Big Box Video Playback Volume Different for OBS-recorded Videos

[megashub]

Here's an odd one... I'm using the OBS integration to record gameplay videos for use in BigBox. For the most part it works great. It detects when I've recorded one and asks if I want to associate it with the game when I return to BB, etc. My only problem is, whenever BB plays the video when browsing the catalog, the volume is very low compared to videos I download for, say, MAME games, from LaunchboxDB or EmuMovies. The video I'm recording sounds nice and loud when I play it from within Launchbox's Edit menu or via Windows Media Player from File Explorer. It's only playing quiet in BB itself. Any idea how to fix that since it's not all volume, just those OBS-recorded videos?

Here's a comparison from within BigBox, recorded using the same OBS hotkey as I use when recording in-game video: https://streamable.com/pnmp7z
And here's the game video itself that is playing quiet only within BigBox: https://streamable.com/wt7v5p

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by megashub

[megashub]

@Jason Carr Should I open a bug report for this?

[Your Friendly A.I Overlord]

There are a couple variables that can determine the audio volume. For instance:

- The recordings audio volume input level. The recording you made could be made with a lower audio input level than the videos you downloaded. You can try recording your videos with a higher audio input level.

- The audio output volume in BigBox. BigBox has its own audio mixer in Options > Sound. Perhaps you can adjust the volume settings?

LaunchBox also has an audio volume dial. (In the right corner. LaunchBox > View > Button Bar) So the volume output levels of LaunchBox and BigBox dont have to be the same.

 

Of course I can't say that there is or isn't a bug. But the volume levels are going to change from video to video, no matter what. That's why I myself re-encoded the audio of all my videos with volume normalization.

[Jason Carr]

@megashub Unfortunately, even if it is a bug, there's not likely anything that we'll be able to do to fix it, because we use either VLC or Windows Media Player to play the videos. We do have a general volume control on the videos of course, but obviously it's not getting changed between videos, so if there's a volume discrepancy, there's not really anything we can do about it. Do all the videos play at the same volume when you compare them to the prerecorded videos outside of LaunchBox/Big Box?

[megashub]

On 6/9/2021 at 11:42 AM, Jason Carr said:

@megashub Unfortunately, even if it is a bug, there's not likely anything that we'll be able to do to fix it, because we use either VLC or Windows Media Player to play the videos. We do have a general volume control on the videos of course, but obviously it's not getting changed between videos, so if there's a volume discrepancy, there's not really anything we can do about it. Do all the videos play at the same volume when you compare them to the prerecorded videos outside of LaunchBox/Big Box?

Ugh. I'm a dumbass. Move along, nothing to see here. Comparing the videos themselves outside of Big Box, it's clear that my machine's sound config is the reason why my OBS-recorded videos are quiet compared to the ones I downloaded. 
 

I fixed the audio gain on one of them and everything sounded the same in BigBox again. So I adjusted my audio config and it's fixed now.

Thanks for the assist.