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PS4 HDMI Audio Issue (Voices too quiet)

V

VanillaCakeIsBurning

Member
I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this.

This is my first time using HDMI and it has worked out well aside from the fact that when playing AC4 I noticed that the voices sounded very quiet while things like gunshots and explosions sounded properly loud for the volume I had set the TV too.

If anyone has run into issues and/or solved them any help would be appreciated.
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
I don't have a PS4 but maybe it's a high dynamic range issue? Check your PS4's audio options and set the range to be narrower, if that's a possibility. Otherwise look to the game's sound options, I guess.
 
G

grapetile

Neo Member
Not 100% sure since I'm not having the issue, but I think a lot of TVs have actual sound equalization settings like movie, game, speech, etc.. Pretty sure my TVs game mode automatically sets the sound setting to movie, but that would be worth checking out on yours if it has a setting like that. Hope you get it fixed.
 
I

IAmRandom31

Banned
Sometimes games automatically have sound settings unequal. So just check in game sound settings to make sure " voice " isn't lower then everything else.

And Ruken, no my PS3 never had this issue. Never even heard of this before.
 
V

VanillaCakeIsBurning

Member
SomewhatGroovy said:
OP,

Tell us a bit more about the setup. Are yu hooked to a receiver or direct to tv?

Also, in settings, what audio output do you have selected?
Click to expand...

It's hooked up directly to the back of the TV. Pretty sure the output is HDMI OUT I think. There was another one that said OPTICAL I think but selecting that didn't change anything.

hey_it's_that_dog said:
I don't have a PS4 but maybe it's a high dynamic range issue? Check your PS4's audio options and set the range to be narrower, if that's a possibility. Otherwise look to the game's sound options, I guess.
Click to expand...

I'll try to look for something like that.

grapetile said:
Not 100% sure since I'm not having the issue, but I think a lot of TVs have actual sound equalization settings like movie, game, speech, etc.. Pretty sure my TVs game mode automatically sets the sound setting to movie, but that would be worth checking out on yours if it has a setting like that. Hope you get it fixed.
Click to expand...

I tried fiddling around with that. When you go to HDMI and turn on the PS4 it says "Scene Select has changed" in the bottom right (TV UI). Normally you can switch scenes from Dynamic/Standard/Movie/Custom but when the PS4 is on it only lets me change the scene from Game-Standard to Game-Original. I noticed some settings in the sound menu like bass and treble were at +6. Would reducing those both to 0 give me the audio in an unaltered state?

bob page said:
Do you have a center channel speaker?
Click to expand...

Just the built in TV speakers.
 
F

Fezan

Member
IAmRandom31 said:
Sometimes games automatically have sound settings unequal. So just check in game sound settings to make sure " voice " isn't lower then everything else.

And Ruken, no my PS3 never had this issue. Never even heard of this before.
Click to expand...
ps3 did had thos ossue but only if you selected the wrong audio settings.maybe its the same issue
 
Alcahest

Alcahest

Member
Make sure you set the PS4 Audio output correctly versus your speaker setup.
Low voice is usually the system sending 5.1 and the setup being 2.0 (stereo, 2 speakers).
 
D

DaveT

Member
I have encountered this. And I hope Sony addresses it.

The PS4 auto-detects how many channels the end-device has. You cannot tell it to spit out 2 channel, 5.1, or 7.1 manually. It definitely spitting out 5.1 or 7.1 to your device and not stereo thus you are hearing the FL and FR channels of surround only. Chances are the voices are supposed to be in the center channel.

If your TV has an optical out and can pass through 5.1 or 7.1 the PS4 can possibly see that and end up pushing 5.1/7.1 to your TV which is causing that issue.

Are you using an HDMI splitter? If one device is going to a TV and the other to a 5.1/7.1 receiver, it will send the 5.1/7.1 signal to everything. Even if your receiver is set to stereo output and all that, the PS4 will see that it can accept 5.1/7.1 input and send that to it.

One thing I hope Sony adds is manual selection of audio channels.
 
V

VanillaCakeIsBurning

Member
DaveT said:
I have encountered this. And I hope Sony addresses it.

The PS4 auto-detects how many channels the end-device has. You cannot tell it to spit out 2 channel, 5.1, or 7.1 manually. It definitely spitting out 5.1 or 7.1 to your device and not stereo thus you are hearing the FL and FR channels of surround only. Chances are the voices are supposed to be in the center channel.

