I’ve had a problem that is ongoing now ever since I first started with Plex several years ago. The problem is that the volume of videos played back through Plex is drastically lower than it is with other media players.
I’ve tested Plex players for Windows, TiVo, Android Smart TVS, and Android mobile. My source files are MKV files encoded with H.265 and AC3 5.1 audio. On my TV I need to crank the volume to 100% to get useable volume. On my laptop, even at 100% I would consider the volume to be slightly below a useable level.
Note that the issue is not with the videos themselves. If I play those exact same media files with another player such as VLC i will get DRASTICALLY louder audio.
Is there any way to boost the audio from the Plex players?
Same here. Been driving me crazy. I just want to watch Plex on my laptop, but the volume is incredibly quiet, and with no way to boost it. If I switch to a game or Spotify I get decent volume, switch to Plex and with system volume at 100% it’s really quiet.
I’d be happy to work with the people at Plex to understand this better, if it would help.
Hate to post a me too but I have noticed the low volume for quite some time and finally compared the same scene in the same video on my Roku and PC in Plex and then in VLC on the same PC. I have VLC set for 100% volume and it seems to be about twice as loud as though either of the Plex players.
I am very happy to hear it isn’t just me.
Any chance the Plex team has some insight or has something they would like us to try to help resolve this?
Unchecking the “Normalize Multi-channel Audio” option does seem to resolve this issue.
Took me a bit to find that location within the current version of the client as your KB article is for a little older version and things have moved a bit since then. in case someone else is looking for this option to test the results with version 4.38.2 that option is under SETTINGS -> Plex Web -> Player.
Funny, yeah I agree the setting seems to have changed. It seems like it behaves in the opposite way from the previous “Boost …” setting.
I looked in the Roku app and I don’t see that option. My Roku TV has a couple of Volume mode options in the * menu, but I think those are only available when using TV speakers.
For me, nothing helps. Plex always plays my videos with artificially low volume levels. I’ve resorted to no longer playing my movies / TV Shows / etc. with Plex. VLC works far better.
Those are fairly sufficient for Roku ‘Channels’ in Vanilla AAC 2.0, designed to level out blasting advertising. For Plex - they do nothing useful, but will initiate an audio transcode - if that helps.
The Roku Ultra (at my house) behaves wonderfully when the Roku Audio Settings are:
Audio Mode - Auto DD
HDMI - Auto Detect
My TV happily downmixes AC3 5.1 to the Stereo I actually use - better than anything Plex has going. Apparently the cheapest piece of Chinese Crap is more capable than the expensive Chinese Crap.
I don’t exactly know how those settings will translate to a Roku TV, but I will reveal at this time I got mine to work, most likely, by accident - when I kept fiddling until I heard something good. There was no science behind it. It was a total (Chinese) Crap Shoot that did pay off, eventually.
This Plex Audio thing is, mostly confusing.
I think it caters to devices that can pass it through to something else.
Perhaps wisely.
That works for me - but I’m not sure if you can pass the audio through to itself…lol
As long as we’re talking about a specific category of “copy everything” engineering culture and not being racist.
I’m amazed at how good really cheap stuff is. It supports everything in the world, and if it isn’t perfect or if it breaks, I don’t really mind. So I’m always happy with it. Because my expectations are so low. And it exceeds my expectations.
I’m usually disappointed by expensive stuff. I want it to be perfect, but it isn’t. It can’t be. It doesn’t support everything in the world, because … well, because it hasn’t stolen all of the technology. But if it meets my needs, it’s a little bit nicer than the cheap stuff. Except it has limitations. And then when it breaks I’m sad, because it was expensive.
This fine example of Crap I have will de-interlace PERFECTLY - ON THE FLY - ANYTHING that’s put into any of the 3 HDMI ports. An interlaced 1080i MPEG-2 Test File in your Other Videos Lilbrary into and out of your Roku Ultra? No problem.
The AC3 5.1 downmix puts the Dialog on top of the Gunshots.
I boggles my mind…
Spectre:
a name you had no idea you could trust, but was $200 cheaper than everything else…lol
I started noticing low audio from the Plex Web player this past week after the last update (server 1.19.5.3112, player 4.34.3). I only use Web and Roku and haven’t had audio issues with Roku, I actually have to turn the volume down about 20% on Plex compared to other sources.
The Web player started being super quiet after this update though. Tried it on multiple computers and get the same result. If I open the volume mixer I’ve noticed that other apps make use of the full volume setting available, but Plex seems to only use about 10-15%. I changed the client Multi-Channel Audio Boost setting to “Huge” and that seems to boost things by about 2x, but still quieter than other software as well as compared to sites like YouTube and Netflix.
This is a problem for me as well. I unchecked the “Normalize Multi-channel Audio” option as was recommended but it did not change anything. The problem impacts movies more than it impacts watching TV. I must have the volume control for the Samsung TV set to 100% and the volume on the app set to 100% in order to hear it properly. (Okay, I’m over 70 and hearing is diminished but I can hear videos perfectly fine when played outside of Plex at much much lower volume levels.)
I’m running the Plex app on Windows 10. However, if I watch the same movie through PMS, the movie audio is much too loud unless I remember to reduce the volume substantially. Clearly, it’s a problem in the app.
…
Well, I solved my problem. There is a vertical slider for volume on the lower right side of the app that I had never before seen. The slider was positioned at the bottom - the lowest volume. I raised the slider, and magically the volume increased. I must have slid the slider down without realizing it.
This is odd, “Normalize Multi- channel Audio” just works for me compared to the previous boost feature. I’m very happy at present with all things Plex for me, except for a couple DVR issues
On all my devices:
LG OLED - WebOS app (Preview)
iMac- Plex Media Server, Plex for Mac
iPads- Plex app
Server version: 1.20.1.3213-67a1137a9
Plex for Mac : 1.17.0.1376-439f8b7f
iPad : 7.4
Someone managed to solve this issue? I’m new to Plex and tried everything without any luck. My use case is Direct Play of the DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio track with Plex for Windows app. I use Scarlett 2i2 as the audio device (stereo setup). Every other media player (e.g. VLC, even setup and tried Emby without any issues) have the same pretty loud volume output with this track. Plex player on the other hand is about half of the volume. Is there any technical reasoning for this? I have “Normalize Multi-channel Audio” disabled and audio device/kind/channels/passthrough settings seems to do literally norhing. Is pre-encoding the stereo track into the file really the only solution?
Also it may be helpful for someone with more technical knowledge: when I use handbrake to downmix the track to the stereo format I get similar volume levels to Plex. To achieve similar results like in the VLC player I need to apply +3 gain. If someone could explain why the VLC levels are higher than the plain downmix I would higly appreciate it
I use the Plex app for PC, Windows 10; not the Samsung app. The vertical sound level slider is on the far right side of where the task bar would appear on the PC. The photo shows the mouse pointer, displayed as a hand, over the slider.
