turn of the volume dial, however when I watch movies via JRiver MC19 the volume needs to be substantially turned up (to almost clipping in some situations).  It's not a big deal to turn the volume up, however I have found myself on more than a few occasions forgetting to turn the volume back down after watching a movie and go to playback music/song which ends up blaring so loud that it scares the cr@p out of everybody in my house and not only that, but I'm also scared about blowing my speakers and/or damaging my equipment.  

My equipment is basically a 2 channel setup with an (a) PC, (b) USB/SPDIF Converter, (c) DAC, (d) Integrated Stereo Amp, (e) 2 speakers, (f) HDTV, and (g) Cable Box.  And this is used for music, movies and also cable TV.  I have noticed that music playback via JRiver and cable TV are about the same volume, it's just when watching movies via JRiver that requires turning the volume up substantially.

So my questions are:

1. Do you know why music playback via JRiver only takes small volume increments to fill my room, but movies via JRiver requires the volume be turned up substantially?

2. Does anybody know a setting in JRiver that I am overlooking that would allow my movie and stereo playback to be at similar volumes?

3. Does anybody know why the 2 different applications of Cable TV and JRiver music playback are at similar volumes, but movie playback via JRiver needs substantial increases in volumes to be listenable?

I'm not sure if my equipment setup would be helpful, but it is as follows ...

For watching movies and music playback I use an Asus VivoPC with Windows 8.1 OS, using JRiver MC19 (ASIO) for playback and I stream movies and music from a WD My Cloud NAS via Ethernet.  My equipment setup is something like this ...

a. From my Asus VivoPC to a Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 USB/SPDIF converter via USB, and...
b. From the Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 into a Rega DAC via SPDIF Coaxial, and...
c. From my Rega DAC to a Decware Taboo Integrated Tube Amplifier via RCA, and
d. From my Decware Taboo to Omega single driver loudspeakers via speaker cables (these are very efficient speakers 95dB @ 8 ohms and have no problem whatsoever filling my room while playing music or watching Cable TV), and
e. I use a Samsung 65" HDTV as a monitor from the Asus VivoPC to the HDTV via HDMI.

For watching cable TV it's almost the same (btw I don't watch Cable TV through my PC, but only through the Cable Box):

a. Cable Box to Rega DAC via SPDIF TOSLink, and...
b. From my Rega DAC to a Decware Taboo Integrated Tube Amplifier via RCA, and
c. From my Decware Taboo to Omega single driver loudspeakers via speaker cables, and
d. I use a Samsung 65" HDTV as a monitor from the Cable Box to the HDTV via HDMI.

[6233638]

1. Do you know why music playback via JRiver only takes small volume increments to fill my room, but movies via JRiver requires the volume be turned up substantially?

Music is 2 channel, and movies are normally multichannel. (5.1-7.1 channel)

When you downmix audio, you have to reduce the volume to prevent the signal from being clipped. (distorted)
The more channels being downmixed, the more you have to reduce the volume.

I just wrote a post on this very issue a few days ago, which goes into more detail:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=87945.msg606061#msg606061

2. Does anybody know a setting in JRiver that I am overlooking that would allow my movie and stereo playback to be at similar volumes?

Volume Leveling should help, but won't fix the issue.
The only real solution would be to decide that you want everything reduced to the same volume as a 5.1 (or 7.1) downmix, which makes everything quieter rather than only movies.

3. Does anybody know why the 2 different applications of Cable TV and JRiver music playback are at similar volumes, but movie playback via JRiver needs substantial increases in volumes to be listenable?

Cable TV is typically broadcasting stereo rather than downmixing a multichannel signal.



One possible solution would be to set up separate zones for stereo and multichannel content, using Zone Switch based on the number of channels being played.
Adding a 12.1dB reduction in volume to the stereo zone should approximately match the levels of a 5.1 downmix.

It won't be an exact match though, due to the way that Media Center downmixes audio.
Rather than a standard normalized downmix, if your video files have been run through the analyzer, it will make the downmix as loud as possible without clipping, which means that the reduction in volume is not fixed to ~12.1dB

[1966 Triumph]

Thank you 6233638 for the detailed explaination ~ this is helpful to know and thanks for pointing me in the direction of the other thead as it has answers to some other questions I have been wondering.  As far as zone switching, I'm a little worried about the overall reduction in volume accross the board as my Decware Taboo Tube Amp is only 6 watts stereo and although my speakers are pretty efficient the volume has enough headroom with no worries in Stereo Music, but during Movies the amp is turned up to almost clipping as it is.

Perhaps since it is sofware related JRiver can work this into a new MC version sometime in the future.

[6233638]

It's my understanding that you are not driving the amplifier any harder when you do this.
If your speaker efficiency is 90dB/W for example, then your amplifier is only feeding it 1 watt of power when the output is 90dB, regardless of where the volume position is set.

The only thing that might be affected is the signal-to-noise ratio, but that's generally not a problem.

[JustinM]

The only thing that might be affected is the signal-to-noise ratio.

-signal-to-noise, might be better (for the same output volume).