Expanded Device Support: YouTube’s Consistent Audio Levels Now Arriving

You’ve probably run into the issue where a movie, TV show, or other video can be too quiet at parts and too loud at other parts. Google is rolling out a new feature in the YouTube app for TVs (not YouTube TV) that aims to address that issue on TVs.

Google is rolling out its popular “Stable Volume” feature to YouTube on Android TV and Google TV devices, aiming to provide a more consistent audio experience for viewers. This feature, already available on mobile devices, automatically adjusts the volume levels of videos to minimize drastic differences between quiet and loud segments. Inconsistent audio levels across YouTube videos can be frustrating, especially when switching between dialogue and action scenes or music. “Stable Volume” addresses this issue by continuously balancing the volume range within a video, ensuring a smoother listening experience regardless of content. This can be useful in situations where you’re using your phone’s speakers, when you’re listening to something in a louder place, or if the difference between quiet and loud parts is too much to be intentional.

If you have the YouTube app version 4.40.303, you can access the “Stable Volume” toggle by tapping the gear icon during video playback. This feature is enabled by default, but can be easily disabled in the app settings if you prefer manual control or find it interfering with the intended audio experience in certain videos—because sometimes the loud-quiet mix is done on purpose.

While “Stable Volume” may not be suitable for all situations, such as when listening to music with intentional dynamic range or using a meticulously mixed audio track, it is a useful tool for casual viewing, particularly for podcasts or videos where consistent sound isn’t always a given. This update follows other recent improvements to YouTube on TV, including the introduction of Multiview and auto-generated key moments.

If you want to try out Stable Volume, make sure your TV’s YouTube app is on the latest available version. For now, this is still limited to Google TV and Android TV devices, so smart TVs and set-top boxes with other operating systems are left out of the fun.

Source: 9to5Google

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