rMBP Audio Issue in Videos

[that user]

I got my Macbook Pro with Retina display about a week ago and I've been loving it except for one thing. The speakers are very impressive while listening to music on iTunes yet the audio seems to be always so soft when I'm trying to watch a video. This includes Netflix and videos on VLC. It's nowhere near the loudness of music. I have difficulty hearing a movie 2 feet away at the highest volume setting while the music can be heard loud and clear from the other room.

I understand that audio on video has to do with the quality of the video but when Netflix says "HD" and when I remember that my old 2008 non-unibody Pro used to be loud enough, what's wrong with this one?

Is there a way to fix this?

 

[RustyFirestar]

Your issue has to do with the recording levels of music as opposed to movies. Basically, modern music is generally recorded to be as loud as possible so that it stands out on the radio and other such things. Movies, on the other hand, are normally played in a controlled environment at a set volume – dialogue in most movies could be ~30dB louder without encountering distortion.

There's not a great deal you can do about this. You could try turning the volume up within VLC to 200% (or higher, if you enable a setting), but that would mean that you would hear distortion on loud noises such as explosions. Dynamic range compression is worth investigating if that becomes an issue.

 

[that user]

Thanks for that. I'll definitely try it. I guess there's not much to do for Netflix. I'm also surprised that nobody else has similar issues. I should just get some speakers and Airplay.