Panasonic Plasmas/LCDs of Past 5 years - "Volume Leveler" Function

It's remotely possible there is no way to adjust it.

I'd suggest pouring a glass of your favorite beverage, then working carefully through the set's menus. If there is an adjustment, you /will/ find it. You might have to look very closely, though.

It's possible that you will find it in the on-screen menu feature, maybe in the Audio section, but you may not recognize the "name" of the setting if they chose to make one up (as a different company did for the LCD TV that I bought about a year ago).

The cheap LCD TV I have, has unusual abbreviated names for menu settings, that I've never seen before.

So, if the settings are meant/provided to be adjusted by the end user, you might try changing them and see what has changed (the changes may not take effect until the menu is exited).

-- Cheers, WB .............

It may be in a service mode menu if you've looked through every on screen menu on the customer level.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

On my Panasonic TX50U10 plas just under a year old, the function you appear to be looking for is called "Volume Correction", and is accessed from "MAIN MENU" > "SOUND" > "SOUND MENU" and then 7th item down ( Mode, Bass, Treble, Balance, Headphone Volume, Surround, VOLUME CORRECTION, Speaker Distance to Wall, Preferred Multi Audio ).

Under the function's description in the (extremely good as it happens) user manual, it says " Adjusts the volume of individual channel or input mode"

Would that be the one ?

Arfa

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CLOSE - and you're the only one who figured out what I'm talking about. It is called "Volume Leveler" on my friends' set(a 2008 model). In all the instruction manuals I looked at online they just describe WHAT IT DOES but NOT what different levels of adjusting it does. If I recall on my friends' Panasonic it's a sliding scale adjustment from left +3 to right -10, with Zero the factory default. It is a user menu adjustment, just as you stated, in the audio section of the user menus.

I'm ASSUMING that moving it to the right "levels" the loudest sounds down to the average(or softer volumes) so there is less difference, acc to the manual, "between input sources".

-CC

You may have more success than others, but in my experience audio output levels will most likely vary widely from various different sources of input levels.

This has apparently been too complex of a problem for the electronics industry to standardize for over 40 years.

A standard for "line level" amplitudes has been established long ago, but that doesn't seem to be of any help.

My most recent purchase was a cheap LCD TV, and not surprisingly, the normal volume range when watching TV is only barely audible when the source is a DVD player (various brands) or other AV sources. So, when watching a DVD.. before changing the source to TV, I need to reduce the volume level to near zero.

The same differences are generally to be expected when changing sources such as tuner to recorded audio from any receiver/amplifier I've ever owned.

There are standards, but they seem to be ignored.. the local CBS channel's audio has been significantly higher than any other channels for decades.

-- Cheers, WB .............

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CLOSE - and you're the only one who figured out what I'm talking about. It is called "Volume Leveler" on my friends' set(a 2008 model). In all the instruction manuals I looked at online they just describe WHAT IT DOES but NOT what different levels of adjusting it does. If I recall on my friends' Panasonic it's a sliding scale adjustment from left +3 to right -10, with Zero the factory default. It is a user menu adjustment, just as you stated, in the audio section of the user menus.

I'm ASSUMING that moving it to the right "levels" the loudest sounds down to the average(or softer volumes) so there is less difference, acc to the manual, "between input sources".

-CC

The audio "leveling" range of my Scientific Atlanta HD 82xx series DVR is pathetic when programing is watched via RF connection. Now that I have a decent HD set it's hooked up via HDMI. Audio goes via optical to a Sony

5.1 capable of auto-sensing and decoding in Pro Logic II or Dolby Digital. Speaker configuration is 3.2.1 with a 100 watts on each channel and 150 watt 12" powered sub. The sub is connected via RF SPDIF. Front, center and surround speakers are all Infinity. I don't watch much TV but when I do I like to enjoy it.

One funny thing I've found out about the DVR is when an HDMI cable is inserted it disables the video for the other outputs, Component, Composite, and RF UNLESS the set the HDMI cable is plugged into is turned on! What nonsense is that? So if I want to watch the set in my bedroom which is on the RF out of the DVR I have to either unplug the HDMI or turn the living room set on lest I get only audio and the following message on the screen:

Your TV does not allow display of this program through the DVI input source. Please choose another source.

Does this make any sense?

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

But this is the whole point of the manufacturers including the setting that the OP is trying to use ...

Arfa

So far, I haven't seen that any users of that brand/feature state that it does function as they want it to.

If it does, great. That info would be very worthwhile to know, if the OP and/or others can confirm it, yes?

-- Cheers, WB .............

OK. I've just sat down and tried it out. On my TV, the setting is just a 'bar', not calibrated in any way. By default, it sits at halfway. Using the remote left and right arrows, makes the bar shorter or longer - longer for the right arrow, shorter for the left. As you go shorter, the currently set volume reduces, and as you go right, it increases. This is without the

*actual* volume control changing, if you see what I mean. So lets say that you have the 'real' volume control set at say 6 notches, and that 6 notches gives an acceptable level on TV stations 1, 2 and 3, but is too loud on station 4. With station 4 selected, and 6 notches set on the normal user volume, you then go into the sound menu and down to the VOLUME CORRECTION field, and then 'shorten' the bar until 4 notches of volume on this station, sounds the same as 4 notches on the other stations. On exiting the menu, your 'corrected' setting is saved for that station only. Likewise, if you want to correct the level for any input other than the internal tuner. You simply go to that input, set your volume to how you want it indicated on the screen, then access the feature, and set the actual level to match all your others. Again, on exit, this setting is saved for that AV input only, independent of how you've set any other inputs or stations.