If your TV has an optical out and can pass through 5.1 or 7.1 the PS4 can possibly see that and end up pushing 5.1/7.1 to your TV which is causing that issue.

Are you using an HDMI splitter? If one device is going to a TV and the other to a 5.1/7.1 receiver, it will send the 5.1/7.1 signal to everything. Even if your receiver is set to stereo output and all that, the PS4 will see that it can accept 5.1/7.1 input and send that to it.

One thing I hope Sony adds is manual selection of audio channels.
Click to expand...

I just have it plugged right into the back of the TV. The slot says PC/HDMI 1 AUDIO IN.

2 and 3 are on the side and don't have this same text. I'll try it there and see what happens.
 
D

DaveT

Member
Tsundere said:
It's either your settings or your setup.
Click to expand...

There's not many settings. On PS4 you can tell it to output "Linear PCM," "Dobly Digital," or "DTS" -- you cannot tell it how many channels in any of the formats. The PS4 auto-detects how many channels and forces it.

You can be in mid-game and if your HDMI is plugged into a TV while your PS4 is outputting stereo audio, then you take your HDMI out of your TV and plug it into a 5.1/7.1 receiver, the PS4 will automatically switch over from pushing stereo audio out to full 5.1/7.1.

If he's going from his system to his TV and it's not outputting properly, there's not much that can be done as it's the PS4 forcing the 5.1/7.1.

While I haven't come across the issue when going straight from PS4 to a TV, I have encountered one setup where if I'm going through some HDMI splitters (multiple brands) and only have a TV hooked up via one of the outputs (so none of the other outputs are connected) it forces 5.1/7.1 to the TV through the splitter and so the sound isn't right coming out of the TV. This didn't happen with all HDMI splitters I tried, but

It's an issue and one that I hope Sony addresses. Simple addition of allowing you to choose how many channels would fix everything.
 
V

VanillaCakeIsBurning

Member
DaveT said:
There's not many settings. On PS4 you can tell it to output "Linear PCM," "Dobly Digital," or "DTS" -- you cannot tell it how many channels in any of the formats. The PS4 auto-detects how many channels and forces it.

You can be in mid-game and if your HDMI is plugged into a TV while your PS4 is outputting stereo audio, then you take your HDMI out of your TV and plug it into a 5.1/7.1 receiver, the PS4 will automatically switch over from pushing stereo audio out to full 5.1/7.1.

If he's going from his system to his TV and it's not outputting properly, there's not much that can be done as it's the PS4 forcing the 5.1/7.1.

While I haven't come across the issue when going straight from PS4 to a TV, I have encountered one setup where if I'm going through some HDMI splitters (multiple brands) and only have a TV hooked up via one of the outputs (so none of the other outputs are connected) it forces 5.1/7.1 to the TV through the splitter and so the sound isn't right coming out of the TV. This didn't happen with all HDMI splitters I tried, but

It's an issue and one that I hope Sony addresses. Simple addition of allowing you to choose how many channels would fix everything.
Click to expand...

It looks like this is the case. I tried changing all the options on my TV and there's no effect. Same with the PS4's actual settings. It sounds the exact same.

My TV plays through the speakers (Stereo) and there aren't any ways to change what the PS4 sends right now in the PS4's options.
 
P

Pachinko

Member
You've never used HDMI for anything ? If you are using a receiver, you may have to adjust the volume of the center channel up. I used to have that problem for movies on my home theater set up because movies like to mix sound things "realistically" so explosions , gunshots and such are always much louder than the talking is.

Surround sound gaming can have similar issues.

You are going straight into the TV and probably don't have as many options to "fix" this issue. Reading other comments here , it sounds like the PS4 may indeed be outputting a 5.1 signal but your TV is only playing it as 2.0 stereo.

You could try and see what your TV has for audio options , perhaps it has a fake surround ? I don't own a PS4 but I recall the PS3 let you manually turn off the ability to output certain kinds of audio , not so much that you could just tell it to use stereo but that you could uncheck all the surround options. You basically want to have it output LPCM 2.0 and nothing else. Then in each game, if there are audio options present , make sure it says stereo there instead of surround.
 
