Volume control on PS3

[skatalite]

To everyone who uses a PS3 as a Blu-ray player: What level do you have the PS3's volume control?

To access volume control, on Blu-ray/DVD playback, press to bring up the control panel. Now look for the music note symbol, and select it. It brings up volume control.

Just curious if anyone has the level lowered or raised, and for what reasons?

[Bizdady]

I think mine is at +1

[ryandubbz]

mines at default = 0

[Steve]

I leave mine at 0. I haven't played with it much, but I've read several accounts that if you go over +1 it may introduce distortion.

[Hammie]

I always kept it at 0. I thought I remember reading somewhere that moving it to the + added distortion because it was a digital increase in the volume, which is bad.

[Bizdady]

Ya I did notice a while ago while streaming a divx that the noise was distorted, I checked and somehow it was at +4 so having it too high will cause distortion.

[STARSCREAM]

Mines at 0.

[Galley]

I wish there was a way to reduce the volume when gaming. I have to turn my receiver down from 20 to 13.

[JJ]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

I always kept it at 0. I thought I remember reading somewhere that moving it to the + added distortion because it was a digital increase in the volume, which is bad.

0. You got it. Lou's right here, chaps.

[Mordir]

Originally Posted by Galley

I wish there was a way to reduce the volume when gaming. I have to turn my receiver down from 20 to 13.

By turning it down from 20 to 13 you DID reduce the volume when gaming So there is the way you do it

[neos_peace]

I must be in the minority, I have mine maxed. And I have NEVER had any distortion problems. EVER. And I am using cheap Philips Mag. Shelf speaker's that only push out 25 Watts of power and I somtimes crank the volume specially when I'm home alone.

[Dase]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

I always kept it at 0. I thought I remember reading somewhere that moving it to the + added distortion because it was a digital increase in the volume, which is bad.

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

0. You got it. Lou's right here, chaps.

+1

I keep it at 0

[kingofgrills]

Mine is set at the default of "0," and it is calibrated in my system. Sounds great.

[saprano]

Just to let you guys in on a little tidbit.

Originally, before a certain update, i dont remember the version, the volume control only went up to +2. now it goes up to +4. but your still getting the same volume.

Im guessing sony changed it because the volume jumped to high from +1 to +2. +1 to 2 resulted in an 8 db increase. 4db for each number.

Now sony made it more even with 2db steps across +1 to 4.

Class dismissed.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Galley

I wish there was a way to reduce the volume when gaming. I have to turn my receiver down from 20 to 13.

There may be a way. Some receivers have a feature (Onkyo calls it 'intellivolume') that you can set for each input which allows you to even out the volume across all your sources. If your receiver has such a feature you can set it so that the volume for whichever input you use for gaming is lowered so you don't have to turn the master volume down.

[Galley]

Originally Posted by fireman325

There may be a way. Some receivers have a feature (Onkyo calls it 'intellivolume') that you can set for each input which allows you to even out the volume across all your sources. If your receiver has such a feature you can set it so that the volume for whichever input you use for gaming is lowered so you don't have to turn the master volume down.

The PS3 is used for both gaming and movie watching.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Galley

The PS3 is used for both gaming and movie watching.

There's something else I didn't think of when I typed my previous post, and it occurred to me last night when I fired up my system to play Modern Warfare 2. Pretty much any movie with a Dolby soundtrack has a Dialnorm setting of -2 or -4. IIRC -4 is the most common. Dialnorm is in the Dolby signal's metadata and cannot be disabled. All you can do is adjust the master volume level to account for it. DTS and PCM soundtracks don't have a Dialnorm adjustment built in. Anyway when I started my system for gaming on my Xbox 360 I noticed the display on my receiver said Dialnorm +4. Then I remembered seeing the exact same thing when I played Dead Space. So far these are the only two games I've played since I got my new receiver which gives the Dialnorm display. With games it appears they use Dialnorm to make the volume louder instead of lower like they do with many movies. I know we're talking a 360 vs. a PS3 here, but I suspect a Dolby Digital soundtrack on a video game is going to be the exact same no matter which platform it's on. Even if one had a lossless Dolby TrueHD track I don't think it would matter since Dialnorm is something Dolby incorporates in pretty much all of its soundtracks. For more information on Dialnorm see this thread.

[Odin75]

Originally Posted by louhamilton

I always kept it at 0. I thought I remember reading somewhere that moving it to the + added distortion because it was a digital increase in the volume, which is bad.

While this is true, that is not always the case. The PS3 just sounds better at 0 (reference/default) because it does at terrible job at increasing the volume digitally. Players for the PC like VLC, have a mode to increase the volume up to 400% with no noticeable distortion. Specially if you use Windows Vista or 7, which have the improved sound engine.

If you watch a movie, is always good to use 0, because it was recorded with that standard. You just adjust the volume with the knob in your receiver afterward. However, if you watch a random video done by somebody on Youtube, that would be a good idea to increase the volume digitally first. Increasing the volume too much in your receiver might add distortion too.

So yeah, sound is all about balance. We just have to manage the volume between devices until it sounds good.

Originally Posted by neos_peace

I must be in the minority, I have mine maxed. And I have NEVER had any distortion problems. EVER. And I am using cheap Philips Mag. Shelf speaker's that only push out 25 Watts of power and I somtimes crank the volume specially when I'm home alone.

I think that is exactly the reason why you can't tell the difference, because they are cheap speakers. The better the speakers, the more you notice things.
Have you ever heard a Logitech Z-5500? I'm pretty sure you have, those things are everywhere, even if you don't own a set. Either way, with those speakers is pretty much impossible to tell the difference between MP3 and FLAC (lossless). However, when I upgraded to bookshelf speakers, the difference became more obvious. So yeah.

[tilallr1]

+100 for 0.

Leave it at 0. The reason for the volume control is simply for TV setups (Where sound volume really doesn't make a huge difference - as the speakers are usually crap). With speaker and receiver setups let the receiver do the work, the PS3 will only distort the sound.

[neos_peace]

Originally Posted by Odin75

I think that is exactly the reason why you can't tell the difference, because they are cheap speakers. The better the speakers, the more you notice things.
Have you ever heard a Logitech Z-5500? I'm pretty sure you have, those things are everywhere, even if you don't own a set. Either way, with those speakers is pretty much impossible to tell the difference between MP3 and FLAC (lossless). However, when I upgraded to bookshelf speakers, the difference became more obvious. So yeah.

honestily I never heard of those speaker's Hoever here in a few weeks or so I am going to be upgrading my speaker's form shelf t floor standings. I have found some Sony's that are very easy on the pocket and I will see how they sound. I will take your advise under advisement when doing my calbration.