Audio/speech issues with sumvision cyclone micro 3

ripcord

Hi all,

Thought I'd post this here as it may be more computer/encoding/formatting related.

Just bought the sumvision cyclone 3 from amazon purely for watching movies when I go on holiday. Here it is:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sumvision-Cy...6529264&sr=8-1

I have about 200 films/programmes on a 2.5' external drive. I was just testing it today. Most of my films are 720p mp4 files between 2-4 Gb in size.

The thing is that some of them play fine, but some of them have very low speech . I have to turn up the volume really high to hear what people are saying, but then the background noise/music in the film is way too loud.

Would anyone know what this could be? I'm generally technically minded but I wouldn't know much about video encoding/audio tracks/bit rates etc. and all that stuff. Hopefully someone here does!

I doubt the player is broken. It must be something file-specific. For example I have AVIs of Futurama cartoons that sound perfect
Thanks for any help!

Torqay

Probably a 5.1 audio track your player can't handle well.

yoyo

Torqay wrote: »

Probably a 5.1 audio track your player can't handle well.

I'd be going alongwith this theory also, make sure in the players settings audio output is set to 2.0/TV speakers and not 5.1

Nick

Post mediainfo of a file that is affected
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

ripcord

Deleted User wrote: »

Post mediainfo of a file that is affected
http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

Heres the info for one of the films having the problem:

General
Complete name : H:\Videos\Green Lantern\Green Lantern.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 2.00 GiB
Duration : 2h 3mn
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 318 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-10-02 01:56:19
Tagged date : UTC 2011-10-02 01:56:19

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2h 3mn
Bit rate : 1 889 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 16.9 Mbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 528 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.117
Stream size : 1.63 GiB (81%)
Title : Ì
Writing library : x264 core 118 r2085 8a62835
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=1889 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=25000 / vbv_bufsize=25000 / nal_hrd=none / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2011-10-02 01:56:19
Tagged date : UTC 2011-10-02 01:57:40

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 2h 3mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 296 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 376 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 262 MiB (13%)
Title : Ì
Encoded date : UTC 2011-10-02 01:57:18
Tagged date : UTC 2011-10-02 01:57:40

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 2h 3mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 193 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 113 MiB (6%)
Title : Ì
Encoded date : UTC 2011-10-02 01:57:32
Tagged date : UTC 2011-10-02 01:57:40

yoyo

You could try changing to the second audio channel or else re-rip it with just 2.0 or 2.1 sound. This should help

Nick

You've two audio tracks there, a 5.1 and a stereo (both AAC).

Try switching to the other one.

Torqay

I just had a look at the manual. Not all Cyclone Micro players seem support switching audio tracks. Apparently, with some versions, the AUDIO button only changes the output format between SPDIF LPCM and SPDIF RAW.

Of course, this may not work with for all video files, only if a 2/2.1 channel track is included, but at least now you know how to find out.

If your player does not allow switching tracks, you can remove the 5.1 channel track, e.g. with YAMB. For MKVs use MKVmerge GUI to change the track order or remove unwanted audio tracks.

yoyo

Torqay wrote: »

I just had a look at the manual. Not all Cyclone Micro players seem support switching audio tracks. Apparently, with some versions, the AUDIO button only changes the output format between SPDIF LPCM and SPDIF RAW.

Of course, this may not work with for all video files, only if a 2/2.1 channel track is included, but at least now you know how to find out.

If your player does not allow switching tracks, you can remove the 5.1 channel track, e.g. with YAMB. For MKVs use MKVmerge GUI to change the track order or remove unwanted audio tracks.

If this is the case then OP is probably best off re-ripping their DVD/BluRay and choosing 2.0 output for the audio tracks

Nick

ripcord

Thanks all for the info.

Would removing the 5.1 track reduce the quality of the rip? I read somewhere else that I could convert the audio to AC3. Would this help or would it reduce quality?

Thanks!

Torqay

ripcord wrote: »

Would removing the 5.1 track reduce the quality of the rip?

In a word, no. But there's no harm in making a backup of the video.

ripcord

ripcord wrote: »

Thanks all for the info.

Would removing the 5.1 track reduce the quality of the rip? I read somewhere else that I could convert the audio to AC3. Would this help or would it reduce quality?

Thanks!

For some reason the C channel in your 5.1 track is too low.

There's two likelihoods:
1) It was badly encoded
2) It was encoded fine but when the Cyclone downmixes a 5.1 track to stereo, it is using a downmix matrix that puts the C channel too low.

What is your sumvision outputting when you watch these movies? 2.0 PCM presumeably?

You could certainly re-encode and boost the C channel. But there's no point in even getting into that until we narrow the souce of your problem.