Darklor01

Darklor01

Might need to stop sniffing glue
I have the same issue but, it's not the PS4. It's the TV. Bought a new Samsung LED LCD 240hz 60" set. This TV keeps individual settings for audio and video for each input. They have be set individually. Some audio presets like "movie", "live", etc have individual effect on sounds coming out. Voice lower than music for example. The set has a setting for auto volume control as well. You really have to tweak it, and play around to get it even close to whatever you consider normal. It is not the PS4.
 
J

JP

Member
DaveT said:
There's not many settings. On PS4 you can tell it to output "Linear PCM," "Dobly Digital," or "DTS" -- you cannot tell it how many channels in any of the formats. The PS4 auto-detects how many channels and forces it.

You can be in mid-game and if your HDMI is plugged into a TV while your PS4 is outputting stereo audio, then you take your HDMI out of your TV and plug it into a 5.1/7.1 receiver, the PS4 will automatically switch over from pushing stereo audio out to full 5.1/7.1.

If he's going from his system to his TV and it's not outputting properly, there's not much that can be done as it's the PS4 forcing the 5.1/7.1.

While I haven't come across the issue when going straight from PS4 to a TV, I have encountered one setup where if I'm going through some HDMI splitters (multiple brands) and only have a TV hooked up via one of the outputs (so none of the other outputs are connected) it forces 5.1/7.1 to the TV through the splitter and so the sound isn't right coming out of the TV. This didn't happen with all HDMI splitters I tried, but

It's an issue and one that I hope Sony addresses. Simple addition of allowing you to choose how many channels would fix everything.
Click to expand...
Try Dolby Digital or DTS if your system supports it. Both should be fine but DTS should produce better audio for you.
 
D

DaveT

Member
It's not a DD, DTS, versus Linear PCM thing. It's a detection thing from the PS4. In some cases, it flat out sends 5.1 or 7.1 when the end device is only stereo. When that happens, you don't hear certain things that are center channel only, like narration in games. You simply here no voices at all. Because they aren't in the FL or FR channels, which your TV plays - instead of Stereo Mixed Left & Right - when this happens.

It's not about how "sound is coming out" and adjusting settings, but how the PS4 is sending the sound into the device.
 
P

polyh3dron

Banned
This is just how the sound in that specific game is, it's not a PS3 problem. Check your game's settings to see if there's a special setting for stereo.
 
M

MilkBeard

Member
VanillaCakeIsBurning said:
I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this.

This is my first time using HDMI and it has worked out well aside from the fact that when playing AC4 I noticed that the voices sounded very quiet while things like gunshots and explosions sounded properly loud for the volume I had set the TV too.

If anyone has run into issues and/or solved them any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

OP, this is standard. This kind of depends on how they mix the volume for each game. Also, if you've ever noticed the full uncompressed volume on movies tends to be that way. It's a beef that I have with playing movies on my tv. The designers want to capitalize on the big dynamic range possible, but it ends up being really loud during the action scenes, and very quiet when it comes to voice. It helps when you have a full set of speakers, but playing on just the tv speakers can be like that for me.

FWIW I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. We might be experiencing that more often because of the big size of discs. Some developers compress the audio though, so it all sounds consistently loud. This is going to vary from game to game.

EDIT: Seems like it might be something different based on what you mentioned. In that case, I haven't had a problem like that.
 
V

VanillaCakeIsBurning

Member
MilkBeard said:
OP, this is standard. This kind of depends on how they mix the volume for each game. Also, if you've ever noticed the full uncompressed volume on movies tends to be that way. It's a beef that I have with playing movies on my tv. The designers want to capitalize on the big dynamic range possible, but it ends up being really loud during the action scenes, and very quiet when it comes to voice. It helps when you have a full set of speakers, but playing on just the tv speakers can be like that for me.

FWIW I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. We might be experiencing that more often because of the big size of discs. Some developers compress the audio though, so it all sounds consistently loud. This is going to vary from game to game.

EDIT: Seems like it might be something different based on what you mentioned. In that case, I haven't had a problem like that.
Click to expand...

I ended up finding a remote that allows me to choose the scene so that's helped a bit. I'll need to fiddle with it some more to get it where I need it.

I guess the issue then was my TV automatically switching to the "Game" scene upon powering on the PS4.

Thanks for the help everyone.
 
D

DaveT

Member
The PS4 gives you some actual options if you set the audio device to Optical.

If you choose Optical and make sure Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and AAC aren't select it outputs stereo through both the Optical and HDMI, no matter what's connected via HDMI.

Problem solved.
 
