What's the deal with the sound on my TV (among other things)?
April 13, 2022 4:39 AM Subscribe
The volume on my TV has a very narrow range and it's driving me a little batty.
The volume on my new LG 4K tv has an odd volume setting, but it’s not just my tv. More on that later. It has a range of 1-100 for volume, but I only use it between 5 at the low end and 9 or 10 at the loud end. Which means that 90% of the volume adjustment is unused and useless. When I play movies streaming from my computer or Netflix or whatnot, for some reason, that loud end often goes way up, into the 20s and 30s, and I suppose it depends on how each movie is encoded.
Is this narrow band of adjustable sound intentional by the manufacturers? I would rather have more incremental sound increases, so that I can adjust it gradually by many degrees rather than this limited range. And this is not just my tv—my phone, my car stereo…hell even my brand spankin’ new fancy from-the-future iMac suffers from this same issue.
So I guess my questions are: why does this exist and what can I do to fix it?
The volume on my new LG 4K tv has an odd volume setting, but it’s not just my tv. More on that later. It has a range of 1-100 for volume, but I only use it between 5 at the low end and 9 or 10 at the loud end. Which means that 90% of the volume adjustment is unused and useless. When I play movies streaming from my computer or Netflix or whatnot, for some reason, that loud end often goes way up, into the 20s and 30s, and I suppose it depends on how each movie is encoded.
Is this narrow band of adjustable sound intentional by the manufacturers? I would rather have more incremental sound increases, so that I can adjust it gradually by many degrees rather than this limited range. And this is not just my tv—my phone, my car stereo…hell even my brand spankin’ new fancy from-the-future iMac suffers from this same issue.
So I guess my questions are: why does this exist and what can I do to fix it?
If you _do_ buy a soundbar, here's a caveat. Some soundbars respond to the volume up/down signal of the TV remote. You will want to find the option on one of the devices, usually the soundbar, to tell it to ignore that signal. Otherwise each press of 'up' or 'down' will be more than you intend: the volume being sent from the television to the soundbar will go up, and then that larger volume will go up again because the soundbar will increase the amplification of its input, too. It will feel worse than the issue you have now.
I had it happen to me with a Vizio soundbar but it's a generic problem. I sold the soundbar before I learned of the issue.
posted by TimHare at 6:10 AM on April 13, 2022
I had it happen to me with a Vizio soundbar but it's a generic problem. I sold the soundbar before I learned of the issue.
posted by TimHare at 6:10 AM on April 13, 2022
Your TV is probably measuring volume in linear instead of log scale.
Unless the 5 to 10 range you feel comfortable using isn't granular enough for you, there's no reason to fix anything, nothing's broken.
posted by Bangaioh at 8:28 AM on April 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Unless the 5 to 10 range you feel comfortable using isn't granular enough for you, there's no reason to fix anything, nothing's broken.
posted by Bangaioh at 8:28 AM on April 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: For more precise volume control on your iMac, you can press shift+option with the volume control buttons for way more incremental increases/decreases.
posted by General Malaise at 8:38 AM on April 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by General Malaise at 8:38 AM on April 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:00 AM on April 13, 2022