dialnorm in ac3

[monohouse]

I've read all the audio guides but none of them include options for removal of dialog normalization, so I wonder if anyone knows of a program which is able to delete the value and reset it to 0db (except eac3to), the reason I know that the dialnorm is there after running with eac3to is because AC3Filter shows it in "Decoder Info"


clev: -3.0dB (0.7071)
slev: -3.0dB (0.7071)
dialnorm: -31dB
bandwidth: 14kHz/20kHz

[tebasuna51]

-31 is the reset value, and means don't apply attenuation

When DialNorm is -30 means the decoder must apply -1 dB of attenuation, and so on until a value of -1 to apply -30 dB of attenuation.
When DialNorm is 0 some decoders apply -31 dB of attenuation but others apply -0 dB, then the most reliable value to reset attenuation is -31.

[monohouse]

assuming that I got it wrong for some reason my decoder is bad, the worst thing that could happen is the C channel will get some boost/cut right ? or will it have effect on non-C channels as well ?

[TinTime]

No, dialnorm is just like a volume control for all channels. If it's set to -27dB then it means that all output will be 4dB lower than if it's set to -31dB, assuming the decoder applies the dialnorm values. It doesn't change one channel relative to any other.

As tebasuna51 said, if dialnorm is set to -31dB then the decoder won't attenuate its output, so eac3to is acting correctly here.

[880]

Why remove dialogue normalization? It is only metadata... it does not have to change your audio.