I would estimate, in the absence of any figures either in the manual or on the display, that the range of this correction feature is around + / - 6dB.

By the looks of it, the volume leveler feature that you have does exactly the same, but the opposite way round (left to increase, right to decrease) to the feature on my TV, and perhaps with a slightly wider and asymmetric range.

Arfa

So much of what's designed into electronic gear today are just needlessly-overcomplicated-design issues, IMO.

Smart machines to anticipate your desires, and scold you when they can't function simply.

Thus my great appreciation of older equipment, which generally always functions as the user wants it to.

All ya gotta do is.. set up an equipment rack beside your easy chair so that the entertainment equipment function buttons and cable connections are within reach. Include a pro-grade mixing console. Roll it to other locations for remote use. Probably easily implemented with an extra 3000 feet of cable added to the house.

The obvious solution from a manufacturer's point of view would be that everyone needs multiple separate systems for various locations within a home.

-- Cheers, WB .............

The provider TWC told me I wasn't using their provided HDMI cable which I certainly am. The problem must lie in their DVR software. When HDMI connected TV is turned on the DVR senses that and the auto resolution adjust to whatever the program is being broadcast in also considering the capability of the TV to display 1080 or not. It's a pain in the butt to reach around the DVR which is in my audio rack and unplug the HDMI out just so I can watch TV in my bedroom off the RF connector or even record from the DVR via the composite out onto DVD or VHS. One solution would be to forgo the RF connection out of the DVR and simply use the bedroom TV's tuner since it is only once in a while I watch TV in the bedroom. Hell I only watch any TV once in a while to begin with being a hater of commercials everything I watch is recorded enabling me to skip commercials. I may contact TWC and see if they have a newer DVR that may have newer software/firmware that corrects this issue.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

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Uhh, that's exactly what I stated on 10/25! If the value on the left is "+3" as I remember and if the level on the right is "-10", it would serve to suggest that moving the bar tot he left would increase, and to the right would decrease.

In any case, from what I've picked up here, it seems that this is not a simple "limiter", but a "trim" setting that allows you to set all inputs so they are roughly the same volume when switching from one to another. Switching from Cable > VCR > DVD > and back to Cable should be less of a jarring(!) experience. :) Doing this by ear might not be the most accurate way, as compared to using audio test tones(pink noise) and a meter, but perhaps using the average cable channel as a reference, you could set the inputs hosting your other sources to match the volume of that channel. Am I in the ballpark on this?

-ChrisCoaster

____________________ I used to work as a AV Tech in a place like that - it's called a conference center.

-CC

You have mis-read or mis-understood what I said in the section you have snipped out. The point I was trying to make was that the *setting* was the same as mine in principle if not in name and nuts and bolts functionality. I was perfectly well aware of what you stated earlier, which is why I made reference to it ...

Why would you imagine it would be a 'limiter' ? The name they have given it - as in "leveler" - is perfectly descriptive of its basic function.

I dunno about in the ballpark. Standing on the pitcher's mound, I'd have said. It really is a simple and straightforward feature, and I think you are trying to introduce complexity into its use, that simply isn't there. It's not a limiter, nor a dynamic compressor. It is, as you have arrived at, a simple volume trim function that is individually assignable and savable to every possible channel or AV source selection. Further, it is easily set by ear, as we are not talking precision audio here. Perceived volume levels change between individual programmes - hell, between individual *scenes* even, sometimes - let alone between stations and inputs. Just pick an input, pick a volume level that you like, and then use the feature on the ones that don't match by default, to make them match by your reckoning. Simple.

Arfa

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_______________________ Well, I *thought* it was a limiter at first sight. The more I looked into it I realized it functioned more as a trim. And I'm not trying to *introduce complexity* into anything. Actually, a limiter or compressor would have been a far more simplistic feature to incorporate into the audio section of this menu. A simple On/Off limiter function that squashed all audio levels up against a factory- set ceiling so that one could watch Terminator II or something at low levels so as not to wake up the kids at night or disturb the neighbors.

Instead, Panasonic incorporated a feature with multiple values(*complex* - so you can use the word correctly) that allows matching of volumes of different sources. I find such a feature less important than being able to control dynamic range under circumstances where a wide range might not be suitable - again, late at night or in close proximity to neighbors, apts, etc.

-CC

So I can use the word correctly ? I'm not sure what that means ... ?? What's complex about it, anyway ? It's just eminently practical, IMHO. A limiter or compressor 'distorts' audio from what was originally intended by the engineer that recorded the sound. At least with the volume turned down, the original dynamics of the sound are preserved.

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The leveler feature has no influence on this though. It does exactly as it says on the can, and levels the volume between channels and sources, for a given volume control setting. It couldn't be more simple, which I guess, is why Pan didn't feel that it needed any further explanation. If waking the kids or neighbours by watching Terminator II as it was originally intended is a problem, do what I did long ago, and get yourself a decent set of headphones, and a long extension cable ...

Arfa