Volume boost does nothing
Where it is
Section titled “Where it is”Volume boost makes a quiet channel or film louder than the system volume alone can. It is on Android phones, tablets, Android TV and Fire TV. iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Windows, the Mac and LG and Samsung TVs do not have it.
- Start a channel or a film.
- On a phone, open Player settings (the gear in the bottom bar) and tap a step under Volume boost. On a television, open Options → Volume boost, or Audio in the row of controls, where it sits under Volume.
- Pick a step. The label turns to the accent colour while a boost is on.
It is one setting for everything you play on that device, and it stays where you put it until you change it. The account panel can change it for one device too.
The steps are decibels
Section titled “The steps are decibels”Off, +3, +6, +9, +12 dB on the built-in engine.
They used to be labelled as percentages, and the labels were misleading: people turned it to “200 %”, heard a modest lift, and concluded it was broken. It was not broken, the label was. A doubling of how loud something sounds is nearer +10 dB.
At +3 dB the difference is genuinely small. If you want an obvious change, go to +9 or +12.
Why it sometimes shows fewer steps
Section titled “Why it sometimes shows fewer steps”The engine decides. On the VLC engine the steps are Off, +2, +4, +6 dB, so a channel that plays on VLC offers four steps where one on the built-in engine offers five. A boost you set higher plays at +6 dB on VLC and comes back when the built-in engine plays again.
If you see four steps on one channel and five on another, that is why.
On a Samsung phone
Section titled “On a Samsung phone”Samsung applies its own audio processing on top of the app’s, and on some models it flattens the boost to nothing. The boost is applied to the app’s own sound, so a system-wide effect sits above it and wins.
Worth trying:
- Turn Adapt Sound, UHQ upscaler and any equaliser off in the phone’s sound settings.
- Try wired headphones or Bluetooth rather than the built-in speaker, or the other way round. The processing differs per output.
- Raise the system volume as well. The boost multiplies what is there; it cannot amplify silence.
It is missing in the player
Section titled “It is missing in the player”- On an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Windows, the Mac or an LG or Samsung TV there is no volume boost.
- On Android it shows once something is playing. If it is missing on the built-in engine, update the app; it is there on VLC in any case, so switching to VLC brings it back.
