[stirrell]

I was wondering if anyone else thought the MacBook Pro audio level is really low? On mine, I can crank the volume up all the way and it is certainly audible but not loud by any stretch of the imagination. If I have iTunes all the way up and the volume nearly all the way up, I can comfortably listen to music sitting in front of the computer. It just seems really weak. Watching a movie can be tough because quieter sections are very hard to hear through the speakers.

Last night, I received a DVI to HDMI cable to hook my MacBook Pro up to an Insignia HDTV. The picture was great (though, had to be set to PAL on the Mac) but when hooking an audio cable from the headphone jack into the RCA connectors on the TV, I had to turn the TV up to almost full volume to get acceptable sound from it.

I am curious if anyone else has had this issue with their machine or might have a workaround. I was considering getting a digital audio cable to see if that would help but I didn't want to drop $20 on something that I would have no idea on its likelihood of working. I would like to be able to watch Movielink movies (and maybe iTunes rentals soon?) on the big TV.

Thanks for any feedback!

[ibook_steve]

Check your audio volume settings in the Audio MIDI Setup app in the Utilities folder.

Steve

[stirrell]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

Check your audio volume settings in the Audio MIDI Setup app in the Utilities folder.

Steve

Hello Steve,

I had never checked out that program before. It seems to make sense, though. When looking at the Built-in Output properties, the Channels 1 and 2 levels seem to be what I would expect. At full volume the value is 1 and db is 0. They go down as I hit volume down. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for? It seems to make sense to me.



Thanks.

[analogika]

Nope - that's all fine.

[jriveractu]

Go to iTunes > Preferences > Playback (tab) and make sure that 'Sound Check' is not selected (if it is, it reduces the maximum volume).

Cheers !

[analogika]

Originally Posted by jriveractu 

Go to iTunes > Preferences > Playback (tab) and make sure that 'Sound Check' is not selected (if it is, it reduces the maximum volume).

Cheers !

No, it doesn't.

[boy8cookie]

Another solution (though it wouldn't effect your DVD playback) is adjusting the track volume in iTunes to +100% You can select all the tracks in your library, push Command() + i and set all your tracks at once.

My MacBook's speakers are pretty quiet too, but they work well enough if I'm sitting at it.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by boy8cookie 

Another solution (though it wouldn't effect your DVD playback) is adjusting the track volume in iTunes to +100%

Yes, that will work. It will also guarantee that 100% of your iTunes tracks are DISTORTED, regardless of what your computer's volume is set at.

[boy8cookie]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Yes, that will work. It will also guarantee that 100% of your iTunes tracks are DISTORTED, regardless of what your computer's volume is set at.

This is true, but the difference isn't noticeable through laptop speakers

[jriveractu]

Originally Posted by analogika 

No, it doesn't.

It did to me, but then again I have some songs with a low playback volume while others have a high one so that must be why I noticed such a big difference.