V

Voidance

Member
I'm having this issue too. I run my PS4 the same way I ran my PS3: HDMI directly into my receiver. I never had any issues hearing voices in games on my PS3, but they are far fainter on the PS4. I have to crank the volume on games to hear the dialog making everything else extremely loud. I've checked all the audio settings on the PS4 and double checked the dynamic range setting on my receiver to no avail. Given the level of troubleshooting I have done over the weekend, I am nearly sure it's not a user error. I am at a loss.
 
I

INTERNET

SERIOUS BUSINESS
DaveT said:
The PS4 gives you some actual options if you set the audio device to Optical.

If you choose Optical and make sure Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and AAC aren't select it outputs stereo through both the Optical and HDMI, no matter what's connected via HDMI.

Problem solved.
Click to expand...

Hey DaveT, you seem to have a pretty good grasp on this stuff - I don't really know what all the acronyms are and what's compressed or handled by the receiver or whatever, and it's hard to get a straightforward answer in my googlings. I'd like some advice if you can help: I've got a PS4 -> HDMI -> Onkyo '609 that outputs to a 7.1 setup (all seven speakers identical, with a modest powered sub). Currently PS4 is set to Linear PCM, and the receiver states "Multichannel", with all seven.1 speaker icons lit up. It seems like the rear speakers are overwhelmed by the mid pair, if they are even getting a discrete signal. Is there a better pair of settings? It's also just plain louder than any other input source, and way way boomier (it's almost like the front/center channels aren't maintaining their crossover levels) across multiple titles I've tried as well as the PS4 UI, but I'm hesitant to start fiddling with receiver and subwoofer settings until I get the PS4/receiver interface setup right.
 
D

DaveT

Member
I have to deal with all these quirks as a part of my job, so I have the duty of figuring this type of stuff out.

Anyhow, have you tried DD or DTS (I am a DTS guy) over Linear PCM and see if it affects levels?

Dealing with 5.1/7.1 and receivers can be a pain in the rear.
 
T

Tik-Tok

Member
DaveT said:
I have to deal with all these quirks as a part of my job, so I have the duty of figuring this type of stuff out.

Anyhow, have you tried DD or DTS (I am a DTS guy) over Linear PCM and see if it affects levels?

Dealing with 5.1/7.1 and receivers can be a pain in the rear.
Click to expand...

I'm by no means an expert but I was under the impression that Linear PCM is strictly better than DD and DTS because it's lossless?
 
I

inner-G

Banned
If you're using the TV speakers set the PS4 to stereo output. You can only play back 2 channels, not 5 or 7. Voice is mainly on the center channel most of the time, your TV just has left and right channels.
 
R

Razgriz-Specter

Member
On the subject of audio, my PS4 sound is a lot lower than my PS3's.
On PS3 10 was the max I ever set my tv to, on PS4 on the same exact tv it takes about 24 to get the same volume level.
 
P

Phreaker

Member
Tertullian said:
Should've bought a higher quality HDMI cable, man.
Click to expand...

The PS4 HDMI cable is fine.

VanillaCakeIsBurning, inside the game you can adjust the volume of music, effects, and voice. When you boot the game, at the main menu select Options (lower right), and then select X (adjust sound settings).
 
A

Alej

Banned
So i can talk because i had the same issue with PS3 for a long time.
If i understand correctly, you are connected to the TV via HDMI and use the built-in speakers and not any other sound system. So, i think it's because of the TV, in my case if on PS3 i let the console choose the HDMI settings, it detects DolbyDigital5.1 on it and then i don't hear voices correctly and sound effects are very loud in games. I don't have the problem in the UI, or when listening music... it's because PS3 is outputting in LPCM outside of the games.

I think, in your case, it is because your PS4 pass on a 5.1/7.1 signal to your TV, and voices are usually on the central channel, so you hear nothing or a very mute sound when it comes to voices (like others said).

On PS3 you have to untick DD5.1 and every other 5.1 settings to fix it.
On PS4 you have three settings for HDMI audio, like others said (because i don't have one myself yet), LPCM, DD and DTS. If it seems to be not sufficent to fix the problem (because you can"t chose 2ch, 5.1 or 7.1), you should know that DD and DTS are multichannel by essence and aren't good settings for you. You should choose LPCM no matter what if you use the TV speakers.

