Why does WMC not control tv volume?

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gravymonster

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Why does WMC not control tv volume?

#1

Post by gravymonster » Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:57 am

I have my pc hooked up with an hdmi cable to my stereo. I can use my windows remote to control the audio for music just fine but when I watch tv or a dvd the windows volume has no effect. Is there a way to fix this?

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Scallica

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#2

Post by Scallica » Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:16 am

I believe it's because your PC is bitstreaming the Dolby Digital of LiveTV or a DVD to your receiver. If you want WMC to control the audio volume for everything, I think the only solution is to disable bitstreaming.

Go to Start-->Control Panel-->Sound, click on your Audio Device, then click Properties and uncheck all supported formats. Now, your PC will send the audio to your receiver as PCM and you can control the volume level from the PC.

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barnabas1969

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#3

Post by barnabas1969 » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:50 pm

Scallica is correct, but if you do what he suggested, you will lose Dolby Digital audio when you watch TV and DVD. You should still get 5.1 audio, but it won't light up the little "DD" logo on your receiver.

Another option is to buy the RCAware HDMI-CEC bridge. It has an option to sync the TV volume with Media Center's volume.

gravymonster

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#4

Post by gravymonster » Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:12 pm

Haha. I should've known the answer would be "buy more stuff" :)

Thanks for the replies.

barnabas1969

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#5

Post by barnabas1969 » Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:31 pm

Well, to be honest, I own the RCAware device... and it is awesome... but I don't like the behavior when the option is set to sync Media Center's volume with the TV. You see, stereo audio doesn't play at the same volume as Dolby Digital or DTS in most cases (this depends entirely on your AVR). When the two are sync'd, it allows you to control the volume of both/either with the Media Center remote... but it still won't solve the problem where FFWD-1 has a different volume than when you press PLAY.

I prefer to set my Media Center volume at 30, so that stereo audio when using FFWD-1 has the same volume as Dolby Digital. This also varies with your AVR... my old AVR needed Media Center's volume to be set at 28 in order for the two to be equal.

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#6

Post by Edgar_in_Indy » Mon Jan 01, 2018 3:28 pm

gravymonster wrote:I have my PC hooked up with an hdmi cable to my stereo. I can use my windows remote to control the audio for music just fine but when I watch tv or a dvd the windows volume has no effect. Is there a way to fix this?
I've had this issue multiple times with multiple HTPC's, through optical and through HDMI, so I'm surprised that nobody has run across it. It took me a while to figure it out the first time, but it was a long time before I had to fix it again on another computer, and I had forgotten how I fixed it the first time so I had to figure it out again. It was so annoying to me that I sent myself an email with the fix so that I can always search my email to quickly find the solution when necessary. Here's what my email says:

"In order to control the volume from the PC when using spdif digital output, go to the Control Panel | Sound applet and double click the spdif output device.
Go to the Advanced tab, and uncheck the two Exclusive Mode checkboxes"

I just had this issue today with an HTPC hooked up with HDMI, and the solution was the same, except I went to the Nvidia High Definition Audio instead of the SPDIF.

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TheReaper

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#7

Post by TheReaper » Tue Jan 02, 2018 4:15 am

Does any video card support "Dolby Digital Live" (or the DTS equivalent)?

I control the volume with my PC by setting my onboard sound driver's output to Dolby Digital Live over optical cable, which is directly connected to my receiver (The HDMI cable output from my video card only carries video, unless I switch my sound output). What this does, is the sound driver tells Windows it has 5 speakers and a subwoofer (5.1 speakers). So Windows/Media Center decodes PCM, Dolby, DTS, etc and sends it to the speakers. The sound driver/chip then encodes the speaker outputs to Dolby Digital 5.1 and sends it over the optical cable. I have my receiver volume set fairly high, in essence using it as a powered digital amplifier. A side benefit is that Windows will mix the audio from multiple programs to the 5.1 speakers, just like it does for a stereo only setup (I can watch my crackling fireplace DVD while listening to music).

There are some gotchas:

Windows decodes digital sources using a true scale. So music from CDs etc, which is maxed out on the digital scale, is way louder than Dolby Digital from DVDs/TV, which is normally around the middle of the digital scale (except for things like explosions). Volume leveling in the Windows/sound driver mitigates this a little, but I don't use it.

Audiophiles would curl up into a ball and die, before thinking about decoding and re-encoding of the sound.
<- My Media Center PC

adam1991

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#8

Post by adam1991 » Tue Jan 02, 2018 10:48 am

I just use a Zvox setup. Problem solved.

trs71

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#9

Post by trs71 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:30 pm

Scallica wrote:I believe it's because your PC is bitstreaming the Dolby Digital of LiveTV or a DVD to your receiver. If you want WMC to control the audio volume for everything, I think the only solution is to disable bitstreaming.

Go to Start-->Control Panel-->Sound, click on your Audio Device, then click Properties and uncheck all supported formats. Now, your PC will send the audio to your receiver as PCM and you can control the volume level from the PC.

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I never got this fixed for years till now THANKS!!!!!!!!!

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#10

Post by trs71 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:36 pm

I Also should mention that the other digital outputs options were disabled, only enabled one was the TV. I actually had to enable them, turn off the settings for it to work.

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