The VideoLAN Forums

For years I've been driven crazy at the extreme volume fluxuations for movies - really loud during a chase scene, cut to a quiet dialogue - can't hear a thing. My wife has a ear sensitivity and really can't watch most action films because they love to cut between ultra loud explosions and quiet talking.

Is there any way that VLC can control, that is regulate the maximum volume output in decibels? Basically, you could set the maximum volume to a reasonable level - say 85 decibels - that way, you could set the actual volume output to never range above a certain level. Technically, this doesn't seem to be a difficult task, it's an old fashioned governor, like used on your car to limit fuel flow.

Any ideas from anyone if this is possible of what products can perform this task?

Thanks everyone.

One option is to get an amplifier that has a night mode.

VLC has replay gain feature, but I am not sure if it will get the results you want. AC3filter has better audio control options, but it doesn't work with VLC.

One option is to get an amplifier that has a night mode.

VLC has replay gain feature, but I am not sure if it will get the results you want. AC3filter has better audio control options, but it doesn't work with VLC.

From reading your reply, it looks like you may be talking about file conversion options - that is when you're transcoding media, you can somewhat control the audio levels - perhaps I'm not reading you right also?

To clarify, I'm talking about volume control while playing existing media through VLC - an .avi or .mpeg4 for example.

Thanks for your ideas.

I am talking about live playback, not conversion.