I can say for sure, i won't have this problem with PS4 if i choose LPCM myself because, if my TV accepts DD5.1, it doesn't accept LPCM5.1 and so PS4 should "know" it has to output a stereo signal.
 
M

Man-is-Obsolete

Member
Tik-Tok said:
With Killzone, I found changing the audio setting to "Small Speakers" Helped a low
Click to expand...

Yea essentially that narrows the dynamic range so basically the highest and lowest volumes are brought closer together. So voices will have the same loudness as an explosion for example. However, I don't think the normal setting is a great example of a wide range because often times explosions don't have enough ooomph to them compared to other things, but it is still the preferred setting if you have a nice surround system and can crank it.
 
S

SeanTSC

Member
I have an audio issue with my PS4 as well. My receiver is 7.1, so the PS4 sends its signal out as that when you select LPCM. The problem is I'm only using a 5.1 setup and when I send a 7.1 LPCM signal to it I get a very low static sound coming from the back speakers, unfortunately.

I fixed this by changing the PS4 to output as DTS, but it's really annoying that the PS4's audio options are so extremely limited compared to the PS3's and I would rather just send straight LPCM to my receiver.

I hope that someday they update the firmware to be as robust in audio choices as the PS3, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
D

DaveT

Member
If anyone is having surround sound issues while using HDMI on a 5.1/7.1 receiver, have you tried setting your PS4 to optical out and then choose DTS 5.1 or DD 5.1 from the Digital (Optical) settings? I wonder if it passes 5.1 correctly for you then, at least in 5.1. Obviously can't do 7.1 through opitlcal going by the settings I've seen.
 
D

DaveT

Member
Alej said:
I think, in your case, it is because your PS4 pass on a 5.1/7.1 signal to your TV, and voices are usually on the central channel, so you hear nothing or a very mute sound when it comes to voices (like others said).
Click to expand...

This is exactly what's happening to some people when audio is via HDMI. If you are on one of these people, do my tip above (choose optical audio, make sure no 5.1 setting or AAC setting is selected, and see if it forces stereo out of HDMI as well), and see if it works for you.

If you have Killzone, and easy way to tell is to play the opening cutscene on a 2ch system (eg. TV). If you hear the narrative while the subtitles are showing, you are hearing it correctly. If you don't hear a narrative, your PS4 is sending it 5.1/7.1 and you are hearing what's intended for the FRONT-LEFT and FRONT-RIGHT.
 
W

wicko

Member
I had problems with killzone voices not playing at all - it was because the PS4 assumed I was playing with a surround setup, because my receiver said I was. I would prefer if I could just change the setting on the PS4 but there is no option. I set my receiver to stereo mode and I could hear everything correctly. So whatever you're playing the audio through, set it to the correct amount of speakers.
 
Reallink

Reallink

Member
DaveT said:
Linear PCM = Uncompressed
Dolby Digital & DTS = Technically Lossless, but I think DTS does sound a little better.

Anyhow, if anyone is having surround sound issues while using HDMI on a 5.1/7.1 receiver, have you tried setting your PS4 to optical out and then choose DTS 5.1 or DD 5.1 from the Digital (Optical) settings? I wonder if it passes 5.1 correctly for you then, at least in 5.1. Obviously can't do 7.1 through opitlcal going by the settings I've seen.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure only Dolby Digital True HD and DTS HD are "lossless". I don't think games are using those formats are they? The standard DD and DTS that games have used are lossy.

*Edit* NM beaten
 
S

Satchel

Banned
Potentially a setup/configuration issue?

Volume levels within the game? Surround setting on the receiver (if using one)? Hell, it could just be the game, that happens too.
 
K

keltickennedy

Member
VanillaCakeIsBurning said:
I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this.

This is my first time using HDMI and it has worked out well aside from the fact that when playing AC4 I noticed that the voices sounded very quiet while things like gunshots and explosions sounded properly loud for the volume I had set the TV too.

If anyone has run into issues and/or solved them any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Its not the system its the game. It had really bad audio glitches on PS3 as well.
 
G

Goodacre0081

Member
Razgriz-Specter said:
On the subject of audio, my PS4 sound is a lot lower than my PS3's.
On PS3 10 was the max I ever set my tv to, on PS4 on the same exact tv it takes about 24 to get the same volume level.
Click to expand...

I have this problem too. I really noticed it today when I started up killzone for the first time, i need to crank the volume high to hear it.
 
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