There is a noticeable difference in the volume for movies and shows in Kodi from other apps - Prime, Netflix, Tivimate. I have to turn the volume up almost 10 increments to match those of others while using Kodi. I’ve played around with the system audio settings, but everything I’ve tried doesn’t come close to matching the same volume levels of other apps. I am not a fan of increasing the amplification setting in
Kodi as that can lead to distortion of sound effects. Using Nvidia Shield TV Pro.
Any ideas?
Have you tried this?
After opening your show pause it , go to settings, (gear in the lower right corner), audio settings and turning the second slider from the top up?
1 Like
Yes I have. That is the amplification setting that I mentioned I’d prefer not to use it as it has a tendency to distort the sound effects. And, I don’t remember having this issue with the Matrix version.
2 Likes
That’s weird.
I’m using Nexus and my audio is very good.
Are you using a particular build? It seems to be doing this mainly for movies.
I don’t use builds (though I’m considering trying Skeleton Crew again).
I’m using the add-ons Fen and Dynasty.
1 Like
That is the build I am currently using. It’s been rock solid with both the Matrix and Nexus versions of Kodi.
If you’re lucky I might make it even better this weekend 
Or rather, if I’m not lazy lol
So anyway, back to your original post. I too have noticed this. I have a shield pro and it’s hooked up to an AVR. I think the audio passthrough option makes this happen. I turned off Dolby audio processing in the shield settings because I wanted the AVR to do it all. I might play around with this tomorrow and see if I can come up with anything.
P.S. Started working on an update to skeleton crew but went down a rabbit hole. I can’t make up my mind how much I want to change. So this may be a while.
1 Like
Jayhawks659, that’s a great idea of letting the AVR do audio processing. I will try that too.
The audio discrepancy seems to be most prevalent on movies vs. TV shows.
Good luck with your update. I’m sure you will figure out what’s best.
1 Like
Even with the passthrough enabled on mine Kodi still seems to be a little lower but not terrible. I haven’t been able to figure it out. I don’t know if there’s such a thing as volume leveling between apps.
No not really, the best way to do this is with VLC and volume boost. Or anything that allows you to boost past max.
Would it matter/depend on the player within the build (if one is used)? I really like the play in the Skeleton build but wouldn’t know how to change/choose if VLC was available?
I’m going to guess no, but I don’t have a for sure answer on that. I’ve always the Kodi player itself and it’s never given me problems other than this (if it can even be considered a “problem”). Usually when a stream plays I can still hear it but it is much lower. Over time I’ve just gotten used to turning the volume up to a certain level as soon as it starts. I think it’s an automatic response at this point lol.
I do have a theory that turning the Dolby audio processing back on through the Shield and setting the AVR to “direct mode” might help normalize levels. Right now I’ve got audio processing off on the shield and the AVR in direct mode.
Do you know how setting the AVR to direct would affect Prime and Netflix?
Careful, you’ll go down a rabbit hole lol. My biggest thing is being able to play TrueHD audio files. If I didn’t have that capability I would probably just leave my AVR in Dolby Digital theater mode 100% of the time. Netflix doesn’t have TrueHD audio that I’m aware of. Highest I think a lot of apps go is DD+ (which is good, but it’s still compressed even if it says Atmos). This is perhaps one of the biggest reasons I’m a Kodi purist.
Also, it still depends on your streaming device audio settings as we were discussing earlier. If you’re using a shield and the audio is set to passthrough and your AVR is set to direct, it’s going to play the audio the way it was originally created. This means if you’re watching an old movie recorded in stereo, it’s going to play in stereo. On the flip side if you turn audio processing on it will attempt to simulate surround sound based on whatever mode you chose.If you’re using a fire stick your only options within the settings are Dolby Digital, stereo, or PCM (I think. Not in front of mine right now)
Okay, I played around with this for hours playing different sources to get the best sound. And I think the volume levels are all even now, or close enough it’s not noticeable. For me, this is what worked best:
On the Shield, turn Dolby audio processing on in the advanced sound settings. Make sure all your available formats are checked. Make sure stereo upmix is on. Turn off the option to match Dolby/PCM audio levels. Turn off match content audio resolution.
On my AVR settings I adjusted the default input audio processing modes.
For analog/PCM I chose Dolby surround
Mono/multiplex I chose DTS Neural:X
2ch standard source I chose Dolby surround
DD / DD+ / TrueHD I chose straight decode
DTS / DTS-ES / DTS-HD straight decode
Other multi channel source straight decode
Setup like this my IPTV channels output in 2.0 DD+ and my AVR outputs it as 5.1.2 Dolby Surround and it sounds fantastic considering it started as a stereo stream.
1 Like
Thank you for sharing that with us and for all of your hard work. I will be reading up on my AVR and try to match those you stated as close as possible.
I played around with the settings in my AVR and pretty much agree with your results. I tried pure direct and found that I have to kick up the volume 4-5 notches to match the volume for straight decode. I found that sometimes it (pure direct) will have better sound effects and sometimes not. I also have a buttkicker for my setup and found that both straight decode and pure direct have a more robust response for both the sub and the buttkicker.
1 Like