Volume setting for non HD channels

Dave F.

Member
Hi
I realise this isn't the most crucial of queries, but I'd like to know more about it.

My humax is connected to a AV amp via HDMI & onto a set of surround sound speakers.

For the HD channels the volume of the Humax can be set to zero & still be heard, Non HD channels, however, have to be greater than zero. I'm a bit surprised as to why there's a difference. Is it something I've changed in the settings or is this the way it's meant to be?

Cheers
Dave F.
 
Nothing wrong. That's the way it's meant to be for some obscure reason. Different audio stream. SD is subject to Hummy volume control. HD is not. Set the Hummy vol control to match the HD on the TV. (Mine is at full vol for a balance between HD/SD)
 
Stereo is sent out on the HDMI/optical in standard PCM, with the sample values scaled according the the volume setting on the Humax. This is the norm for StDef services, but you can get that for HiDef as well by setting the sound preferences to "Stereo" rather than "Multi-channel" (Menu >> Settings >> Preferences >> Audio >> Digital Audio Output). The consequence of "Stereo" is that any surround-sound information in the HiDef broadcast stream is converted to PCM stereo for output, and the volume setting will affect it (if you like: the HiDef audio stream is converted to StDef).

With the setting at "Multi-channel", the HiDef audio stream is passed on directly and not converted or scaled. Instead, a volume setting code is embedded in the stream which some down-stream devices interpret and others don't. If you have one which doesn't, adjusting the volume with the Humax remote (or front panel) on HiDef does not affect the output volume. StDef audio remains PCM stereo and scaled.

It is the difference between down-stream equipment (TVs, AV amps...) either interpreting or not interpreting the volume codes which had us mightily confused in the early days (why doesn't this work when yours does???). Another early-days problem was a huge difference in the perceived volume between StDef and HiDef outputs, but that has gone away now with firmware revisions.
 
Stereo is sent out on the HDMI/optical in standard PCM, with the sample values scaled according the the volume setting on the Humax. This is the norm for StDef services, but you can get that for HiDef as well by setting the sound preferences to "Stereo" rather than "Multi-channel" (Menu >> Settings >> Preferences >> Audio >> Digital Audio Output). The consequence of "Stereo" is that any surround-sound information in the HiDef broadcast stream is converted to PCM stereo for output, and the volume setting will affect it (if you like: the HiDef audio stream is converted to StDef).

With the setting at "Multi-channel", the HiDef audio stream is passed on directly and not converted or scaled. Instead, a volume setting code is embedded in the stream which some down-stream devices interpret and others don't. If you have one which doesn't, adjusting the volume with the Humax remote (or front panel) on HiDef does not affect the output volume. StDef audio remains PCM stereo and scaled.

It is the difference between down-stream equipment (TVs, AV amps...) either interpreting or not interpreting the volume codes which had us mightily confused in the early days (why doesn't this work when yours does???). Another early-days problem was a huge difference in the perceived volume between StDef and HiDef outputs, but that has gone away now with firmware revisions.
I just wanted to say thanks as the item by Black Hole has been extremely useful! We have a Humax HDR-FOX T2 and just upgraded our TV from a 10 year old Panasonic. The old Panasonic was also connected via HDMI, and everything worked fine. We removed the Panasonic and connected the Samsung (UE40J6400) TV, and suddenly the Humax Volume control no longer affected the sound through the TV. Naturally I assumed this must be the TV and wasted much time trying to find what was set incorrectly. But in the end the solution was to change the Humax sound output from multi-channel to Stereo. I had never had to change this setting before. It seems the old Panasonic could cope with this and even change the volume. The Samsung smart TV was not "smart" enough to do this!
 
Stereo is sent out on the HDMI/optical in standard PCM, with the sample values scaled according the the volume setting on the Humax. This is the norm for StDef services, but you can get that for HiDef as well by setting the sound preferences to "Stereo" rather than "Multi-channel" (Menu >> Settings >> Preferences >> Audio >> Digital Audio Output). The consequence of "Stereo" is that any surround-sound information in the HiDef broadcast stream is converted to PCM stereo for output, and the volume setting will affect it (if you like: the HiDef audio stream is converted to StDef).

With the setting at "Multi-channel", the HiDef audio stream is passed on directly and not converted or scaled. Instead, a volume setting code is embedded in the stream which some down-stream devices interpret and others don't. If you have one which doesn't, adjusting the volume with the Humax remote (or front panel) on HiDef does not affect the output volume. StDef audio remains PCM stereo and scaled.

It is the difference between down-stream equipment (TVs, AV amps...) either interpreting or not interpreting the volume codes which had us mightily confused in the early days (why doesn't this work when yours does???). Another early-days problem was a huge difference in the perceived volume between StDef and HiDef outputs, but that has gone away now with firmware revisions.

Many thanks for solving this conundrum for me. It has annoyed me for ages, now it's fixed!

Cheers.
 
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