Software Audio Amplifier?

So the output of sound on my laptop speakers is terrible for embedded videos and dvd's. I have all output volumes maxed out, and nothing has helped. I've updated my audio drivers to the latest version, and it still doesn't help. I know the speakers can output louder than they are since music from itunes outputs much much louder (maybe because it was recorded at higher levels?).

Regardless it's frustrated me endlessly barely being able to hear anything through the speakers (I'm more interested in being able to hear the audio than the quality).

Is there a program that exist that will amplify the audio from software?

Seriously though, there is no chance you have the volume lowered somewhere? I know occasionally the volume is up on the main bar but media player is wacky for some reason, or the other way around.

Maybe there is something for the hard of hearing, possibly even already in Windows.

No, it's turned up everywhere.
I've read that other people with the same laptop (and many other laptops) have the same problem. Which is why I'm trying to find a third party alternative.

I had the same issue with DVDs on my old laptop. There really isn't much of anything you can do.

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Originally Posted by Josh

I had the same issue with DVDs on my old laptop. There really isn't much of anything you can do.

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This. You can hear music much better because it is mixed and mastered to ridiculously hot levels. Movies are not mixed like this in post production, so that they can retain dynamic range and have impact. Imagine being in a movie theater and having the dialogue of a film being as loud as the explosions and gunfire...you get the point. Music is mastered up to digital 0. As an example of how much lower in dB film and TV are, the dialogue for a Discovery Channel show is mixed to average at -27dB, and peaks (explosions, gunfire, car crashes) cannot go past -10dB. 27dB is an enormous volume difference.

Gay.

IDK though...because in windows vista in the volume slider it shows the maximum volume, and then it shows you were the actual amount of sound coming out of the speaker...and it's alllllwwwaaaaayyyysss right at the bottom. So I know that the computer speakers can handle more. is there ANY way to amplify this? It's so frustrating. If it was just DVD's I wouldn't care since i rarely watch dvd's on here....but it's EVERYthing. even music should be louder sometimes. bleh

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Originally Posted by Criticom

Gay.

IDK though...because in windows vista in the volume slider it shows the maximum volume, and then it shows you were the actual amount of sound coming out of the speaker...and it's alllllwwwaaaaayyyysss right at the bottom. So I know that the computer speakers can handle more. is there ANY way to amplify this? It's so frustrating. If it was just DVD's I wouldn't care since i rarely watch dvd's on here....but it's EVERYthing. even music should be louder sometimes. bleh

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have you tried changing the device? for example the file I attached shows that I have two input/output devices, and there's a few unchecked volume controls there that you might be able to look through, check, and adjust to your liking on your system... I had to do something like that to fix the audio for my 360 (using onboards line-in as a cheapo amp so I don't gotta swap between the two)

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Originally Posted by cka

have you tried changing the device? for example the file I attached shows that I have two input/output devices, and there's a few unchecked volume controls there that you might be able to look through, check, and adjust to your liking on your system... I had to do something like that to fix the audio for my 360 (using onboards line-in as a cheapo amp so I don't gotta swap between the two)

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That's in XP, correct? well when I open the mixer it is only showing the one device as an option. So I don't know.

For example, in the image I attached, I am watching a video file in media player classic, and all sound options are at max volume, including media player. that green bar shows the actual amount of sound coming out of the file, and it never really gets louder than than for video files. I guess for the aforementioned reasons, but I NEED to get that higher. This shit is annoying. :(
(I know there are others for .wav, midi that aren't shown in the picture, but they're all at max as well...they're just not shown in the mixer screen.)

yeah I'm in xp, but there should be something similar in vista or osx

edit: maybe not osx, but I haven't really used it beyond fiddling with safari at the futureshop last christmas so I'm not sure

I think this is the similar screen you're referring to. But as you can see that's the only device available.