No volume control on HD channels

8bit

New Member
Noticed recently that when watching a HD Freeview channel that the volume control on the remote doesn't work at all - well, the volume display goes up or down but it has no effect on the volume playing through the TV or speakers. I think the same applies to HD recordings, the only way to adjust volume is to use the TV remote. Anyone got any ideas?
 
The volume of the audio carried by the analogue (Phono) sockets is most probably O.K., the digital audio carried by the SP-DIF and HDMI cables are affected differently depending on whether the Humax is set to stereo or multi-channel, also some TVs handle the HDMI audio differently, so you may find it works differently on another TV

Setting here :- Menu >> Settings >> Preferences >> Audio >> Digital Audio Output = Stereo/ Multi-channel
 
Thanks Ezra. I don't use the phono outputs at all, all video and audio are carried to a single TV over HDMI only. Just seems strange that the regular channels respond to the volume on the Humax remote but the HD channels do not. I'll have a look at that setting later.
 
Changing the audio preference to stereo will cure it - I presume you have no need of multi-channel if you are only using a TV for the sound reproduction.

The reason is that the AAC audio which normally accompanies HiDef broadcasts is always encoded at full volume for maximum quality, and then a volume level setting sent as a code alongside it which is supposed to be interpreted by the final link in the chain to the loudspeaker - in this case the TV. The problem is that quite a few TVs etc do not recognise this volume code and just play the sound stream at full volume.

Setting audio preference to stereo results in the Humax re-encoding the audio stream as PCM, complete with the volume level controlled by the Humax volume setting. All the TV has to do is convert the PCM to analogue and drive the loudspeakers with it. StDef broadcasts have MP2 sound, which gets converted to PCM anyway.
 
Ah I see. We actually have a SONOS Playbar attached to the TV which plays the sound. It's just the bar though, so that's the center and front L/R channels, I don't know if it would then play only stereo anyway as there's no sub or rear/side speakers. Attaching the Playbar to the Humax isn't an option though as we also have a PS3 attached to the TV and want the sound from that routed through the Playbar too. I'll change that setting later on and see if there's any audible difference in quality.

Thanks!
 
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