Auto Volume Leveler? I'm going crazy and I don't know what to do.

[Trizzle]

I really hope this is in the right section. if not, please move it to the right section.


I'm frustrated at my TV and streaming boxes. I don't even know what to do anymore. We bought a 43 inch onn TV from Walmart for 100 bucks which seemed like an amazing deal. The picture is amazing but the audio is complete garbage. I tried contacting onn and Roku and after a period of conversation back and forth, they just stopped responding. The two biggest issues are massive dynamic of volume between dialog and everything else and two, some of the apps have too quiet volume and won't go past a certain volume regardless of how much I turn the volume up.


I decided to buy a TiVo to hook into my roku tv I get the same thing (I'm using ARC - Tivo plugs into the TV, HDMI out to my receiver. Heck, I even tried buying an audio extractor between the TV and and the Tivo and that came with its own set of massive problems. Nonetheless, it didn't work and it piled on more problems.

I need help. I'm interested to see if there's any kind of device that can be plugged inline on either the HDMI/Optical out from the TV to the receiver that will go ahead and auto level the volume. I have one built into the receiver but it doesn't work and I don't know why.

Please tell me that somebody else has had this same problem and found a solution.

 

[JayCee]

Your problem is you bought an Onn TV costing $100.
You get what you pay for.

 

[mikej]

My advice would be to take the TV back and buy an alternative model from a reputable TV manufacturer rather than throwing more money at this issue. With a decent TV and surround-sound system, you shouldn't need any of these extra devices, adaptors or external sources you mentioned. I occasionally have to make small volume adjustments to my set-up depending on the source I'm watching, but I don't experience issues anywhere near as bad as you're finding.

If you're set on keeping the TV or can't now return it, then plugging your TiVo directly into your AVR (via HDMI) rather than the TV will remove the reliance on the TV's sound-processing capabilities, as would a similarly-connected HDMI streaming device (like an Amazon Fire TV Stick) for apps if the TiVo doesn't give you access to those.

If you have a 5.1 speaker system connected to your receiver, can't you experiment with the volume of individual speakers (particularly the centre speaker) to resolve the dialogue issue ?

 

[next010]

Ensure the TV is only sending PCM stereo audio to the receiver, then try activating the auto volume mode on the AVR.

Alternatively plug your Roku/Tivo into the AVRs HDMI inputs if it has them and see if it works via that.

 

[KBD]

One of the best things about Walmart is their very liberal returns policy.
Take it back!

Take it from me, a formerly avid Walmart shopper. The only Onn products I would purchase are things like HDMI cables or I think the last Onn item I bought was a USB-C to Lightning power cable.

If you really want to continue troubleshooting:

Support | onn.

onntvsupport.com

find the owner's manual, here's the Audio section from one I picked for a UHD 43":

Try changing the Digital Output & the Perfect Volume in all the combinations.
Even on my LG-CX some settings are better for certain applications than they are for others.

There's a Walmart 3 miles from me & I used to shop there a lot, but then suddenly their prices were no longer as competitive. I did get a Roku-Ultra there recently, because it was the same price as Best-Buy, which is 30 miles away.

Those Surround Sound & Perfect Volume options might be trouble, so try it without them on if they're on now.

 

[KBD]

If you're really not afraid of the Onn brand, go back & get this one:

UHD Roku Onn TV

go into the Roku settings, when a video is being played, (star button) & select Auto-Leveling
I got a couple of Roku units today & that auto-leveler works a treat.